re: #60 jc717

Charles, we’ll have to agree to disagree on this. I’m all for speculative research. But, research shouldn’t be done in a vacuum.

When it comes to aliens:
1) We’re pretty sure that intelligent, spacefaring life doesn’t exist elsewhere in the solar system.
2) We’re pretty sure that FTL travel is impossible.
3) Space is really really big. The closest star to the sun is around 4 light years away.

Given these 3 points, studies or arguments of intelligent alien visitors arriving on earth are only slightly less absurd than arguments about the rapture or Xenu. The level of technology that alien visitors would need to possess to travel the vast interstellar distances would make their tech indistinguishable from magic, and they could likely, if they so chose, appear to us as angels, gods, or vorlons ;).

Your use of the terms “speculative research” in this comment and “practical science” in #23 suggest to me that you are not a scientist. So when you say, “We’re pretty sure…” I have to wonder who “we” is.

*joke stolen by RWC deleted from this space*