RE: extraterrestrial intelligence

Pim van Meurs (entheta@eskimo.com)
Mon, 12 Apr 1999 20:56:56 -0700

Moorad: The reason you and I can carry this exchange is that we are both of the same
nature.

I'd surely hope so.

MooradL There is much that we know inherently that is not contained in the
words we exchange. For instance, an extraterrestrial that intercepts our
messages may not get the same info as you do.

Most likely which is why I believe it is hard to detect "intelligence"

Moorad: You show me a machine more complicated than man.

How do you define complicated ?

Moorad: What is your counterexample, dolphins? Beauty is self-evident to man.

What about other animals ?

Moorad: Write down the Schrodinger equation that will contain beauty as a solution.

That's a bit silly, beauty is a "personal" thing so some might "recognize" it and others not, that is not a very effective standard.

Moorad: It can't be done. Why is that so hard to understand?

Because it is inherently subjective

Moorad: To know what love is you may have to invoke God. Poets have written about
love for a long time and will continue to do so in the distant future. My
advice to you is to find a quiet room and sit there for an hour with a blank
mind. Then start thinking whether it makes more sense that there is a
Creator or not. That is your homework. I have done that homework myself
already and have conclude that the notion of a Creator in unavoidable.

So you would have my personal belief, so what ? You believe that a Creator is unavoidable, good for you but that carries little weight.