The narrative, the drama, of the heroic rich person with single-minded vision is getting old to me. There's even a TV show about a rich guy taking over a police district in a major city - those working-class people who've been working on these problems for their careers are all fools; they need a rich guy and his money (not taxpayer money from their community) to tell them what to do.[0] There are other stories.<p>Remember that for the Apollo missions, it was a drama of a brave nation working together against the odds, and humble engineers and astronauts.<p>I also think that this glorification of the wealthy, and the unspoken assumption that it's a sign of merit, is unhealthy for society. I think judging people by their bank book is inaccurate, and pigeon-holes people and ideas into an economic class.<p>Finally, the less that's paid for by taxes, the more power is shifted to the wealthy. Do we want important decisions made democratically, by taxpayers, or by a few with money. Who gets to say how that new park will look, what medical research we invest in, etc. - the citizens or one guy paying for it?<p>[0] Maybe an unfair characterization; I've only seen the ads.
Invisibility is a stage in life evolution. As predation dominates the universe, life evolves to become invisible from other predators. So we humans are in a stage of evolution that we can be seen, and I consider extremely stupid flashing our position to most advanced forms of life that will anihilate us in a heartbeat.<p>So our only hope is to find life that is barely advanced, just like algae in a watery planet, or find life that's more advanced than us and say goodbye to our existence. Just like aborigins from America flashing lights to european explorers. We would be extremely lucky to find life in the 100,000 year span that takes species to gain conciousness and develop invisibility. Not that we can't just that's extremely improbable, and dangeorous for there are also more advanced predators watching. That's why we can't find them, they're invisible.<p>That's my hypothesis.
Lately I've been thinking... however improbable this is, what if we are the first intelligent species in the Universe?<p>I mean, not saying that because I think we are special, but just wondering what would it mean if we were "the first" (for some relatively-local value of first)?<p>Are there any hard sci-fi stories about this? or has anyone given any thought about it? or would it be a very boring outcome?
Let's hope they find some trace of intelligent life somewhere out in space, 'cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!<p>(Mangled Monty Python)
> A MacBook Pro operating at full capacity, 24 hours a day, would consume about that much energy in a month.<p>What a bizarre restatement of its battery capacity -- I wouldn't think MacBook Pro power consumption is something people have an intuitive understanding of. Why not an iPhone? Or a light bulb? Or just compare it to the battery capacity of devices deployed on Mars in the past? Seems like the writer just looked around his desk for a good comparison and his eyes settled on the device that he happened to be typing on.
For those interested in this topic, I recommend "Astrobiology: A Very Short Introduction" by David Catling. Catling details nine celestial bodies in the solar system that could potentially harbor life.