Space Forum / Space Station / July 2008

Well, I think it should go on, but when you think about it in a rational
sense, what is the point of it? So we set up a colony on the moon and Mars.
OK, we have done it, what was the point exactly? The apparent eternal search
for another form of life is another thread underpinning our endeavours, and
yet when you think about it, what would be the point?

Assuming we find planets the size of Earth in the right place etc, its
likely to be a very long trip, generations in fact, unless some breakthrough
in the way the universe works manages to let us get to these places by some
other means.

If we are just looking for life with what we laughingly call intelligence,
then listening and sending radio is probably going to throw something up if
it exists.

I hope it does exist, but when you think of the good fortune of our solar
system, with a kindly well behaved star, no nearby  explosions to irradiate
the Earth, and the fact that it has a working dynamo inside to magnetically
deflect many particles, and an atmosphere to  just the right  blueprint to
help us, well how many others like this are there going to be?

OK, there are a lot of stars out there, and there may well be some that are
as fortunate, but as I say, we do seem to be a driven  life form, as if when
we finally find some other life, we have some great plan what to do about
it.

Now I'm of course aware there are those out there who believe aliens are
already here, and those who believe  our Gods were manifestations of the
visitations etc etc, but if in the cold light of a million suns we end up
just being the result of a cosmic accident, defined by particles akin to
data in a computer, what is the point?

Brian wondering about the point!