Re: Fermi's Paradox and DNA

Terry Pilling wrote:
> Last week I looked at the paper that came out on the
> arxiv about Fermi's Paradox. It is the idea that the
> galaxy should be filled with extra-terrestrial life just
> based on probability. The paradox is: why [sic] aren't they here
> already?

We don't know if there are, nor even if any are or have visited Earth
or continue to do so on a regular basis. That question needs to be
firmly resolved first before one can even begin to ask the question
"why not", for otherwise you're begging the question by even posing the
"paradox".

Indeed, the notion that some UFO's are extraterrestial almost falls out
of the "Fermi Paradox" by reductio ad absurdum. Either some are, or
none are, and in the latter case you *really do* have some explaining
to do, a' la Fermi, since it's almost a consequence of Drake's equation
(with the parameters fed into it) that at least *some* kind of
visitation in person or by probes should be present!

It's worthy of note that, despite popular perception, the constraints
imposed by Relativity do *not* impede the prospect of space travel, but
(if anything) reduce it from being an absolute impossibility to a bare
possibility.

You see, the one thing that almost every discussion on distant travel
fails to account for is the Law of Inertia. Just from that condition
alone, travel times to the fringe of the solar system become a major
impediment, for even if you are able to push out a constant 1G
acceleration, it would STILL take you the better part of a month to
reach Pluto!

That's regardless of whether you do this computation by Newtonian
Physics or Relativistic Physics! In fact, the travel times don't
differer in any substantial way to the edge of the solar system.

But here's where the picture gets interesting and where the notion
advanced by some of the more speculative Physicists (e.g. Dyson) get
completely blown out of the water. The amount of time it takes to get
to the nearest star at a constant 1G is about 4 years, slightly more(!)
going by Newtonian physics (time dilatation).

Anyone who even so much has that ability virtually already has the
ability to get to the opposite side of the universe. For the amount of
(proper) time spent at 1G to get to the edge of the galaxy is around a
decade or so; to the next galaxy, not much more. To a place billions of
light years away, around 20, 30 or 40 years. Within a span of 50 years,
at a steady 1 G you can get anywhere IF (and that's the important point
... IF) you can even so much as get to the nearest star by some means
at 1G, because it's around the same order of magnitude (and also:
around the same level of impossibility by ordinary means).

By Newtonian physics, the times go more like in the range 10,000 to
100,000 years -- despite the ability to reach arbitrarily high speeds.
The absence of time dilatation, coupled with the serious drag provided
by the Law of Inertia, puts a real damper on the ability to go anywhere
at all. So, in a way, Relativity comes to the rescue, with the
existence of a speed limit ironically being the very thing that enables
travel to distant places (theoretically) in a reasonable time.

The Dyson picture of civilizations advancing in stages, island-hopping
from point to point, is thereby completely wrong. Any civilization even
so much as able to get to the next depot can just as immediately spread
everywhere in that same single step.

There is no island-hopping: it's all at once, everywhere, or never at
all.

The alternative scenarios of travel by new and heretofore unexplored
Physics (wormholes and time travel) only buttress the conclusion of the
"all at once, everywhere, or nowhere at all", since by the very
assumption, such alternate means provide what's required to directly
skip the intervening space between two given points.

This, in turn, only serves to make all the more poignant the question
of who (if anyone) is already visiting here and (if nobody), why not --
which, in turn, puts the spotlight even more heavily on UFO's. For
anyone here, in person (so to say) can literally be coming from
anywhere else in the entire Universe, not just the nearest stars.

The question of what, if anything, off-worldly UFO's might represent
has actually been a topic of some mainstream science seminars in the
last year or so. There has been a push to get a better understanding on
what anomalies might be hidden in these phenomena, whether it be
atmospheric (e.g. sprites), or otherwise.

It also bears pointing out that all the constraints mentioned on
travel, themselves, are completely blown out of the water when it comes
to the issue of remote probes or even von Neumann probes. Unlike humans
or other lifeforms of a similar nature, there is no time constraint on
how long a probe may be in transit, since there's no life aboard to
support. With the case of von Neumann probes (which, in fact, is what
the monoliths in the 2001 trilogy were), they would even replicate by
drawing off whatever resources are found on celestial bodies along the
way, so that the issue of numbers comes into play -- a kind of
artificial panspermia.

This, in turn, further draws the issue to what -- if anything -- lies
behind the large numbers of UFO's sighted all around the world.

> I am interested in hearing comments. Especially if you have
> any simple reasons why this could not be possible (for example
> proof that DNA itself evolved from simpler molecules on earth)
> Please be nice though.

There was a recent article posted in a peer-reviewed science journal
earlier this month which boldly raises the possibility that the red
rain phenomenon that occurred recently in India (which laid out a large
amount of cellular structures similar to blood cells in form) may have
actually be extraterrestial in origin.

You can find more information (including an article reference and PDF)
doing a Web search on "Red Rain"and "India".

The question of what it takes to evolve DNA, itself, may be little more
than a distraction. One of the more recent accomplishments amongst
biologists has been the ability to synthesize chemical processes that
embody many of the features associated with life (e.g. replication, the
spontaneous formation of cellular structures). Not only are we getting
closer to that vaunted Frankenstein Moment, but in the process are
finding out that there may be a lot more ways to get there than just by
the route selected on Earth through DNA.

This, too, serves to make all the more poignant the Fermi "paradox".

.

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