Sunday 16 March 2008

Looking At The Stars

When i read about the European Union investigating 'Invasive Alien Species' i admit i was more than intrigued because i have an interest in all things outer space. Turns out the Aliens there were talking about were less Extra Terrestrial and more Extra Tentacle as it was concerned with information gathering on species in the EU that shouldn't be here. I logged on and suggested Madonna but i don't expect a call to Brussels anytime soon.
Maybe i have been watching too many X Files or old episodes of Star Treks but i have long been a believer that to quote Shakespeare and bring a smidgen of class to the blog, that "There are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Scientists put the Big Bang at 15b years ago and the earth forming 4.6b years ago with the first life appearing 2.8b years ago and the first human 2m years ago.
Now think how much we have advanced in just 2 million years, going from creating fire and calling everything 'UG' to writing the Human Genome and investigating other planets in our solar system.
An often cited example of the sheer size of what is above us is that there are "more stars in the heavens than all the grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth." That's a lot of stars and the thought that our Sun is the equivalent of one grain of sand on the Worlds beaches really does strike home just how small and insignificant us earthlings are.
Our Sun has 8 Planets orbiting it so with that colossal number of Suns moving about above us, it is quite arrogant to believe that the Earth was the only one to contain the right ingredients for life to form.
So my mind wonders, what if on one of those other countless planets circling countless Stars, life formed and evolved before the 2 million years ago that we climbed down from the trees?
Imagine life on that Planet had a couple of million years advantage on us, what sort of technology would those boys be wielding?
2 million years of evolution has seen us send manned expeditions to the moon, send back pictures of other galaxies and set up space stations. Imagine what we will be doing in another 2 million years, where our technology will take us and is it so absurd to think that somewhere out there, in the depths of space so massive that our minds cannot grasp its size and containing so many stars that we do not have a number big enough to count them, there is intelligent life with the technological capability to pay us a visit?

4 comments:

Cody Bones said...

I just hope they are like the Ferengi

Falling on a bruise said...

I was hoping for better looking aliens to be honest, the latest incarnation of Dr Who is very easy on the eye.

Cody Bones said...

it looks that when the aliens come, I want trade, and you want "Romance. Vive la difference!

Falling on a bruise said...

I don't know cody, if i get a looker i can sell him on after i am finished with him.