Moontanman

Well if it was native to the Earth it wouldn't be alien... but still an exciting discovery. Very little effort has been put into checking for a deep super hot biosphere of silicon or carbon. Closer to the surface the idea of checking the Earth for shadow biospheres is a possibility that should be addressed as well.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_biosphere

Isaac Asimov wrote about the possibility of Silicone chains with Carbon linked to the Silicon and the Silicon attached to each other via Oxygen atoms. The chains would be very stable at our temps, too stable, but at high temps they might just be the ticket. Sulfuric acid would be stable at some of those temps and pressures but Azimov seemed to think that liquid silicones might be a better solvent for silicone life... Thomas Gold proposed silicon life on earth deep underground at the very high temps and pressures that exist there. In fact he proposed that Gold deposits connected to carbon deposits (called carbon leaders by prospectors) might be left by life that uses gold as chemical energy source. Deposits of Quartz and Gold, according to Gold, could be the result of silicone life that used gold as a source of energy as well...

H2SO4 at high temps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry Lot of possibilities but I take them all with a grain of salt. Water is superior in nearly every way at temps we are familiar but chemistry would seem to allow other possibilities at other temps but the question is do these other temps have chemistry to support them... The best replacement for carbon might be boron or boron nitrogen pairs but boron suffers from a lack of abundance in the universe...

How about sulfuric acid as a solvent?

Original song by Motion device... A piece of rock and roll!

Crank it up to 11! Turn on your subwoofers, wake the neighbors! Awesome song and video!

This something we are born with to some extent, and it's quite easy to see why fear of this would be a positive survival trait. In some people it's a problem beyond any advantage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia Yes boogie boy, now the truth can be revealed... we're all Devo!

Citation please...

Prepare for the end of the world as you know it... reminds me of a movie and a song!!! Sit down and raise your trays to an upright position and buckle up buttercup... Jupiter's Galilean moons cause... wait for it...total solar eclipses on Jupiter! Come on endy... wait another movie! Please stop with all the silly nonsensical crap and give us your best shot. I for one am tired of asking...

Is this what you meant when you said you have evidence of god? A higher power is a possibility so is a brobdingnagian creature that excretes universes and doesn't know it's own shit. We have no need of a higher power to explain the universe, no one is saying that random chance is responsible for anything and all science says about a cause is that we don't know. We don't know is honest, saying you know when you don't is not honest...

I live within 60 miles of myrtle beach, I live near carolina beach...

All airplanes can at least fly to the crash site with one engine, probably beat the para medics there by 30 minutes or so...

I agree, we are very lucky to know you Daedelus!

Hey I live in NC! Beautiful music!

I'm too old, mean, and ugly to die..

I await your thread with baited breath..

Do it, stop threatening to do it...

No, what you are asserting is woo until you provide evidence to the contrary it will remain supernatural woo... Give us an example, an example would be much better than the baseless assertions you have so far used. I look forward to this thread. That is why it's called woo... please do so, so far you appear to be pulling woo out of your anus.. You keep saying this, time to show it... I for one look forward to your threads about the reality of a god.

If this idea that you won't bake a cake due to religious belief then any business that does this should be required to list the parts of society they will not serve plainly some place like the front door so the rest of us can know who these bigots are and not patronise them if you disagree with them... Personally I think this is just a way to bring back the ideas prevalent in some areas where they used to post signs proclaiming no negroes or asians. You can use this religious excuse to bar almost anyone from your business. Everyone should have the right to know who your bigotry encompasses..

Guys, let's drop this train of thought, it's off topic and unnecessarily diverts away from the topic at hand.

This is a science forum, there is a specific definition of evidence in science. I'm not sure what other definitions of evidence you are using but unless they agree with scientific evidence they do not apply to science or reality for that matter... Small probabilities happen all the time, no hight power is necessary. Yes the idea of a higher power is woo unless you define it and provide evidence...

As far as I can tell this says nothing about their intelligence or brain size... mistermack, you made an assertion, the rules say you have to provide the source of that assertion, telling someone to read up on the subject is not how that works.

Arguably bacteria are the most successful life forms on the planet and everything else is just playing catch up... Intelligence, our particular type of intelligence, could actually be a dead end. There are some indications that we are responsible for a mass extinction that is going on all around us and if it continues looks to take us out as well. Intelligence might be an evolutionary dead end... One in a billion you say? that would indicate at least 300 technologically advanced civilizations just in our galaxy... I am really not sure what you are saying here, complete mystery seems like something you should be able to give a citation for. Mechanisms is also a bit less than helpful in this context, it seems clear that our complex behaviors and tool making and using ability either drives our brains size and complexity or the brains size and complexity drives those behaviors. Both of these would be called mechanisms. I think we need a definition of higher intelligence before we can constructively discuss this. Other species already use technology, I'm not sure what you are saying here. Yes we take technology to an extreme no other animal does but even molluscs use technology. Citation please, I can't see how we can say how intelligent an extinct animal was. All very good points, evolution can be likened to an arms race, each side ratchets up to counter the other. Just enough, the goal, if it can be said to exist at all, to allow reproduction of the species. The difference is also driven by body plans, a bison with 10 times the intelligence of a human could still not use a spear much make a spear to ward off a lizard much less a wolf. What would be an obvious sign of intelligence increase? Brain size is not the only indicator of intelligence, the Flores Island "hobbits" had small brains yet they made and used tools. While brain size is no doubt important brain complexity is important as well and a genius brain is not very useful unless the body plan allows intelligence to be used. I'd like to see that as well...

If a planet has life this becomes even more important, in fact it is at the heart of why I don't think colonising planets is an option that would be used. Life is not necessarily the same thing every place. In fact there is no reason to think that life on another planet would be compatible with Earth life. Various chemicals we use have possible replacements and could very well have just been what we started with. other planets could start with similar but different chemicals. On the other hand life on another planet that is identical to our could be the most dangerous to expose yourself to. If I say something is the result of something else we don't have an explanation for the comparison becomes meaningless in explanatory power. Sadly this is the rule rather than the exception... Trying to judge the motivations of aliens is not constructive. You are correct, it is not extraordinary but I think it is enough to justify real scientific interest. I doubt we can get that level of evidence without them actually landing on the white house lawn. Can you suggest how such evidence could be found? Again, aliens are under no compulsion to make sense to us... Another really odd thing about the early debunkers of UFOs was their propensity for using excuses that really made no sense. a couple i really liked were "slow moving comets" or "slow moving meteors" Philip Klaus who was one of the more famous debunkers used these as explanations for UFO sightings, neither make any sense yet they were touted as valid by Project Blue Book...