Originally posted by ZeskoWhirligan

Originally posted by MrInquisitive
Also, flinging microbe-laden rocks off a planet relies a lot on random factors: how could they be flung just to the right solar system, and then get to just the right planet or planetoid in said system?

What is "the right system," and what is "the right planet"...?

What we know about bacterial Life on Earth is that it apparently just sprang into existence about 500 million years after the planet had formed; indeed, it was as if bacterial life was seeded to an otherwise hostile and sterile world. In those earliest days of Earth's formation, the atmosphere and hydrosphere were chemically toxic to all Life as we know it today. No Life that we know today would have survived on the primordial Earth.

Yet SOME SORT of bacterial Life rapidly infested the Earth's poisonous oceans 3.5 BILLION years ago. That bacterial infestation eventually CHANGED Earth's environmental chemistry, making the planet more hospitable to higher life forms.

This is what I mean by engineering bacteria to seed other worlds. I'm not talking about bacteria that require a friendly medium in which to survive and thrive... I'm talking about a bacterium that is so tenacious that it can enter an utterly toxic environment and eventually alter that world into a more hospitable environment.

...

See, I think a Creator Species could, quite literally, bio-engineer such an all-purpose bacterium and cast handfuls of these "seeds" into the cosmos, and that Life would find a way to re-engineer the atmospheres and hydrospheres and land masses of ANY comet or planet it encountered.

We know that this is what happened on Earth — a poisonous little orb was transformed by Life into a lush garden planet. It may have happened on Mars. It may have happened on EVERY planet in our known Solar System, and we have YET to discern the fact.

FTR, by "right" planet/solar system, I mean one on which microbes (by which I mean primitive bacteria and/or viruses) from earth could exist and reproduce -- and with time evolve and thrive there while transforming the environment. I doubt one primitive bacterium or other microbe could take root on each and every planet, planetoid and/or comet it might encounter. That is why I use the term "right". Primordial earth did have the organic molecules and temperature in order for life to start up. I can imagine planets where this might not be the case or that other environmental factors may preclude the development of organic life as we know it. Now maybe there are other forms of life possible in other environments -- say silicon based, for example. My point being that there may not be a all-purpose primitive bacterium that can live and take root in all environments.

Some of these flung stones or other vessels, even if they reach a distant solar system, might just get sucked into the star there, hit a distant outer planet in which life will never have the conditions to develop, or be trapped in outer orbit or in outer space. Whereas intelligently guided space vessels that can get their cargos to best-candidate planets are going to be more effective at spreading life than the haphazard stone-flinging method.

Your proposed methodology could work, but to dismiss more guided missions using artificial intelligence seems to be dismissive of a not unreasonable alternative.

Well, if we REALLY want to think outside the box, there's no reason to build these enormously expensive fleets of starships and space stations and all that nonsense.

I mean, our ultimate objective in the Universe is to acquire information. We acquire information from myriad sources. So, if I sit down and illustrate the procedures for fabricating a bronze statue and send that information to you, you could use that information to fabricate a bronze statue. You have acquired the information necessary for building that statue.

That's the driving force of Humanity, okay. Acquiring information and utilizing it to our benefit.

But, then, that's the driving force of Life and Consciousness, as well. We consume information, we extract the information that is beneficial to our survival, and we expel the extraneous bits.

Information is what the Universe is all about.

I contend that if we had an adequate communications system, we'd never have to leave our home planets. We could stay at home and play on the InterGalactiNet, retrieving information from all over the universe without ever leaving home.

And I'll go one step further and say that this communications system ALREADY EXISTS and has existed for thousands, maybe millions, maybe BILLIONS of years.

I think that our Human minds are in contact with other non-Human intelligences constantly. We interact with our pets on a telepathic level, for example — there is unspoken UNDERSTANDING between humans and animals here on Earth. Yes, there is also MISUNDERSTANDING, for the most part, because we tend to crash into animal environments, unfortunately, without regard for the critters. We don't have the patience and the compassion. So there's a LOT of misunderstanding.

But there are also exquisite and perfect moments of communication between humans and animals, and you know it. Even telepathic communications between humans and animals. It's there. You know it happens.

That's the evidence Quantum communication exists. Yeah, sure, it's anecdotal, but even the stoniest skeptic knows there's something going on. Science is coming to acknowledge the possibility of ultramundane energies... Ultramundane describes those forces that exist outside of our ability to measure them. We ride the crest of these forces in our journey across the Cosmos.

But it's these "ultra-mundane" forces that we can tap RIGHT NOW using our MINDS to explore the farthest reaches of Creation.

This thought's also crossed my mind from time to time. As a previous user said, why risk harm to yourself if you can send an AI to do all your work.

If they've got to this stage of tech advancement, they MAY have found a way to transmit information faster than the speed of light, which is something we can't currently do as far as I'm aware. If they can send data almost instantaneously from our planet to theirs (another user suggested wormholes, why wouldn't they work for data if they work for matter), they could control their UFO probes and have almost exactly the same experience as physically being here. Without the mass state of panic of course!

Peace, Ben.

Originally posted by wemadetheworld
Maybe one day somebody will solve that thought problem and we will have almost instant communication across vast distances..

Well, ultimately, since we're talking about the instantaneous transmission of information across impossible distances, we're also necessarily talking about transmitting PEOPLE across impossible distances instantaneously.

Or, at least, the information necessary to ASSEMBLE a person at the destination point, using available matter on the other side of the Universe.

This sort of technology would not only render Star Trek's Transporter hopelessly obsolete, it would make STARFLEET obsolete. What's the use of a fleet of plodding interstellar tugboats when, with the push of a button, you can teleport an entire self-sufficient colony to the other end of Creation?

And, taking it a step further, once we finally dial in to the Intergalactic Party Line — which we may assume is already in existence — we don't actually have to send our colonists anywhere, do we? I mean, if we establish contact with other intelligent species, we will KNOW what's out there. All our questions will be answered.

All we have to do is ask.

Originally posted by ZeskoWhirligan

Originally posted by wemadetheworld
Maybe one day somebody will solve that thought problem and we will have almost instant communication across vast distances..

Well, ultimately, since we're talking about the instantaneous transmission of information across impossible distances, we're also necessarily talking about transmitting PEOPLE across impossible distances instantaneously.

I think you would have to create a kind of doppelganger equivalent to the original person but comprising particles which are quantum mechanically paired with the particles which comprise the original person's body and brain

Then you would transport the doppelganger across spacetime at subluminal velocity for thousands of years and finally 'wake up' the doppelganger who may have some mutual but transient affinity with the original person

I guess it would be a safer way of transporting a clone of oneself across the Universe so that if disaster strikes then your doppelganger loses his life but would perhaps be unaware that he ever existed

It could make a great movie - some humans wake up trillions of miles from Earth dazed and confused with an identity crisis and required to carry out set duties but who rebel and gradually discover they are just clones of long dead ancestors so they figure out a way to get back to Earth where they become champions of liberty and individual freedom but, anyway, I digress..