Former MOD warns of intergalactic war

[winchable]

Care to expand?
Useless like tits on a nun? Or more of useless like posting a one-liner/driveby with no additional information kind of useless?

 

[TCBF]

Hey, Meg, welcome aboard.  Hope you are enjoying another mild Edmonton evening as my family and I are.

I don't myself believe in UFOs. I don't believe in technical things that haven't been shot down yet.  Had I been the Air Policeman, I would have emptied my basic load at it.

I guess he wasn't from Alberta.

I DO like to provoke a bit on line, however.

;D

Tom

 

[NavalGent]

Finally...

What I have been seeking for years....


Proof Positive that Hellyer was and IS a Nut Job.......


SB

I guess Hellyer's a man who loves his job more than he loves taffy ... and he's a man who enjoys his taffy

oh...and they're stealing our water too ;D





(Family Guy allusion for those wondering)

 

[TCBF]

"I've taken the liberty of drawing a circle around our cluster of galaxies.  These
galaxies are ours. The galaxies beyond this galactic border are "to be conquered"
or "enslaved" or "food".  So therefore, we are now at war and its prudent for Mr.
Hellyer to proceed on his course of action.  He has my support." - Bert

- Bert, you have to send a copy of your "Galaxy trace" to me down at CMTC so we can prepare the necessary scenarios.  By the look of it, we may need an even bigger budget. 

Tom

 

[Steel Badger]

Perhaps if Hellyer had continued his "Integration" of the forces to (his logical) conclusion he would have formed Star Fleet Command...

After all,  he thought that Gene Rodenberry guy was damned clever and had a good eye for uniforms.....



SB

 

[Slim]

There is no evidence at this point of civilizations beyond earth. I would have to sum his comments up as barking mad. :

Please define 'Barking'

 

[meg]

Hey TCFB.  Thanks

I guess I kind of believe that somewhere out there aliens are flying around.  It would be a little egotistical as a race to think that Earth is the only planet anywhere that has life.  Of course, I think there's also a lot that can be explained by non-extraterestial answers, too.

As for shooting them down...I won't comment on what Albertans would do.  I'm from the Maritimes, so my first reaction would probably be to invite them in and give them a cup of tea.  Then scare them away by playing Ashley MacIsaac.  >   Or making them kiss a cod.

 

[Forgotten_Hero]

Care to expand?
Useless like tits on a nun?

I dont know how else to put it. Its useless. It can not be used for anything atm. The drake equation uses a series of unknown variables. Since their unknown, the answer is also unknown.

 

[Bert]

Sorta like the answer is 42 however we don't know what the question is.  Consider the
building blocks of matter; the electron, the proton, and the neutron.  The distances
between the electron and the atomic nucleus is devastatingly vast.  One could
speculate that stuff, like my bank account, my wife, my car, my galactic
empire drawn around our cluster of galaxies, is made up of alot of NOTHING.  The
answer then must contain a substancial amount of nothing.

 

[enfield]

Here's an equation: Hellyer is either right, or wrong.
If right, then we can keep the unified CF, and we need space shuttles that can move LAVs asap - call Bombardier immediatley, and tell the Parachute Coys to redefine "jump". Starship Troopers is now the syllabus for Staff College as well.
If wrong, then we can forget about the Space Marines and Star Destroyers (for now), dis-assemble the CF, and get rid of polyester forever.

We can't have it both ways. We follow Hellyer all the way, or nowhere.

I do hope the CDS is looking at this.

 

[TCBF]

".... electron and the atomic nucleus is devastatingly vast.  One could
speculate that stuff, like my bank account, my wife, my car, my galactic
empire drawn around our cluster of galaxies, is made up of alot of NOTHING.  The
answer then must contain a substancial amount of nothing"

- Well, no question about MY bank account.  Whole lot of nothing describes it toi a T.

Tom

 

[Bert]

Che states that if there were ETs, then they are so far away that they never could find/reach us anyway.
In another dismal posibility, there is no time travel either.   If the human or ET civilization were to expand and
flourish in the future, the fact they have not contacted us or shown evidence may mean time travel is not
possible or they never discovered it in the tens of billion of years this universe survives.   Taking in the
quantum idea of a past, present, and future particles, changes in space-time and energy fields between
the particles are theoretically malleuable.   Should Hellyer be so concerned about the present?   Or should
he devote resources to find out who is peeking at us from the far future and assertain the context of
near future ET encounters?   If the far future is unobtainable and past is closed, then the vast distances
between the particles combobulates Hellyer's assertion of ET civilizations because theres nothing in the
future looking back at us.   This would also suggest there are no green orion women and this is completely
unacceptable.   Thus Hellyers plan must go on.

 

[S McKee]

Perhaps if Hellyer had continued his "Integration" of the forces to (his logical) conclusion he would have formed Star Fleet Command...

After all,   he thought that Gene Rodenberry guy was damned clever and had a good eye for uniforms.....



SB

Now that's funny! TOS uniforms or NextGen? I like TOS myself...Kirk out

 

[winchable]

I dont know how else to put it. Its useless. It can not be used for anything atm. The drake equation uses a series of unknown variables. Since their unknown, the answer is also unknown.[/quote]

So you do know how else to put it then.

It uses speculative variables plugged into the equation, the speculative variables are based on what we know about the universe and our own galaxy.
I never said it was the be all end all, and it does probably (as Bert well put it) contain a lot of nothing, but it's a start and I don't see how it's intellectually honest to call it useless.

 

[48Highlander]

    The Drake Equation was developed by Frank Drake in 1961 as a way to focus on the factors which determine how many intelligent, communicating civilizations there are in our galaxy. The Drake Equation is:
    N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL

    The equation can really be looked at as a number of questions:

        N* represents the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy

            Question: How many stars are in the Milky Way Galaxy?
            Answer: Current estimates are 100 billion.

        fp is the fraction of stars that have planets around them

            Question: What percentage of stars have planetary systems?
            Answer: Current estimates range from 20% to 50%.

        ne is the number of planets per star that are capable of sustaining life

            Question: For each star that does have a planetary system, how many planets are capable of sustaining life?
            Answer: Current estimates range from 1 to 5.

        fl is the fraction of planets in ne where life evolves

            Question: On what percentage of the planets that are capable of sustaining life does life actually evolve?
            Answer: Current estimates range from 100% (where life can evolve it will) down to close to 0%.

        fi is the fraction of fl where intelligent life evolves

            Question: On the planets where life does evolve, what percentage evolves intelligent life?
            Answer: Estimates range from 100% (intelligence is such a survival advantage that it will certainly evolve) down to near 0%.

        fc is the fraction of fi that communicate

            Question: What percentage of intelligent races have the means and the desire to communicate?
            Answer: 10% to 20%

        fL is fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations live

            Question: For each civilization that does communicate, for what fraction of the planet's life does the civilization survive?
            Answer: This is the toughest of the questions. If we take Earth as an example, the expected lifetime of our Sun and the Earth is roughly 10 billion years. So far we've been communicating with radio waves for less than 100 years. How long will our civilization survive? Will we destroy ourselves in a few years like some predict or will we overcome our problems and survive for millennia? If we were destroyed tomorrow the answer to this question would be 1/100,000,000th. If we survive for 10,000 years the answer will be 1/1,000,000th.

    When all of these variables are multiplied together when come up with:

        N, the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy.

Seems pretty useless to me.  Depending on what numbers you decide to invent, it'll give you pretty much any result you want.

 

[winchable]

Show me a better method and I'll use that,
As I've repeatedly said, it's a start nothign more, and it's better then guessing using nothing...

 

[48Highlander]

Well, yeah, ok, technically you're right.  And $0.000000000000000000000001 is technically more than $0, but I wouldn't be happy if either one of those represented my bank account balance.

Here's a better method:  just pick a number you think seems realistic.

What?  It's just as accurate, and it's easier to compute!

 

[winchable]

Well,
There's the ferengis, klingons, humans, the borg (though can one really classify them as a species?) betazoids, androids, vogons, wookies, ewoks,

So thaat's 9 thusfar, 8 if we don't include the borg.

 

[George Wallace]

What?

No Cylons or PeaceKeepers?

 

[winchable]

11 it is!