But we've seen the aliens!


By Stephen Pollard
September 8, 2010
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There's a story I don't understand in today's Express:

AFTER
getting up close and personal with legions of alien females during his
time on the Starship Enterprise, William Shatner is adamant that we are
not alone.

In fact he’s insistent that the universe is absolutely stuffed with alien species.

 

“There
is no doubt that there is life out there; the mathematics of it lead
you to that absolute conclusion,” says the 79-year-old, who played Star
Trek’s Captain James T Kirk. “In my mind, there is no doubt that the
universe teems – teems – with life in all its forms.”

Weird. How could there be any doubt? There are 79 separate pieces of documentary evidence of his encounters with aliens, as well as film-length video evidence, which hundreds of millions of people have seen. How could anyone be in any doubt?

COMMENTS

Joshua18

Wed, 09/08/2010 - 10:33

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Now Oliver Kamm would have done a little bit of research before making an idiot of himself:

'[Stephen] Hawking has indicated that he is almost certain that alien life exists in other parts of the universe and uses a mathematical basis for his assumptions. "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like." He believes alien life not only certainly exists on planets but perhaps even in other places, like within stars or even floating in outer space.'

http://tinyurl.com/3srhg

First we had Frazer vs. Wiesel. Now we have Pollard vs. Hawking. Is there something in the coffee at the JC?

mattpryor

Wed, 09/08/2010 - 15:51

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Don't agree with Hawkings or the other great scientific mind that is William Shatner about the numbers argument. It's based on the assumption that life just came about by some chemical accident, and given the right ingredients and circumstances it could happen again. That is illogical and is based on assumption and dogma, not scientific experiment.

Maybe people hope there's life elsewhere so that they can feel a bit better about the fact that we're wrecking the one planet where we know there is life!

mattpryor

Wed, 09/08/2010 - 15:52

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Hawking sorry, there I go again...

DLeigh-Ellis

Wed, 09/08/2010 - 18:05

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Numbers do play a fairly important part in the argument, after all as Doug Adams famously wrote,

'Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space. '

The Drake equation factors in the number of planetary systems into a mathamatical equation which is then used to present a conservative estimate of potential alien civilisations. As it turns out, there are possibly thousands...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

The real question is not whether life exists elsewhere, for it almost certainly does... The issue is whether given the vast distances between independent civilisations and the potential eons in time between their development, whether it is likely that two civilisations would ever chance to stumble upon one another in the infinite void.

mattpryor

Thu, 09/09/2010 - 15:45

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DLE I understand what you're saying.

But the Drake equation does depend on the premise that life can exist by accident through random chemical interactions. Is there any scientific evidence for this? Has anyone ever managed to create life from scratch using only the raw materials and no organic matter?

DLeigh-Ellis

Thu, 09/09/2010 - 17:50

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That I do not know, but I do see what you are saying...

I'm off home for the weekend, I will see if I can find a biologist to ask...

Good Weekend and Shana Tova to all.

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