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Sharpie · 05-05-2012 05:01 PM

Scientists always say that they're looking for water on other planets as it may be a sign of life. Now I'm not here to debate if aliens exist or not, either in single-cell bacteria or multi cell lifeforms. It's the fact that scientists look for water as a sign of life.

MAYBE, just MAYBE, aliens AREN'T FUCKING CARBON-BASED LIFE FORMS AND/OR DO NOT REQUIRE WATER TO SURVIVE??????

Just because mostly everything on our shitty little planet needs water doesn't mean everything in the universe does. If alien life does exist, it could be based off of any element in existence and perhaps some elements we don't even know exist or elements we cannot replicate. Maybe these other life forms need liquid mercury to live, or liquid nitrogen. Maybe they don't need any liquids at all to survive, they just breathe or something. Who the fuck knows? That's the point. Not everything is carbon based, and not everything needs water to survive. It annoys me to no fucking end that scientists look for liquid water and act like life can't exist without it. They're aliens for fucks sake, we don't know what they require to live and I doubt it's liquid water.

We don't really know much about anything that isn't a carbon based life form, so what if there's a helium based life form? Or a chlorine based life form? Anything is possible.

TL;DR
scientists Only look for liquid water when searching for alien life, when aliens may not need liquid water to live.

fish20 · 05-05-2012 05:05 PM

http://essayboard.com/2010/12/03/new-lif...ting-life/

SaintVicious · 05-05-2012 05:11 PM

Well so far there's a lot more lifeforms (that we know of) that need water that don't currently. Also there are these things called "budgets" but they sort of limit what you can and can't do.

UnschoolShqiponjë · 05-06-2012 02:19 AM

I agree but right now water is the surest sign. Though most scientists would agree non-carbon based advanced life forms are possible.

Aesc · 05-06-2012 04:16 PM

duhh they know that. They only search for water, because that's the only thing they CAN search for. trust me, if there was some type of pressurized gassless life out there, we won't be able to find it with what we have. therefore, we are stuck with searching for planets with water.

Mælstrom · 05-07-2012 10:32 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Titan

Many scientists think that life on Saturn's moon Titan could be silicon based, since most of the natural materials on the moon's surface are made from silicon. They speculate that it could use a mixture of liquid ammonia/methane for it's DNA as opposed to our carbon-nitrogen-phosphorous DNA, and that it would be more crystalline in shape.

aCol · 05-07-2012 10:15 PM

Crystalline shaped life? Cool, new drugs...

Now on the topic, I'd say it is possible to have life without water. A living being, is, by definition, a being that has an limited life span which needs a substance to survive - either through breathing, or drinking, or both. Or some other ways of consummation.
So it is possible that a silicone, flour, whatever lifeforms exists. The question is: Would it be intelligent? Or just a mass of bacteria.

The · 05-08-2012 12:54 AM

Does it annoy anybody else that we even give a shit about aliens?

Sharpie · 05-08-2012 05:28 AM

(05-08-2012 12:54 AM)The Wrote: Does it annoy anybody else that we even give a shit about aliens?

This too annoys me slightly. If we found intelligent life and had a way to get to them, we would fucking utterly destroy their society for our own benefit. I doubt we'd be very nice to them.

Plus, simply, who cares? We have other issues to deal with in our own world, why are we spending millions of dollars to find life on planets that we can't even get to right now?

Aya · 05-08-2012 06:09 AM

Also: Scientists search for water as a sign of life because it's the surest sign we know of. 99% of the water on earth harbors some sort of life, regardless of the other conditions present. Even pools underneath antartic ice sheets and hydrothermal vents that spew out tons of toxic chemicals harbor life.

fish20 · 05-08-2012 01:16 PM

Also, finding planets that can support life is important in case we need to relocate the human race to a different planet before the apocalypse.

Mælstrom · 05-08-2012 01:31 PM

I think that if there's some galactic government with a multitude of species contributing to it, then they've probably noticed our signals by now, but have decided to hide themselves from us for fear that we'll destroy them.

flann · 05-09-2012 08:55 AM

(05-08-2012 05:28 AM)Sharpie Wrote:
(05-08-2012 12:54 AM)The Wrote: Does it annoy anybody else that we even give a shit about aliens?

This too annoys me slightly. If we found intelligent life and had a way to get to them, we would fucking utterly destroy their society for our own benefit. I doubt we'd be very nice to them.

Plus, simply, who cares? We have other issues to deal with in our own world, why are we spending millions of dollars to find life on planets that we can't even get to right now?

Year 2150 - We Find Aliens
Year 2150-2800 Shit happens
Year 2180-first alien porn video received
Year 2200-first alien/human porn video
Year 2801 - Aliens freed from slavery.

SaintVicious · 05-09-2012 09:12 AM

(05-08-2012 01:31 PM)Maelstrom Wrote: I think that if there's some galactic government with a multitude of species contributing to it, then they've probably noticed our signals by now, but have decided to hide themselves from us for fear that we'll destroy them.

Pretty sure if they have a galactic federation they could wipe us withing minutes.

The · 05-09-2012 09:21 AM

(05-09-2012 08:55 AM)flann Wrote:
(05-08-2012 05:28 AM)Sharpie Wrote:
(05-08-2012 12:54 AM)The Wrote: Does it annoy anybody else that we even give a shit about aliens?

This too annoys me slightly. If we found intelligent life and had a way to get to them, we would fucking utterly destroy their society for our own benefit. I doubt we'd be very nice to them.

Plus, simply, who cares? We have other issues to deal with in our own world, why are we spending millions of dollars to find life on planets that we can't even get to right now?

Year 2150 - We Find Aliens
Year 2150-2800 Shit happens
Year 2180-first alien porn video received
Year 2200-first alien/human porn video
Year 2801 - Aliens freed from slavery.

Lets see if any of us can live to confirm this.

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