Answers for Aliens
By Jon Ripley (member D5B)
Here are some of my answers to John
Robson's questions from issue 53.
I have not approached any of the
points he raised in his article before
asking these questions as I would end
up writing a few thousand too many
words for Chris's magazine to deal
with! I have already used almost one
and a half thousand in this brief
response.
1. Energy based life forms?
In a sense we are all energy based
life forms because matter itself could
be described as being made of frozen
energy, or energy in it's solid state.
It seems to many people that all life
forms whether organic or non-organic
(which are bound to exist somewhere)
should eventualy evolve to the level
where a physical body is no longer
necessary and either pure energy or
plasma could be the replacement.
An energy based life form would be
free from all constraints aside from
the laws of physics - our knowledge of
the laws of the physical usiverse is
still very basic - the constraints of
space-time which hold us prisoner at
the moment may no longer present a
barrier.Theorists are now beginning to
postulate what the next step up from
pure energy life forms may be. If
anything, it is still far in our
future's future.
2. Life in binary and multiple star
systems, does it exist?
Perhaps there are beings in multiple
star systems who are wondering the
same thing about single star systems!
In reality, there is no real reason
why the presence of more than one
local star should prevent life from
developing.
Certainly the planet (or similar
object) should not be highly affected
by the orbit of the planet around the
suns.
There would probably be no concept of
day/night unless one sun dominated the
others in it's brightness creating a
period of semi-darkness when the part
of the planet not facing the star
would only receive light from the
others, it would probably still be
very bright.
Either way the populace might probably
have no concept of the number of stars
beyond their own planetary system and
pinpricks of light they would see;
such distant but very bright stars and
planets in their own system that were
visible would be few and far between.
Indeed if a total solar eclipse ever
happened it might be very scary for a
race that had never experienced a sky
not lit by one or more suns and the
spectacle of the countless stars in
the sky may well overwhelm them.
If there had been a lot more stellar
dust in our own solar system when the
planets were still forming it is
almost certain that Jupiter would have
been a second, smaller sun and not the
gas giant it is.
3. Ideas on how complex life became on
Mars before extinction or possibly
still existing?
The thin carbon-dioxide atmosphere and
almost complete lack of an ozone layer
indicate that Mars may have reached a
similar level to our 20th century.
Mars may then have been very similar
to Earth, certainly it is close enough
to the sun to sustain life similar to
that on Earth.
Mars may have had a problem with a
thinning ozone layer far worse than
the one we are suffering from now.
If they had reached our level of
technology then ozone-destroying
chemicals would most certainly have
been developed.
With a thinning and patchy ozone layer
the UV rays from the sun would have
bleached the soil and slowly killed
off all or most life on the planet;
without any protective layer around
the atmosphere it may have bled into
space causing the planet to cool,
freezing the water, and making it the
inhospitable place it is today.
A face, very similar to a human face,
has been seen carved into rock on the
surface of Mars. Perhaps it is just
coincidence as many suggest, that the
face was eroded out of the rock by the
turbulent winds on Mars.
Or it could be a message, certainly it
seems unlikely that the primitive
Neanderthals could have evolved side
by side homo sapiens who at that time
in history would have been almost
identical physically to us now.
Perhaps all humans as we now know
ourselves are descendants from a mass
exodus from Mars before it became
impossible for life to exist there.
4. Views on Earth society 200 years
from now?
Perhaps it might be very similar to
life today. There is a lot of evidence
that civilisations more advanced than
ourselves once lived on this planet.
It is certainly true that the Greeks
were very advanced, more advanced than
us in some ways and less advanced in
others. They certainly didn't have
cars!
What followed were the dark ages where
almost ALL knowledge was forgotten,
many of the scientific facts that we
had thought we had discovered in the
last 100 years have been proved to
have been known by ancient scholars.
Perhaps another dark ages will follow
or we may destroy ourselves and only a
remnant of how we are today will
exist.
There are a lot of problems with
environmental pollution that are
slowly killing us. One true but
terrifying example is that chemicals
that mimic oestrogen ( the female sex
hormone ) are causing each generation
of men to have just half the sperm
count of their father's, also the
large number of babies born with
gender disfunction is rising.
It is almost certain that if we
continue to develop at our present
rate, or even at a higher rate as is
indicated by recent trends in science,
society may itself be radically
different.
In short, anything is possible!
5. Alternate realities?
A rising number of people believe that
there are an infinite number of
universes, some would be different
only by the position of a photon and
others may be completely different. A
recent television series 'Sliders'
shows this.
It also follows that every possible
outcome happens with new universes
splitting from others to accommodate
all possibilities. Perhaps in this
universe you decide to go and watch
Star Trek:First Contact, in another
universe you would go and see the
First Wives Club, other than that the
two universes would be exact in every
other detail.
6. Grey race, origin and purpose?
Well, first the crystal people may
exist, probably at a different address
though! Life on Earth is based mainly
on Carbon, over 99% of our bodies is
made up of just 5 elements, Carbon,
Hydrogen, Oxygen, Calcium and one
other I can't remember at the moment.
The rest, less than 1% is made up of
other elements.
Silicon-based life has been suggested,
no, not computers (although it is a
possibility), silicon is atomically
very similar to carbon.
By 'greys' I assume you mean the
aliens that almost all abductees
describe. It is certainly not
impossible and it is really only a
lack of publicly available proveable
evidence and our own short-sightedness
that prevents us from accepting their
existence. Perhaps they are just
waiting for a time when we will be
able to accept them.
7. The afterlife, the big question?
There is almost concrete proof out
there, readily available and often
seen in the media or just down the
local pub (or graveyard!). The
afterlife must exist, even many
atheists admit that the thought of
completely ceasing to exist is too
terrifying to contemplate.
All the major (and minor) religions
believe in some form of life after
death, perhaps it is reincarnation, as
has been widely proved to exist as
with other post-death happenings.
In short, if there is an afterlife,
everyone will find out eventually, one
way or the other and if there isn't,
well you'll never know about it
because you'll not exist to find out.S