Yes, those are the terminal dangers which we can only meet with technology and advancements that replace our expenses in wars and competition between us economically, pointed at to making more things which our women buy.
Precisely...we are just along for the geologic ride. Another issue which is seldom discussed openly is population growth versus finite resources combined with global climate issues...
The trick over eons of time is to have a system which can maintain water ice, liquid water, or water vapor. Seems to me that advanced life needs to exist within these parameters, not too cold, not too hot...liquid water should signal the right conditions...
I'm guessing pretty much all of us, in some form or fashion, are living in the moment with little thought or actions regarding the future of Earth. Sure there are a few of us who try to do better, but all the things that are not good for Earth seem to be increasing instead of decreasing. More cars, more concrete, more pollution, more people, etc. Sadly, the collective we need a wake-up call, but usually these cause lots of pain, so whatever the pain(s) might be in our future, hopefully we take notice and do better...
Not really. It's still not life. Like amino acids, it's a fundamental part of life, but not life itself.
Agreed here. Some things we can control, others we cannot. Man's destruction of fellow man is a huge waste. Unfortunately, until we find a means to supply ourselves with near or actual unlimited energy and/or resources, we'll continue to compete with our fellow man for resources.
Hmmm,... The RCC apparently has been able to survive in its own Socialistic Economy, within its own walls, for many centuries. The priests and Nuns apparently have willingly accepted the lack of private ownership and the need for money, while depending upon the church and their own efforts to live full and productive lives.
Right,... But it does establish a rational and very possible way for metabolism to have begun simply, although the process had seemed too complex before.
Agreed, but the despite all of the "possible" ways life can originate the line between life and not life is very well defined.
They grow their own food? Provide their own water? Sewage? Garbage disposal? Power? Make their own bricks to repair the wall? The tools? Grow their own cotton and/or wool to weave their clothing? Make their own needles and thread and a host of other items?
Mars has these same conditions but it does not have like Earth an active EM Field. If Mar's still had an active EM Field...it would still have water...life and be very similar to Earth. AboveAlpha - - - Updated - - - Actually it's not. A VIRUS is not alive....yet it has DNA just as we do. The line between what is or is not alive is very fine. AboveAlpha
So, I was never clear on this: all it takes for water to get gone is the loss of the EM field? Oh and the line between what is alive and what's not is that life begins at the single cell.
The Earth Billions of years ago collided with a Mars sized Planet and it was absorbed into the at the time smaller Earth. This allowed Earth to maintain a very hot inner molten metalic core which spins generating an Electromagnetic Field. Mars had a core that cooled faster than Earth's and over a Billion Years ago when Mars lost it's protective EM Field Liquid H2O in Martian Oceans began to be effected by the Solar and Cosmic Radiation Bombardment which caused a chemical reaction in H2O splitting liquid water molecules into Oxygen and Hydrogen Gases which were lost into space over time. If the Earth lost it's EM field...the same thing would happen. AboveAlpha
It is very fine as this link shows. DNA is not the sole qualifier for life. http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/yellowstone/viruslive.html Without life, viruses cannot replicate. Ergo, viruses cannot survive without a host. Find a virus and you'll find life.
The two men who won the Nobel Prize in Virology won in the Chemistry Category as a Virus is simply a complex DNA Molecule. But a Virus is just a tiny step below life and it shows how Quantum Evolution through a process of arranging Matter into greater and greater and more complex Molecular forms evolved LIFE from LIFELESSNESS. AboveAlpha
Well if Mars cannot maintain water vapor then it's not suitable for Earth-like life forms. Seems to me exoplanets need water ice, liquid water, and water vapor to be good candidates for life, and this implies moderate temperatures, gravity and magnetic field. Don't know the scientific definition of Goldilocks planets, but seems to me they must have a certain mass, certain gravity, magnetic field, right distance to their star...
They all DID,...back in the beginning and in another Age. But now, the Monastic Age had ended and the priests and Nuns get free support for living and retirements when they no longer can work.
I think most of the planet including us are ultimately older than the sun...we all originated from material in stars/super novas that exploded long before our sun was formed...
An interesting insight to your thoughts about the "Monastic Age". Thanks for the revelation. The problem is more about population than religion. Sure, small tribes either survive on subsistence living be it farming, hunting, fishing or a combination or they die. That's just the way it was. We have planet of 7 Billion people. How many would die in the first year if we had a total collapse of civilization? How many would be able to survive just on what they can find to eat or grow themselves?
Personally, I think there is already extraterrestrial life in our solar system, though obviously not life as we know it and likely extremely primitive in comparison to our Planet. There is a place with liquid (lakes and rivers, rain etc...), stable gravity, hydro carbons and the building blocks of amino acids a relatively short distance from our home. Granted it rains liquid methane rather than water....but who is to say life must be based on OUR chemistry. Still, even if it must be....there is a candidate even closer. And this one has the stuff of life squeezing through cracks onto it's surface.
Agreed there is a higher chance of life there than elsewhere in the Solar System. It will be interesting if it can be found.
Hopefully, they have gas station attendants: " Titan's Surface Organics Surpass Oil Reserves on Earth 02.13.08 Artist concept of terrain on TitanAn artist's imagination of hydrocarbon pools, icy and rocky terrain on the surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan. Image credit: Steven Hobbs (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia). › Larger image Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes. The new findings from the study led by Ralph Lorenz, Cassini radar team member from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., are reported in the Jan. 29 issue of the Geophysical Research Letters. "Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material -- it's a giant factory of organic chemicals," said Lorenz. "This vast carbon inventory is an important window into the geology and climate history of Titan." At a balmy minus 179 degrees Celsius (minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit), Titan is a far cry from Earth. Instead of water, liquid hydrocarbons in the form of methane and ethane are present on the moon's surface, and tholins probably make up its dunes. The term "tholins"was coined by Carl Sagan in 1979 to describe the complex organic molecules at the heart of prebiotic chemistry. " http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20080213.html
It's a little bit interesting to me that humans are made of star stuff, or of the atoms we find exist everywhere, and once these atoms combined to create a complex human, we become very fragile and don't live very long. As we greatly reduce the complexity down to single cells, or water, or rocks, etc. they can exist forever. In a weird perspective, talking solely about geology, humans seem to be on the bottom of the longevity hierarchy, while water and other organic materials might last billions of years...
