RE: extraterrestrial intelligence
Vandergraaf, Chuck (vandergraaft@aecl.ca)
Tue, 13 Apr 1999 10:22:15 -0400
> Chuck writes:...
> > Having said this, I wonder what drives people to search for extra-
> > terrestrial intelligence. Are they that lonely?
>
> ...or curious, perhaps? They look like they're having fun.
> I mean, what drives some people to turn over rocks to see
> what's underneath, to dive in cold submersibles to see tube
> worms at deep sea vents, to spend a winter cooped up at the
> South Pole, or to stay late in the lab waiting for a protein
> gel to destain? There's no accounting for taste...
>
Tim,
I suspect it is more than being curious. My gut feeling is that this search
for extraterrestrial intelligence is driven by an anxiety and a fear that it
may "just be them" and ... God. Instead, if there were extraterrestrial
intelligence (hopefully emanating by something they can reasonably well
identify with, like a vaguely human-looking entity such as E.T.) If this
were just a curiosity, how could the proponents of this search be able to
convince government agencies to spend vast amounts of money on this sort of
thing?
Chuck Vandergraaf (out on a bit of a limb here)
Pinawa, MB