Carl Sagan , Life Beyond Earth

Carl Sagan , The man that sparked an interest in space and what may be out there in Millions of children worldwide , me included .
Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books.
He was among the first to hypothesize that Saturn's moon Titan might possess oceans of liquid compounds on its surface and that Jupiter's moon Europa might possess subsurface oceans of water.
I came across this video where Dr Sagan explains the processes by which Extra-terrestrial life could start , and the fact that its a universal process , so given the chance to evolve Extra-terrestrial life must be universal .
Carl Sagan had a great way of explaining things and a voice that will take you back to your childhood
Enjoy

reply to post by gortex


Regardless of what Sagan could have said about life outside of earth, he was speculating, he had no evidence to make his speculation factual. I know I'm in the minority when I speculate that we are the only life in "creation." Until, that is, we find out what's "piloting" UFOs and even then "they" don't have to be from "out there."

reply to post by The Shrike


So what is it about this little patch of space that is so special to be the only place in the Universe to harbor life ?.
It seems obvious to me that if life starts in one place then it must , given the right conditions , start in other places ,not only on other planets but maybe in Space itself , as Fish swim in our Oceans then maybe more exotic creatures swim in Space .

reply to post by gortex


Don't look at my signature or you might think I'm biased, but yes, I enjoyed watching that again.

One thing Sagan says in that video really rings true with me that many people don't seem to get:

Sagan says the chemistry of alien life may be similar or different, but even if its similar, the form of the aliens will be different due to the way evolution works.

The idea that people think aliens would have the form of bipedal humanoid shapes (like the grays) shows an anthropocentric bias that Sagan implies is unlikely.

What a great way to stimulate our imaginations about what alien life forms may really look like if not the grays. But it kind of blows all my fantasies of being captain Kirk hitting on the alien babes who happen to look human. If the real aliens look like those giant balloon things (floaters) That kind of kills the romantic implications for me.



[edit on 8-12-2009 by Arbitrageur]

Originally posted by The Shrike
reply to post by gortex

 

that we are the only life in "creation."

The most ignorant statement I ever heard on ATS.

Originally posted by sphinx551

Originally posted by The Shrike
reply to post by gortex

 

that we are the only life in "creation."

The most ignorant statement I ever heard on ATS.

Actually, your reply is.

I'm a big fan of Carl Sagan too.
Here is a video of him explaining the Drake Equation, I think in a way this proves we are not alone.
Though it might do just the contrary.

If video is broken this link should work:
www.youtube.com...

Carl Sagan was brilliant. In the matter of UFOs, Carl Sagan was wishy-washy.

Early in his career, he not only speculated that alien life had been to earth, he suggested it probably has happened many times.

Much later in his career, he stated it would be impossible to travel the great distances, ergo we have no visitors.

I appreciate him as an astronomer, I ignore anything he has said about UFOs in particular... he had some agenda on his mind, near the end of his career. Mind I like the guy, I just wouldn't listen to anything he says about alien life and take it to heart.

Sagan was far too skeptical of UFOs in all the media I've read or seen about him. So I can't say I particularly regard his opinion.

reply to post by The Shrike


Then can you say why you think life is so hard to get going that out of the quintillions of other star systems in the universe -- which, by the way, we have visited none of -- this one was the only one to have a planet with life on it?

Originally posted by Frith
Sagan was far too skeptical of UFOs in all the media I've read or seen about him. So I can't say I particularly regard his opinion.

DING! DING! DING!

We have a winner for the most ignorant statement of this thread!

I am only joking Frith to join in on the banter but he didn't say the UFOs were alien, human or anything else.

He did an episode of Cosmos were he says that we can almost be certain that intelligent life exists and may be able to travel the vastness of space but that things like the B+B Hill story were too flawed to be taken as a serious fact and further evidence is required to substantiate the claims that life is visiting us.

I don't think he was against the idea, in fact I think he would have loved for it to be the case, I just think he needs proof and he certainly wasn't shy of exploring and sharing what he perceived to be the grander questions of existence.

If intelligent life asked us for a diplomat he'd be my first choice bar the fact he's dead.

You have seen the film Contact haven't you?

-m0r

Originally posted by mike3
reply to post by The Shrike

 

Then can you say why you think life is so hard to get going that out of the quintillions of other star systems in the universe -- which, by the way, we have visited none of -- this one was the only one to have a planet with life on it?

I'm a person that relies on evidence. I don't respect anyone that utters nonsense without being able to back up the nonsense. Sagan was not alone. The best known person is Frank Drake who in 1961 ran some numbers in his brain and came up with the mythical formula for saying there's x civilizations. All based on the number zero and you know that zero equals zero.

Human life on planet earth was an exquisite event dependent on certain factors. In order to have equal life on other planets you have to have the same factors occur. We know that is impossible. Even if it's NOT impossible, we simply have no irrefutable evidence of any other life similar to us outside of planet earth. Life on other planets is just a romantic assumption. I don't assume. There's you and me and everyone else and that's it. I'm 71 and I'm sure that I'm going to die without being proven wrong.

Originally posted by fleabit
Carl Sagan was brilliant. In the matter of UFOs, Carl Sagan was wishy-washy.

Early in his career, he not only speculated that alien life had been to earth, he suggested it probably has happened many times.

Much later in his career, he stated it would be impossible to travel the great distances, ergo we have no visitors.

I appreciate him as an astronomer, I ignore anything he has said about UFOs in particular... he had some agenda on his mind, near the end of his career. Mind I like the guy, I just wouldn't listen to anything he says about alien life and take it to heart.

Maybe he was just as brilliant about UFOs as about Cosmos, but you haven't realized that yet.

"Impossible" is too strong a word to imply that say FTL travel can't be done, but what does Michiu Kaku call it? "Physics of the impossible"? So even he uses the word impossible, but then he goes on to explain how what we think is impossible might be possible. I like his demonstration with a piece of paper where he folds the paper to show that by folding space-time you can get from point A to point B without traveling along the paper.

But the problem is, we don't really know how to fold space time like that, so it's impossible for now until we figure that out, but that doesn't mean it's impossible forever, or for advanced aliens.

Originally posted by m0r1arty
He did an episode of Cosmos were he says that we can almost be certain that intelligent life exists and may be able to travel the vastness of space but that things like the B+B Hill story were too flawed to be taken as a serious fact and further evidence is required to substantiate the claims that life is visiting us.

I don't think he was against the idea, in fact I think he would have loved for it to be the case, I just think he needs proof and he certainly wasn't shy of exploring and sharing what he perceived to be the grander questions of existence.

I think you nailed it, he DID like the idea and always believed in the possibility of intelligent ET life.

I think some people could learn something from his brilliance about looking for proof before jumping to conclusions. That's not an agenda, that's adding a dose of reality to the perception ET is extremely likely to exist, but where is the evidence it has visited earth?

You know what the evidence for UFOs being ET is? It's like a Rorschach test or pictures of clouds. Different people look at Rorschach tests or clouds and see different things, and the same thing happens with UFO evidence. Real solid evidence doesn't produce that much ambivalence. For example I think the evidence that the atomic bomb was invented is pretty convincing, that isn't really subject to interpretation like the UFO evidence is. When the evidence that UFOs are ET gets that convincing, even folks that need a little proof like Sagan and Shostak will believe it.

I respect Carl Sagan a lot, keep in mind in which era he came forward inspiring people about the cosmos, in the peak of the cold war.

He was a very intelligent person and cautious when there is no evidence. So if he says that the universe is full of life he knows what he is saying.

the thing is the building blocks of life are all throughout the universe in form of clouds released after the death of a star.

Now its only a matter of time until we have results from Kepler telescope if im not wrong in 2012 we shall know how many earthlike planets there are out there. Till now we found a lot of Stars, A lot of Gas giants , A lot of everything so I cant see how Earth like planets shall not be common as well.

Edit to add : Its true about his voice and passion...he was special

[edit on 9-12-2009 by heineken]

If intelligent life asked us for a diplomat he'd be my first choice bar the fact he's dead.

Totally agree.

As with any video about space or deep space, it's very entertaining and glorious eye-candy but that's as far as it goes apart from day dreaming and speculation.

Entertaining ... Definitely
Inspiring ... Meh!

.

Originally posted by m0r1arty
If intelligent life asked us for a diplomat he'd be my first choice bar the fact he's dead.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is his heir and would make a fine diplomat.

I remember watching an episode of "The Universe" with him in it. I believe he was talking to children about how Pluto was KBO (Kuiper Belt Object) instead of being a planet. Bright felllow he is.

Originally posted by Dargar
I remember watching an episode of "The Universe" with him in it. I believe he was talking to children about how Pluto was KBO (Kuiper Belt Object) instead of being a planet. Bright felllow he is.

Granted, Tyson is not the poet that Sagan was. But he doesn't need to be. He has the same passion, he is very much in love with the subject matter. And he makes the wonderous understanable.

There is no doubt that he doesn't have passion and I agree with you. I enjoyed listen to him talk but honestly I don't know much about him. He seems like a no nonsense guy. Maybe I'll go to his museum sometime.