After a much-needed hiatus, the Deep Thinkers are back! And we'll return to our old haunts in the former Dolores Restaurant, now known as the West LA Grill. We have been promised sole possession of the back room for the evening, but please come prepared to order some food, even if it's only an appetizer or dessert.
The question we'll ask is, are we alone? This was prompted after I heard this fascinating interview with Jill Tarter on NPR's Fresh Air. She was the inspiration for the Jodie Foster character in the film, Contact, and she does a fairly good job of why the odds are good that other life does exist elsewhere. Coupled with the amazing success of the landing of Curiosity on Mars, I thought it was a timely subject. Please listen to this short interview.
How likely do you personally think it is that there is life elsewhere? What would it mean to you, and to society in general, if this was proven? Let's talk about this intriguing topic, and get back into the Deep Thinkers swing of things.
I hope you all can make it. Please RSVP to assist in getting us a proper headcount. See you on Saturday!
Todd
[masked]
August 29, 2012
Interesting discussion as usual. Todd did a great job as moderator to keep us on track.
August 24, 2012
Fun Discussion - thank you Todd
August 23, 2012
The meeting,which from its description (and from knowing Todd's views) expected to be a scientific discussion about life in the universe beyond Earth, while still interesting, deteriorated after an hour to an irritating debate about individual experiences of channeling aliens, self-healing (or misdiagnosis) of Graves' disease,as well as "deep thinking" platitudes of "why should I care about aliens and what can the aliens do for me." Thanks for the latter "Archipelago." Maybe individuals with such interests should be re-directed to other self-healing, New Age, "the world revolves around me" Meetup sites, of which there are plenty in LA; and leave for the rest of us the few scientifically oriented platforms to express our views in the presence of similarly minded people. Or maybe I should be the one to join a Meetup group that teaches patience (on second thought, not really.) And Alex, thanks for cutting to the chase and efficiently eviscerating opposing views. I am learning from you.
August 19, 2012
Here some links that I mentioned last night:
Lisa Randall on Charlie Rose:
http://www.charlierose.com/view...
Lisa Randall and Sam Harris:
http://samharris.us2.list-manag...
Dan Ariely no The Diane Rehm Show:
http://thedianerehmshow.org/sho...
Why Won'g God Heal Amputees?:
http://whywontgodhealamputees.c...
Enoy!
August 19, 2012
Clearly, I'm a little rusty after our two-month hiatus. But it was fun, nonetheless.
August 19, 2012
Norma Desofi
It was very very interesting. I enjoyed hearing from some people who believed that Et's not only existed but they could help us advance our planet as I too believe that. So in essence I am not alone in my thinking.
August 19, 2012
"...In an infinite universe, or set of universes, in an infinite amount of time, events like the existence of life that may only happen in one in million million million, (million cubed) places, would "still" have happened in an infinite number of times." However, they are likely spread so very very far apart, (because they are so rare and space is so very empty), that it's extremely unlikely we would ever be able to communicate with them, or they with us.
So, "yes" there is life out there, but "no" it's not likely that we will ever contact each other.
August 17, 2012
Norma
I totally believe there are other planets that are populated. Thomas Paine, in his book Common Sense which came out around 1776 said something that forever peaked my interest. He said in this book that it was obvious the creator of the world liked to make a lot of everything. There was just not one tree but billions of them, and on each tree there were millions of leaves. There are billions of people, animals, plants, etc. on our planet. So it does not make sense to believe that this creator would populate only one planet and leave all the other ones bald.. His comments on that and other things got religions in those days to find a reason to put him in jail for some time. In our times we can talk about that and not be taken to jail....grin. Hence, I will definitely attend this meeting.
August 15, 2012
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What does it feel like to be alone and what are the underlying thoughts when alone