Posted by Belphegorite at 1:50pm Sep 23 '09Another pet peeve of mine is the assumption that alien tech development would mirror our own. Now it is likely that they would develop simple hand tools before steam engines and electricity, but who's to say that they'd develop something like radio for communication before they developed orbital rocketry? Maybe they'd send a colony to a moon without any way (or with an alternate way) of communicating with the homeworld. Hell, we sent ships to search for the "New World" without any means of communicating other than to sail back home and report. Maybe our first contact won't be a data transmission, but a colony ship.
Also, on the subject of weird life (or near life) you should look into clay formations. I guess certain types of clay formations exhibit pretty much every benchmark we currently use to define life (organization, reaction to stimulus, reproduction, etc.) They're actually more "alive" than say proteins or viruses. Fucking creepy. I'll have to see if I still have my old notes, get some sources.
Also, on the subject of weird life (or near life) you should look into clay formations. I guess certain types of clay formations exhibit pretty much every benchmark we currently use to define life (organization, reaction to stimulus, reproduction, etc.) They're actually more "alive" than say proteins or viruses. Fucking creepy. I'll have to see if I still have my old notes, get some sources.
Couldn't agree with you more. - Belphegorite