Seasons

I agree. Intelligent, sentient life elsewhere in the Universe could have had evolved into as many different forms, modes, ways of expression as one can think of, and more. Look at life itself, just life, nevermind the intelligence, on this planet alone - almost infinite diversity of forms. There is no reason to think that intelligence and sentience should always, or even as a rule, evolve into any one particular mold.

Having said that, humans are perhaps not the only ones who developed wanderlust

True, others migrate. I just think we have a mammalian bias. Look how long reptiles ran the show. I wonder if the "aliens" were not descended from mammals would they share any of the drives and aspirations that we do.

I think Star Trek et al tried to play with those ideas, but it is easier to have human actors playing humanoids. Now that Japan has acting robots and animation software is cheap, maybe we'll see other types of aliens on screen.

As for the billions and billions of stars and what may be around them, who knows? Maybe the stars are sentient after all.

The thing about Star Trek was all the humanoids acted very human. They may have been rough and barbaric like Klingons or stoic like Vulcans, but they were still filled with human emotions and desires. I know people that could be Vulcan or Klingon. I wonder if all sentient life forms would have the same psychology as Earth inhabitants. What if we are not alone, it's just no one else cares?

"What if we are not alone, it's just no one else cares?


That's pretty much always been my bet Prob123.

There have been a few one time creative lifeforms on start trek, but no regulars (and mostly cheesy).However, this gives me an excuse to post a slightly related Youtube video link, Voltaire's best Star Trek song, " USS Make S*** Up" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2v6rXs5J9M (bcause I don't reference enough Voltaire songs here).

That is just too funny. I love it. I have never heard that before.

Further to our recent discussions touching on the mysteries of deep-fried poutine and the Cult of Cholesterol, my Caledonian spies tell me that those dark Satanic mills, the chip shops of Sauchiehall Street, in their relentless quest to reduce the life expectancy of the local community to single figures, have devised a new abomination - the deep-fried Christmas dinner.

The format is apparently to take one roast turkey, stuff it with all the trimmings (roast potatoes, parsnips, chips, sprouts, stuffing, bread sauce, more chips, cranberries, gravy, a few more chips, etc.,) dunk it in batter, and - yes - deep fry it whole!

Presumably they serve it in a wheelbarrow, and follow it up with a deep-fried Christmas pudding basted in burning, molten suet.

I don't think you could congeal your arteries much faster if you mainlined warm lard!

I think I clogged and artery just by reading the menu!
I think the deep fried turkey is enough. I do hear they blow up if they aren't totally defrosted.

Various of you might be interested in these:

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/artificial_intelligence/index.html

Let us suppose -- and I realize that this is not your position, Interzone -- that the frequently occurring alien abduction story is literally true; I mean the story in which someone is abducted and sex cells are removed from them.

There is a hypothesis which might explain this. Suppose these aliens have DNA similar to ours, but for some reason either it is degenerate, or there are too few of them. They might have brought either condition on themselves -- we can understand only too well how people might poison or otherwise debilitate themselves through irresponsible use of their own scientific knowledge, or how they might reduce their numbers in the same way. Or, they might be a group of exiles or renegades. So theey would combine human DNA with their own.

There is a certain similarity to the story of the rape of the Sabines. According to this story, the very early Romans were a bunch of exiles and renegades, mostly male, and decided they wanted some women. So they killed off the males of the Sabine tribe and dragged off the females. No, the Romans were not exactly jolly good fellows; so why should we expect the aliens to be?

Why wouldn't aliens just ask<0> for DNA? Well, what a mess that would have made! We would immediately have started negotiating in an attempt to get their Science, and our whole culture would have been turned upside down. It may well be that by choosing abductions, and (as it seems) attempting to suppress the memories of the victims, they are actually choosing the lesser of two evils.