Re: seti@home IS WORKING

Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Mon, 12 Jul 1999 22:25:39 -0700 

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> > Primes are prime in any base.
> >
>   Rob Harris Cen-IT wrote:      Spike old boy,...

Thats *middle aged boy* please. {8^D 

> only in a mathematical context. What I am suggesting
> is that we cannot assume that Mathematics in the form that we know and use
> it is the ONLY paradigm that can be used by ANY "intelligent" species to
> describe conceptual relationships and natural laws etc...

Rob I followed your argument in this and later posts that perhaps things are waaaaay different in other parts of the universe, and we cant possibly know or assume annnnnything about other intelligences. OK I will entertain those notions for the sake of argument, however, when I really ponder the idea, I still reject it. What really seems the most likely to me is that if other planets ever give rise to life, it is most likely carbon based, and recognizable as a lifeform to humans. Granted it would look really strange, like the precambrian lifeforms perhaps. If any of these lifeforms inhabited an ecological niche that encourages intelligence as we know it, then that species would need to count, and would discover primes, as we know them on this particular rock.

That other intelligences could arise that are *not* based on anything we recognize as intelligence, I will grant. Certainly your point is well taken, that we haven't (what was the term you used?) "jack" to base our assumptions upon. We dont know! But at least *some* of the others *could* develop intelligence, the kind recognised by humans, and would perhaps wish to send signals out to enlighten emerging societies, such as ours. The unknowns here alone seem to justify the SETI experiment. spike 

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> Primes are prime in any base.
>
  Rob Harris Cen-IT wrote:      Spike old boy,...
Thats *middle aged boy* please.  {8^D
only in a mathematical context. What I am suggesting
is that we cannot assume that Mathematics in the form that we know and use
it is the ONLY paradigm that can be used by ANY "intelligent" species to
describe conceptual relationships and natural laws etc...
Rob I followed your argument in this and later posts that perhaps things
are waaaaay different in other parts of the universe, and we cant possibly
know or assume annnnnything about other intelligences.  OK I will entertain
those notions for the sake of argument, however, when I really ponder
the idea, I still reject it.  What really seems the most likely to me is
that if other planets ever give rise to life, it is most likely carbon based,
and recognizable as a lifeform to humans.  Granted it would look really
strange, like the precambrian lifeforms perhaps.  If any of these lifeforms
inhabited an ecological niche that encourages intelligence as we know it,
then that species would need to count, and would discover primes, as
we know them on this particular rock.

That other intelligences could arise that are *not* based on anything we
recognize as intelligence, I will grant.  Certainly your point is well taken,
that we haven't (what was the term you used?) "jack" to base our
assumptions upon.  We dont know!  But at least *some* of the others
*could* develop intelligence, the kind recognised by humans, and would
perhaps wish to send signals out to enlighten emerging societies, such as
ours.  The unknowns here alone seem to justify the SETI experiment.  spike --------------FCBFA59BC24476F09187AABE--