Monday, May 17, 2010

Psychology of civilizations engaged in interstellar communication and new fossils from a time of intense diversification of life on Earth

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - A group of scientists associated with the Jet Propulsion Lab recently studied the Tecopa lake beds as a way of understanding the future. See article.
g Life - Exceptionally preserved fossils are providing new information about life in the oceans between 480 million and 472 million years ago. This period, known as the Ordovician, marks a time of intense diversification of life on Earth. See article.
g Cosmicus - When space exploration comes to grief, let us at least moderate the temptation to damn the enterprise just because of its clear component of bravado and adventure. Gene Rodenberry pictured the best of our descendants as those who would "boldly go where no one had gone before." He simply said what all of us truly know: there is enormous value in the "going." See article. Note: This article is from 2003.
g Learning - Recently rocket scientists, politicians, engineers and educators came together in Los Angeles to explore current and future business opportunities in space at the “Transforming Space” conference. Leaders from Congress, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, universities and major aerospace businesses discussed the current and future prospects for both private and public space programs. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Aftermath - If we establish communication with a civilization even as close as 100 light years from Earth, the round-trip time for a message and its reply is 200 years. What will be the psychology of a civilization that can engage in a meaningful conversation with this sort of delay? How is such a conversation to be established? What should the content of such a conversation be? See article.

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