Churchill's Views on Alien Life

[Argent]

I found this item on the BBC website very interesting.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38985425

 

It is an unpublished essay by Winston Churchill on the possibilities of alien life. In it, apparently, he even speculates on what has come to be known as the Goldilock's zone.

[DrP]

I was listening to a piece on the radio about this this this morning. He made friends with several famous physicists from that time for his own learning and interests as well as seeing the worth of their work for the long term benefits of mankind/his country. It said that he was a big supporter of using atomic energy to make power instead of bombs.

[MigL]

Always liked Churchill...

except for the annoying cigar habit.

[Argent]

Always liked Churchill...

except for the annoying cigar habit.

And Gallipoli.

[MigL]

At least he learned from his mistakes and didn't repeat them in WW2.

And his mistake in the Dardanelles led directly to Ataturk and the birth of the Turkish nation.

[Argent]

At least he learned from his mistakes and didn't repeat them in WW2.

And his mistake in the Dardanelles led directly to Ataturk and the birth of the Turkish nation.

I am in danger of moving my own thread off topic!

 

In WW2 Churchill was the main motive force behind the abortive Norwegian invasion attempt. Subsequently he argued for a second attempt to halt the iron ore shipments to Germany out of Narvik. Only the objections of the military chiefs prevented this. The desire for both interventions is similar to the Gallipoli campaign.

 

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot to like, but he certainly wasn't flawless.

[mistermack]

Serious people WERE open to the notion of extra-terrestrial life in those days.

 

Wasn't there serious discussion given to the existence of canals on the surface of Mars, well before Churchill was writing this stuff?

[Argent]

The identification of canali, or channels, by the Italian astronomer Schiaparelli and their mistranslation as canals, led to an imaginative and self -deceiving set of observations by several astronomers led by the wealthy American Percival Lowell. The canals were never there, but were "seen" through a combination of the brains tendency to see patterns and wishful thinking. This was over one hundred years ago.

 

Even when the first Mariner probes were flying past Mars in the early 1960s there was a strong suspicion that the seasonal colour changes were caused by vegetation.

[mistermack]

Yeh. I think Churchill was really just reflecting the general speculation that was common at the time.

If anything, people were MORE open to the existence of alien life back then. As the Orson Wells broadcast illustrates.

 

Which is ironic, because now we know far more about the existence of exo-planets, and yet fewer of the public would accept the likelihood of alien life.

 

Personally, I'm convince that the galaxy is teeming with life, but i'm not so sure about intelligent forms, capable of much more than what Chimpanzees can do.

My suspicion is that we humans really are a freak occurrence, and intelligence will generally hit a brick wall, wherever it arises.

[Velocity_Boy]

I found this item on the BBC website very interesting.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38985425

 

It is an unpublished essay by Winston Churchill on the possibilities of alien life. In it, apparently, he even speculates on what has come to be known as the Goldilock's zone.

I'm not surprised. In my opinion, any Intelligent person who is aware of the probable number of galaxies, so?Are systems, stars and their attendant planets in the known Universe should believe that we are not alone. Not by a long shot. And that in all likelihood there are many many millions of more intelligent civilizations out there. Thus, we are in no way shape or form special. We're lucky if we are in the top 50th percentile of smarts! LOL.