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i dont know what that is but i like it

it is a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_drive

i was in the uk last week and saw some rare crisps 龜 and thought of you

one of my favourite things is when you have a call scheduled for 9am or whatever and it's getting to 9:05 and you're starting to think "this person isn't going to call"

it's 9:06 now

Update request

This happened to me last week - 16 minutes late - and things got really tense.

they called at 9:09 :-(

then of course there's the 9:00:00 on the dot kind of call, which is like a fresh tray of frozen ice cubes

8:59 and i'm still in my pjs!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/science/solid-metallic-hydrogen-harvard-physicists.html

i love how petty everybody in this piece is

haha yes, open contempt. love it.

i'm on team anti-science. this is what they publish http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2016/11/30/science.aah6990. it's a bad journal.

the dog ate my evidence

what are yr August eclipse plans?

going to try to go to totality for the one in 2024 assuming we're all alive, but i don't think i'll make this one

I live in Oregon, where the path of totality passes, and I am psyched that this one is in August instead of January, like the only other one I had a chance to "see" through a cloud deck multiple thousand feet thick. (It was still damned impressive despite the complete lack of visibility.) I am hoping to be backpacking up somewhere high in the Cascades on the big day. Best way to beat the crowds.

DAMN

https://twitter.com/ESO/status/834463153966682113

http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/trappist-1-seven-earth-size-exoplanets-04641.html

now we just need to figure out how to travel near/at/above light speed or build multigenerational colony ships and we're all set

don't worry collaborator in chief musk is on the case

The more immediate excitement would be the prospect of finding some form of life there, right?

that would be extremely exciting for sure

TRAPPIST-1 is an ultracool dwarf star

damn right it is

on the scale of excitement, discovering alien lifeforms is definitely way up there

absent life this is fake news

All seven planets in this system — TRAPPIST-1b, c, d, e, f, g and h — are similar in size to Earth and Venus, or slightly smaller. At least the innermost six are probably rocky in composition.

conspiracy theory - why is NASA covering up TRAPPIST-1a?

TRAPPIST-1a is actually a beer

equal to 40 light beers imo

So the whole system is made of alcohol? I'm down.

absent life this is fake news

afawk life is an extraordinarily rare event (that we cannot replicate it yet scientifically suggests as much imo) so figuring out interstellar colonization still seems slightly more probable to me than discovering life, nb that life might be more common but intelligent life exceptionally less common? idk been a while since i thought deeply about fermi.

i never clicked this thread, never knew it was about space. I have a 5 year old who will have some questions later. specifically about the cosmic web and the limen alpha blob, whatever the hell that it.

HI DERE

imo life either started 0, 1 or many, many times. there aren't going to be 2 civilizations in the galaxy. the unknown parameters would have to be juuuuust right for that.

(and we know it's not 0)

0 option presumably the God option

I'd say there is a big difference between "life" and "civilizations" and the first does not imply the second. There are (very conservatively) a quarter million species on earth atm, and life has existed here for approximately a billion years, so the number of species that have ever lived is enormously larger, but only one earth species has created civilizations and our best understanding says it has only existed as a species for perhaps 200,000 years.

Do we have any idea how likely it is we'll find water on one of these planets?

xp i find arguments about odds or scale unconvincing in either direction because the number of times the dice got rolled is so large and uncertain. the choices of rates at which happen that result in a number of civilizations other than zero, 1 or very many are too few.

nasa out the gate with hipster art

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/2159/

https://i.imgur.com/XlJ3iiQ.jpg

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/834487010773581824

@InasAhmed16 We think they are tidally locked to their host star, which means they would have permanent night/day sides.

fuck this, not going, ever

xps I agree that, if life arose independently at least twice in the universe, then the number of times it has arisen must be some very large number. Arriving at any sound prediction regarding the number of times life has independently formed civilizations seems impossible to me. Two civilizations would be an extremely improbable number, but any other number you could name would be equally improbable.

dark side is calling me

Arceon is a man-made satellite that has been re-purposed by an order of reclusive monks who rejected all modern technology. Originally constructed of metal, it was largely clad in wood and turned into a giant floating monastery by the monks. Inside, it consists of numerous levels, some as much as 100 metres high, that are, according to writer Vincent Ward, "layered like an ant's nest, or bee's nest".[1] The small planet contains an abbey, libraries, mess halls, communal lavatories and a large glass works, as well as open fields where crops are grown and sheep are reared, lakes and even an extensive sea on one of its lower levels, which acts as a reservoir supplying water to the population. Arceon maintains a thin atmosphere, while at its center a "technology room" is said to maintain and refresh this atmosphere, allowing the monks to survive. Entry to this room is strictly forbidden.

tbf civilization has developed independently multiple times on this planet alone, depending on which historical models you consider

xp is that from the rejected alien 3 pitch?

tbf civilization has developed independently multiple times on this planet alone, depending on which historical models you consider

presumably "civilization" developed independently multiple times tho bc something about advanced primates have the capability built in (in which case civilization might be an easy problem but developing the right animal to achieve civilization a difficult one). it's not even clear tho to me that making the leap from inorganic material to organic material is an easy problem bc if it could happen randomly w/ the right inputs then we should certainly be able to crack it in our labs (or do i misunderstand something here?). that we can't suggests that there's some variable or dynamic that isn't even on our radar. also we should assume that if the big step is from inorganic to organic material then there could be other planets that have inorganic to some other non-organic but still life-equivalent form.

(also if it wasn't obvious my explanation for why we can't replicate this transition is metaphysical in nature)

Two civilizations would be an extremely improbable number, but any other number you could name would be equally improbable.

yep, but there are lots more numbers that are much greater than 2 than there are exactly equal to 2.

caek otm on his thread in his corner

(And the Exo-Planettes sing)