Alien musings...

I came across an entertaining story where Aliens discover sentient meat and thought you would enjoy.

Which got me reminiscing...

A few years ago, Zabet and I took a course at our local university on Exterrestrial Life in the Universe. Most of us who took it signed up for the sheer novelty; several, I suspect, thought it would be some sort of X-Files-like class, especially since it had been put in a general Arts/Sciences category rather than an actual department, so it could have been anything.

They were wrong.

In actuality, it was a class that blended probability, biology, and astronomy together to get at the question: Is there intelligent life in the universe? The short answer? Yes. We are, right? But beyond that, the probability calculations run basically to the point that since we exist, and we are intelligent, then there is a 1:1 probability that other intelligent life exists in the universe. Now, as to the question of whether we'll ever encounter it...that one's harder.

It was one of the most enjoyable classes I had in the 15 years I was in college, made more so by the fact that I was just auditing and didn't actually have to do anything for a grade and the fact that the teacher, whom we called "Doctor Moshe", was wonderfully (and I suspect without any idea that he was) funny. One of my favourite discussions ran like this:

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Doctor Moshe: [Long explanation of how l-amino acids (with left-handed branches) are the basis of all life on Earth, meaning that this was a fundamental aspect in the evolution of terrestrial life. D-amino acids (right-handed, from dexter, although why left-handed ones aren't sinister was never discussed), which we can create in the lab, do actually occur in nature, but only as simple chemical strands;never in living organisms. In fact, if we were to eat a protein goop full of d-amino acids, they would pass through our bodies without us being able to break down the amino acids for sustenance.]

Student: So, if we were to go to a planet where life was based on d-amino acids, what would that mean?

Doctor Moshe: Well, then we could not eat them!

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Now, I've thought a lot about what makes us human, and how aliens would see us, and what I want to know is:

Do other species play with their precipitation?

I mean, think about snow. We build igloos out of it, melt it for sustenance, and devise means of transportation to deal with it. You would expect this out of sentient beings. But we play with it. We make snow angels, throw snowballs, create snowmen and snowforts. Adding sugar, milk, and flavouring, we make dessert out of it. (Okay, maybe it's just my family that makes snow cream, or, having grown up in the Southern United States, we just considered it such an unusual treat.) But we also invest it with emotion--we take comfort from it and curse it. Snow can make you a chid again, causing you to stick out your tongue to catch snowflakes. Ice, which often accompanies snow, can dazzle us, can injure us, but at the same time, we play on it by attaching blades to our shoes so that we (I say as a species, not personally, since I have no such coordination) can speed along it or dance upon it. Our Winter Olympics are largely built upon our experiences with precipitation. In some ways, our attitudes towards and uses of snow and ice define our very humanity, our ability to manipulate and adapt to our environment, and our emotional and intellectual depths. Hmmm?

Speaking of the Olympics, I wound up watching part of the opening ceremony last night on television and was quite moved by the part where the Ute, Paiute, Navajo, Shoshoni, and Goshute tribes welcomed the participants. Their languages, dress, and dances were all wonderful. It was good to see the children participating as well. I think, sometimes, that the rest of the world assumes the tribal peoples of America existed only in the past, especially since Hollywood portrays them so often as such; last night the world saw the vibrancy of these cultures. I also loved the ethereal white puppets that were used on the ice to portray moose, beaver, and bison. It was really quite magical--a wonderful piece of theatre.

On a sadder note, since I am commenting on some world events--I was sorry to hear of the death of Princess Margaret of Britain this morning. I am not a "royal watcher", so I had not realised how ill she had become recently. She had always seemed so vibrant, and of course, with the longevity the Queen Mother has enjoyed and with Queen Elizabeth having just celebrated 50 years on the throne, it shocked me when I heard of her death. Unfortunately, she will probably be remembered as a royal who was torn between duty and love, just as King Edward (the Duke of Windor), her uncle, and Charles, her nephew will be, more than for herself. My thoughts are with the royal family and the people of Great Britain for their loss.