Check these out:
I ran across something today that has direct bearing on the discussion between Mike and I about whether aliens 'should' look like us. Yeah, the article was written by Michael Shermer, ׃ ~( but he's not a complete moron when acting as science commentator instead of half-baked debunker. Anyway, here is the link: Michael Shermer: What Aliens Can Tell Us About Evolution
The second link is pertinent to my most recent post about Ghosts. It is also pertinent because it's a photograph taken by my brother Jason (an excellent photographer) in our mutual childhood home. I'm gonna go out on a (sturdy) limb and say that the photo is either a multiple exposure or a long exposure with some intentional movement - not a paranormal encounter. Either way, it's just cool: Ascension.
(So far as I know, nothing paranormal has ever been experienced in my childhood home, but I'd love to find out I'm wrong.)
Right you are: nothing funky in that image, just me climbing the stairs - albeit very slowly and a few seconds after the shutter was engaged (which is why you can see the wall through me).
ReplyDeleteNow, Ryno has inserted the idea into my noggin of doing a spoof shot of my own making, imitating any number of famous hoax paranormal images. Out of respect for the old school shysters, I wouldn't use Photoshop - as I didn't in the linked image.
I view Shermer's argument like so many others in science, which is to say, "What are the chances?!"
Intelligent Design... say it with me, members of The Skeptics Society.
I don't think humans would look like we do if left to the atheist God of Randomness. Shermer is so correct that his argument defeats his implied preclusion of a god or creator. We simply never would have existed at all.
Simon Conway Morris was the paleontologist whose name I couldn't think of in the first thread.
ReplyDeleteInteresting points. My brain, shriveled with age as it is, is probably failing to comprehend something obvious, but Shermer seems to undermine his own argument to an extent by claiming that "The chances of ET looking like a sea star, a millipede, or a spineless clam are far greater than ET looking like us" after quoting Prothero's contention that invertebrates are a fundamentally poor design for advanced intelligent life.
(A related point was made in the comments section that simply living under water may preclude the development of advanced civilization by virtue of not being able to use fire).
Gould and Prothero's contention that had Pikaia gone extinct there never would have been any vertebrates and therefore never any people does seem to assume that having evolved once and gone extinct it or something very similar would not have evolved again later (or would be exceedingly unlikely). I'm not completely sure what the rational for that assumption is, but they appear to be saying that evolution is like rolling a million-sided die; any particular result is extremely unlikely and so is extremely unlikely to be repeated. But I think the counter-argument to that put forth by Dawkins and others is that the dice are heavily loaded to favor certain results that are better suited to that particular physical environment. In fact I think the fact that Pikaia and other chordates (it actually wasn't the only one) survived subsequent extinction events is evidence they were one of the better designs.
One other thing that strikes me is how much conjecture goes on in these discussions. Our understanding of evolution is very rudimentary. But it's also extremely interesting, so thanks for taking about it!
Heh, "taking" about it...
ReplyDeleteOh, maybe I could get into the spirit of things and post a good link or two.
ReplyDeleteAspirin Protects Against Bowel Cancer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11597163
And maybe helps with with prostate cancer too!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39835786/ns/health-men%27s_health
Cool illusion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCKbHz3JuFQ
I can't get excited about arguments that can't be proven wrong - that isn't science.
ReplyDeleteThe water isn't safe: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html?_r=1&hp
I get geeked-up over arguments that can't be proven wrong, provided it's an argument I'm making.
ReplyDelete13 Way to prevent cancer: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38865802/ns/health-cancer/
#1: Filter your tap water.