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- cross-posted to:
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Urgh, imagine how the world would react if hard proof of life on another planet was found now. This second.
The internet would be filled with disinformation and clickbait on it in an instant. Your aunt/uncle and much of your social circle would totally misunderstand it and spread fud they think they know all about. There would be conspiracy theories broadcast by world leaders. Somehow, it would get politicized. Scientists who dedicated their life to this would be drowned out. And on the whole… After a few weeks, most people wouldn’t even care and scroll down to the next controversy.
Contrast this vs, like, 1970. Daily life would stop dead. People would huddle around TVs and radios, hanging on every last world of anchors and scientists… it would be a shared existential moment. It would start a new era.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t meant to romanticize the Apollo era with all its racism, sexism, poverty, rivalry, abuses and so on, but on aggregate its reaction would be so much less shit.
QED
So, just like everything else, ever. Idiots gonna idiot, my friend. But I do agree wholeheartedly.
I think you’re looking at this with too much nostalgia. Information travelled much slower back in the 70’s, so the topic would stay on longer, but it would start a new era the same way today. Some people would dedicate their lives to know more, some would get on with their lives and some would try to monetize anything out of it.
I dunno. It’s not like brillant work isn’t done now, but it really feels like the “average person’s” attention is totally consumed by the hype of social media and influencers, at least from my perspective in the United States. And now that includes high profile politicans and institutional leaders heavily influenced by their feeds.
This is a great microcosm: https://lemmy.world/post/28290391
Look at all that engagement, for what are basically instagram influencers taking a high altitude selfie ride! It utterly dwarfs any kind of “real” space missions now, much less women that have gone up before. That couldn’t have happened in the 70s; the information environment simply wasn’t condusive to it.
And that has very real ramifications for scientists that need public funding.
Your mother and I are “for the jobs” that the comet will create
While the Cambridge team favour an ocean scenario, others say the data is suggestive of a gas planet or one with oceans made of magma, not water.
That sounds not very habitable
Well not for us, but who are we to say that all life in the universe has to look like life here (although I do agree that it sounds unlikely)
That sounds beautifully primordial. I think it could have great potential to have formed life as our planet did.
not with that attitude
