Comments on: Are We Alone, of DEATH

By: Davebegood

Davebegood — Mon, 09 May 2011 01:06:49 +0000

You know who else likes the ‘Are we alone of death’? MY MOM!!

By: Monkey

Monkey — Thu, 05 May 2011 03:18:00 +0000

just question stuff before you believe it, check the evidence against the statement and try to educate yourself in atopic before you go spouting (or re-spouting from others) opinions.

Skepticism isnt a brave new science, its what we evolved to use.

By: Chris T

Chris T — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:45:52 +0000

The first step to being a proper skeptic is realizing that you are a biased observer. Biases can be managed, but never eliminated.

By: whoschad

whoschad — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:46:46 +0000

I’m skeptical of Jamie’s definition. In fact I’m skeptical of skepticism (this makes me the greatest skeptic EVAR!)
Seriously though, skepticism as a system is unfounded and fraught with many problems. It’s impossible to use it objectively, even though some claim to have the ability to do so. A better way to think on these terms is with the idea of ‘defeaters’.

By: CB

CB — Wed, 04 May 2011 06:46:30 +0000

Dr. Phil, Off topic but this seems to be consistent with your preference for defining seasons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_calendar

By: Matthew Saunders

Matthew Saunders — Wed, 04 May 2011 06:23:35 +0000

Phil,

just imagine in the future, humanity will actually be SOLVING these nifty problems, like how to survive a gamma ray burst. Who knows, maybe there will be a sport where people can surf a nova?

By: LarianLeQuella

LarianLeQuella — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:37:38 +0000

Okay Josh, I’ll play your game.

As much as I love SETI, I predict that we won’t find any intelligent life out there using our current technology. As even our own technology is indicating, we are becoming less and less detectable by going to compressed digital formats, and using technology like fiber optics. Even the Areciebo Observatory would have a hard time detecting our civilization from the obit of Pluto.

That said, the first Model T didn’t go 55 MPG. The wright flier never broke Mach 1. Freedom 7 never got near the moon.

So your point is? Sometimes things are worth doing for the journey, and perhaps what they teach us about ourselves in the process.

That said, given what we know of chemistry, physics, biology, etc, I do predict that we will answer the question in the future, and I also predict that the answer will be that we are not alone.

By: Monkey

Monkey — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:32:34 +0000

Ive said it before, and I ll say it again – Are We Alone is one of the nicest, most entertaining and informative podcasts out there. There are many good ones out there of course, but whenever AWA comes on my mp3 player I get that giddy feeling. Really, really going to miss this if it falls prey to the SETI funding problems.

And skeptic check is an amazing part of the show….perhaps too short?

@JAMIE

Good thoughts – I like to think of skepticism as being windshield wipers. Wiping away all the dirt and rain (pseudo-reality) that blocks your view through the clear glass (reality). Everybody’s windshield has a bit of debris here and there (I mean, we all harbour some questionable beliefs somewhere, perhaps we just havent had the opportunity to look at them yet) but overall the job of the wipers (skepticism) is to clear away the junk so we can move forward safely, quickly and in the right direction.

You can take others for a ride in your car and show them the clear view, but you cant make them use wipers themselves. Like the horse and water idiom. Teaching, education and all the stuff that we, who think the real world is just simply cool enough, put our efforts into can work some magic, too.

@JOSH

Sure, go for it. I wonder how you would….

By: Jamie

Jamie — Tue, 03 May 2011 23:19:55 +0000

Caledonian, if scepticism is applied properly then it is unbiased and anything that cannot stand up it do it does not deserve to be spared. Being a sceptic is not about going around bursting peoples bubbles, it’s about having a method of keeping the absurdity out of your world view.

By: F. Mulder

F. Mulder — Tue, 03 May 2011 23:18:08 +0000

The truth is out there, Josh.

By: Caledonian

Caledonian — Tue, 03 May 2011 23:16:57 +0000

It would be nice to see an evenhanded application of skepticism, instead of just using it as a weapon against things we think are absurd.

By: MBlueD

MBlueD — Tue, 03 May 2011 22:31:22 +0000

I was revisiting some old stuff when I came across this little nugget. My eyes watered and I felt a moment of incredible envy. Since I love you all here’s the link (mercury 6 mission, first earth orbit):

http://mercury6.spacelog.org/00:00:05:18/#log-line-318

You might want to start reading the transcript from the beginning if you haven’t already, to get a real feeling for the situation.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 03 May 2011 21:03:52 +0000

Can’t we just do a Skeptic Check on SETI itself?

By: Larian LeQuella

Larian LeQuella — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:13:31 +0000

Hey, Skeptic Check sounds like a great TV show or something. Nah, maybe Bad Universe would be better?