TED Community » Max Vasher

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• A reply on Conversation: Space 2050: Are we prepared for meeting 'Alien' life?

  Sep 10 2011: For most of my life I have also felt that reported descriptions of alien visitors were extremely anthro-centric. I have always considered it more likely that the diversity of possible life out there would be such that beings with torsos, four limbs and a head were probably quite unique to earth. However, recently I have come to think that that line of thinking may be akin to assuming that the earth is the center of the universe. Indeed, why would animals with torsos, heads, and limbs with digits be unique to earth. Consider this, The Kepler telescope and many others are looking for rocky worlds in their respective goldilocks zones. Planets that may have liquid water and breathable atmospheres. This is not to deny that each respective atmosphere may have it's own unique qualities that might render it unbreathable to us, and that those unique qualities will call for unique variations within its inhabitants, but why wouldn't those inhabitants still have heads, torsos, and limbs like most complex life forms on this planet. Our planet was seeded with the same stuff as all the rest of the planets and there is no reason to assume we were seeded with anything more special than them. Now, I'm not saying that all the planets with the possibility of life are all producing giraffes and horses and humans. Again, I wish to stress that the diversity is probably vast and unique to specific variations. But nonetheless, we are looking for earth-like planets (and evidence is starting to point towards there being many more than we anticipated). These earth-like planets are sure to contain earth-like creatures. Our bigger more intelligent brains have been attributed to the fact that we stand upright and have erect spines. Why wouldn't we assume that to be the case with intelligent alien animals be they reptilian, amphibian, mammalian, or some other genus, species or order.

• A comment on Conversation: Architecture cycle between developing and developed nations.

  Sep 9 2011: There are some smart ideas and eloquent solutions contained within this conversation on how not to 'follow in the footsteps' of precedents already set in the world, but to stick to your original question of Why do emergent nations not operate from a new model, I offer these thoughts. The concerns we have and the things we know now about the failings and successes of how the developed world developed and what it would develop into were unknown when it was developing. So, with the benefit of hindsight, your question of why do we not learn from our past becomes quite valid. Granted, there are examples in both the developed and developing world to create smarter living environments, but largely we see the same mistakes made over and over especially on the large scale. Unfortunately, those that fund development are operating from an extremely limited and shortsighted view of what is economical. Some would call this corrupt, but I'm sure that those in charge of funding would point out that they are operating within the guidelines of their respective systems and they probably are. No amount of education or socially aware information otherwise is ever going to affect decisions on 'the bottom line'. To me, this is where governments have to step in. I do not believe that government should step in and start dictating how business should be run though. Rather, it is my belief that government's role should be one that provides an opportunity for people and their businesses to thrive. What I mean is, that government should not start making poor building design illegal or overly taxable but instead provide incentives and profit opportunities to more socially conscious building practices through tax breaks or some other way. Guide people and make the good ideas the more profitable choice. For instance, in the US, our government is giving tax breaks to oil companies instead of investing in real alternative energy development. Incentives will work, carbon taxes will not.

• A comment on Conversation: Space 2050: Are we prepared for meeting 'Alien' life?

  Sep 7 2011: In asking 'Are we prepared for meeting alien life?' my immediate reaction is that we have been a lot less "prepared" in our history and have had to deal with just such a situation regardless. Whether inspired by actual events or imaginative storytelling, beings with apparent supernatural abilities that come down from the heavens exist as characters in almost every religion's history. We could not imagine humans having the abilities of these beings and our response was religion. Whether that response exhibits preparedness or not is debatable but either way we have been dealing with 'alien' life and stories of 'otherworldly beings' as a theme in our oldest books, stories, and religions all along. Prepared or not our "heads" did not "explode", societal structures did not break down and, in fact, quite the contrary. It would seem that knowledge of 'aliens', whether from myth or actual events, has inspired us to build, ask questions and develop science and reasoning. Reasoning continues to demystify abilities that would have seemed supernatural to our ancestors. Now the shoe is on the other foot and we can imagine the possibility that by 2050 we could be going to the stars and meeting alien life. The Kepler mission is showing promising signs that rocky planets in habitable zones around their stars may be abundant in the galaxy. Are there intelligent being out there to interact with? If life-bearing planets are abundant than so might be intelligent beings and civilizations. So where are they now? Most likely they are either unable or unwilling to come here. Our star is in a bit of a back-water compared to other denser areas of the galaxy. Perhaps any sort of galactic civilization is in a bit of a dark ages and no-one's traveling around out there right now. Perhaps ruins are all we will find out there. Do we need a 'Prime Directive' of the Star Trek sort if we do meet anyone. Asking these types of questions proves we are indeed prepared to meet alien life.