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whats the possibllity of a single microorganism being accidently brought back that no earthly immune system can fight and it eventually killing us all?

anyone seen the movie the day the earth stood still?

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
whats the possibllity of a single microorganism being accidently brought back that no earthly immune system can fight and it eventually killing us all?

anyone seen the movie the day the earth stood still?
Any organism that could survive space and piggy back on a space ship could find its way to earth just by drifting in or hitching a ride on a meteor.

So that isn't an argument against space exploration any more than the existence of murderers is an argument against walking outside of your home.

no i mean they get in the spacecraft/or astronaut while there on a planet surface, and come to earth

We've not even discovered the existence of extra-terrestrial organisms, much less gone and picked them up. By the time we're in the technological condition to land on a planet with any life on it (and just happen to find it), I should think we'll be at the level where we can successfully counter and kill said organisms. If the threat of death is going to keep us from space then we're a pathetic, cowardly lot.

If shit really hits the fan, Commander Shepard will save us.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
whats the possibllity of a single microorganism being accidently brought back that no earthly immune system can fight and it eventually killing us all?

anyone seen the movie the day the earth stood still?

You have to work that both ways. What if a hyper-virus evolves on Earth, and we haven't spread throughout space to prevent total species extinction? What if any other number of catastrophes happen that could cause extinction...aren't we better off inhabiting multiple planets?

There's risk, of course, but also risk in inaction.

Also, I think you're referring to War of the Worlds. The Day the Earth Stood Still didn't really focus on disease.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
Any organism that could survive space and piggy back on a space ship could find its way to earth just by drifting in or hitching a ride on a meteor.

So that isn't an argument against space exploration any more than the existence of murderers is an argument against walking outside of your home.

Yours is an argument of extremely low probability, however. the likelihood that such an organism would "touch" earth is absurdly low UNLESS you believe such an entity developed in the "inner planet orbits" of the solar system.


Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
no i mean they get in the spacecraft/or astronaut while there on a planet surface, and come to earth

Ahhhh. Okay. Omega Vision and I kind of went a bit off topic, then. My apologies.



Originally posted by Lord Lucien
We've not even discovered the existence of extra-terrestrial organisms, much less gone and picked them up. By the time we're in the technological condition to land on a planet with any life on it (and just happen to find it), I should think we'll be at the level where we can successfully counter and kill said organisms. If the threat of death is going to keep us from space then we're a pathetic, cowardly lot.

This I agree with. We are supposed to realize mature nano-medical technology in the next 20-30 years with a "latest date" (pessimistic) being around 2050. Yes, this means controlling every last minute detail of our biology.

Yea that was a good movie. But I doubt it anything like that would happen. If we explored the space then we would find out some interesting stuff. One of them being that aliens does not exist for startes?

From what I understand, the threat of destroying extraterrestrial life via contamination with Earth micro-organisms is a more pressing concern to space exploration scientists than this hypothetical situation.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
whats the possibllity of a single microorganism being accidently brought back that no earthly immune system can fight and it eventually killing us all?

yes, but by not exploring space we risk missing any of the many possible things out there that might destroy us.

The odds of us finding an unkillable super organism should be exactly the same as the odds of us being an unkillable super organism.

Indeed.

But if think about the equilibrium condition here, then we can say that things that are very uncommon in one part of the universe will be very common in another.

ALIENS!!!!!!! Zombie Aliens! Unkillable Zombie Aliens!

Bringing back irradiated samples from another planet was how the original Romero zombie virus was unleashed onto the Earth.

They even received data on the samples that signified it could be harmful and blew the ship as it was entering orbit. Resulting in the entire planet becoming contaminated by the zombie virus.

Best version ever.

So we should mst definitely explore space. A zombie apocalypse will do us all some good.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
whats the possibllity of a single microorganism being accidently brought back that no earthly immune system can fight and it eventually killing us all?

anyone seen the movie the day the earth stood still?

There is always that chance, but in time our sun will change and grow hotter. If we stay on this planet, we will all die long before the sun engulfs the Earth. He must go into space or we will die out.

This is a good question.


No we should not explore space at the expense of feeding starving children as far as the government is concerned. If a private company however decides to make space exploration their main focus, then by all means go for it.


I don't know if I should believe in aliens, any more than I should believe in the Boogie Man.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
The odds of us finding an unkillable super organism should be exactly the same as the odds of us being an unkillable super organism. True but i was talking about micro-organisms alien like virus and bacteria killing us. And i suppose our earth virus and bacteria would kill them too

Double extinction because of space exploration.

I really think you're looking at it with only one outcome in mind. There are eventual extinction-level dangers that would be avoided by our expansion into space.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
whats the possibllity of a single microorganism being accidently brought back that no earthly immune system can fight and it eventually killing us all? Slim.

Originally posted by Lucius
If shit really hits the fan, Commander Shepard will save us.

Who the hell is sheppard? Batman has all kind of contingency plans I aint worried about some goddamn alien organism taking over. I'm more worried about the Asteroid That has our number, That and them Koreans and the indians. Damn do we really need more shit to worry about? Space is a dream man. We should be funding the space program the same way we fund our military. NAsa is shut down now. Thanks bama, thanks for killin the dream. Science is the final frontier and we are certainly not investing in it enough. We invest in control, hate, fear and greed. That's why there is no hope for us.

should we...should we.... "we should"...

Originally posted by jinXed by JaNx
Who the hell is sheppard? Batman has all kind of contingency plans I aint worried about some goddamn alien organism taking over. I'm more worried about the Asteroid That has our number, That and them Koreans and the indians. Damn do we really need more shit to worry about? Space is a dream man. We should be funding the space program the same way we fund our military. NAsa is shut down now. Thanks bama, thanks for killin the dream. Science is the final frontier and we are certainly not investing in it enough. We invest in control, hate, fear and greed. That's why there is no hope for us. This sounds like the diatribe from a college pothead. "I understand the world, man. It's totally real shit, maaaan."

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
whats the possibllity of a single microorganism being accidently brought back that no earthly immune system can fight and it eventually killing us all?

anyone seen the movie the day the earth stood still? eventually our sun will die and if we're still confined to just this planet then our species disappears along with it

i.e. dont be a pussy

edit:
Originally posted by Shakyamunison
There is always that chance, but in time our sun will change and grow hotter. If we stay on this planet, we will all die long before the sun engulfs the Earth. He must go into space or we will die out. ^what he said