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Seth Shostak Quotes
Seth Shostak Quotes
Seth Shostak
American
Scientist
Alien
Science
Space
Time
Will
You
Related authors:
Ben Carson
Carl Sagan
E. O. Wilson
George Washington Carver
Isaac Asimov
Margaret Mead
Neil deGrasse Tyson
W. Edwards Deming
While it may be disappointing, I have to confess to people who ask for my insights on the meaning of it all that astronomy doesn't provide any clearly useful data on matters of sin and souls.
Seth Shostak
People
Matters
Astronomy
Insights
Data
Disappointing
Sin
Clearly
Souls
Provide
Confess
Any
May
While
Meaning
Meaning Of
Ask
Useful
Who
In the four years since its launch, Kepler has chalked up 122 new and confirmed planets. It's also caught the scent of nearly three thousand additional objects, of which probably 80 percent or more will turn out to be other-worldly orbs.
Seth Shostak
Space
Will
Three
Scent
Additional
Out
Launch
Thousand
Percent
Objects
More
Since
New
Also
Caught
Years
Up
Confirmed
Which
Turn
Planets
Nearly
Four
The total funding of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) in the U.S. is 0.0003 percent of the tax monies spent on health and human services. And it's not even tax money. The SETI Institute's hunt for signals is funded by donations.
Seth Shostak
Health
Intelligence
Money
Extraterrestrial
Spent
Signals
Hunt
Total
Percent
Institute
Donations
Human
Tax
Tax Money
Search
Even
Services
Funding
Are we the only members of the Galaxy that can actually understand what a galaxy is? Could Homo sapiens really be the pinnacle of Creation - the cleverest critters in the cosmos? If we learn the answer is 'no,' that would affect our philosophies forever.
Seth Shostak
Creation
Our
Philosophies
Members
Would
Cosmos
Only
Could
Cleverest
Learn
Understand
Answer
Affect
Pinnacle
Forever
Galaxy
Really
Sapiens
Actually
Homo
Homo Sapiens
On Mars, where the air is spare - a hundred times less dense than on Earth - someone could hear you scream. But you'd have to really strain to get anyone's attention. On the Red Planet, where the wind is high-pitched and faint, even a symphony orchestra will sound as thin as cheap gruel.
Seth Shostak
You
Will
Wind
Symphony
Symphony Orchestra
Air
Hundred
Hundred Times
Earth
Mars
Someone
Could
Cheap
Attention
Red
Faint
Sound
Hear
Dense
Times
Than
Get
Orchestra
Scream
Where
Anyone
Spare
Strain
Planet
Really
Less
Even
Thin
The overwhelming bulk of the cosmos is deathly quiet. But here and there - on worlds where matter is thick and conditions are right - noises are commonplace. And in some cases, these noisy worlds may ring with the sounds of life - the bleats and bellows of creatures we have never seen, but may someday discover.
Seth Shostak
Life
Matter
Seen
Overwhelming
Worlds
Ring
Some
Cosmos
Someday
Cases
Never
Noises
Noisy
Bulk
Sounds
Discover
Deathly
Conditions
Quiet
May
Where
Commonplace
Thick
Creatures
Right
Here
The longtime standard for American TV was 525 lines from top to bottom of the image. As a practical matter, that was roughly equivalent to 350 thousand pixels - pretty crude, given that photos made with your iPhone boast five million pixels.
Seth Shostak
Matter
Made
Top
TV
Thousand
Photos
Pretty
Given
Crude
Bottom
Longtime
Practical
Equivalent
iPhone
Lines
Five
American
Boast
Your
Standard
Roughly
Million
Image
Most of the things at the zoo don't look like us. We're one design that works. Our chimp pals sort of look like us, so that's a different take on the same basic design. But fish don't look like us, and giraffes don't. They look a little like us, but not too much. And insects certainly don't look like us, and they work just fine.
Seth Shostak
Work
Too Much
Insects
Design
Too
Our
Fine
Giraffes
Take
Like
Look
Most
Sort
Fish
Same
Just
Different
Little
Us
Much
Certainly
Works
Basic
Things
Pals
Zoo
Most of the intelligence out there must be artificial intelligence. We keep looking for critters like us living on a planet like ours, where in fact the majority of the intelligence out there is not biological. That would be my argument.
Seth Shostak
Artificial Intelligence
Intelligence
Argument
Looking
Living
Ours
Out
Must
Would
Would-Be
Fact
Like
Most
Majority
Artificial
Where
In Fact
Us
Planet
Keep
Biological
The thing to keep in mind is that we're still in the very early days when it comes to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Saying there's a silence is a bit like if Columbus, looking to discover a new continent, only sailed 10 miles off the coast of Spain before turning back to say, 'Nothing out there!'
Seth Shostak
Saying
Silence
Intelligence
Mind
Looking
Before
Nothing
Back
Extraterrestrial
Say
Bit
Out
Only
Columbus
New
Days
Like
Sailed
Continent
Still
Discover
Off
Very
Spain
Turning
Miles
Coast
Search
Keep
Thing
Early
Early Days
Just knowing that there's somebody else out there - that what's happened on this planet has also happened in many other places - that might change our lives in a very subtle way, but it's interesting to know and worth looking for.
Seth Shostak
Change
Worth
Somebody
Looking
Other
Else
Our
Way
Our Lives
Out
Know
Also
Knowing
Very
Just
Happened
Subtle
Places
Interesting
Might
Planet
Many
Lives
In 1908, there was a persuasive demonstration of the power of high-speed, low-mass asteroids in rural Siberia. The Tunguska impactor iced millions of pine trees and about a zillion mosquitoes - and was no larger than an office building.
Seth Shostak
Power
Building
Trees
Rural
About
High-Speed
Demonstration
Pine
Than
Office
Persuasive
Larger
Millions
Siberia
Buying insurance is no one's idea of fun. And it's especially easy to berate something as funky-sounding as writing checks to defend our neighborhoods against apartment-size rocks from space. But this is one insurance pitch that makes perfect sense. Ask the dinos.
Seth Shostak
Writing
Space
Sense
Our
Neighborhoods
Easy
Something
Perfect
Idea
Checks
Makes
Insurance
Rocks
Pitch
Against
Ask
Fun
Buying
Defend
If this is the only planet on which not only life, but intelligent life, has arisen, that would be very unusual.
Seth Shostak
Life
Would
Would-Be
Only
Arisen
Unusual
Very
Intelligent
Intelligent Life
Which
Planet
Charles Darwin sailed around the world for two years on the 'Beagle,' and he had quite a bit of interest in things like the iguanas of the Galapagos, even though they were primitive compared to your average Englishman.
Seth Shostak
World
Bit
Though
Charles
Darwin
Had
He
Primitive
Like
Around
Sailed
Were
Years
Quite
Quite A Bit
Interest
Average
Your
Even
Englishman
Compared
Things
Two
You may not see massive UFO exhibits at your local science museum, but there's no dearth of saucer stories infesting my email. Every day, I receive several reports of alien sightings, extraterrestrial plans for Earth, and agitated screeds about the reluctance of scientists to take the whole subject seriously.
Seth Shostak
Day
You
Science
Every Day
Seriously
Alien
Every
Local
Extraterrestrial
Earth
Email
Several
See
About
Reluctance
Take
Massive
Scientists
Dearth
Subject
Reports
May
Stories
Your
Plans
Whole
Receive
Museum
The majority of my UFO diet consists of reports describing suspected encounters. This is not surprising, as there are thousands of sightings annually. The emailer has seen something unusual in the sky that he interprets as probable evidence of alien presence.
Seth Shostak
Sky
Alien
Seen
Evidence
Consists
Thousands
Something
He
Majority
Unusual
Surprising
Encounters
Reports
Suspected
Diet
Probable
Describing
Presence
Virtually any pointed edifice is considered a candidate for alien engineering. After all, how could the Egyptians or Mayans have possibly stacked up stone blocks into pyramids?
Seth Shostak
Alien
Engineering
Virtually
Considered
Possibly
Could
Pointed
Pyramids
Edifice
How
Blocks
Up
Stone
Any
Candidate
Stacked
Egyptians
After
We can never prove that we're alone in the universe. But the Allen Telescope Array could prove that we're not.
Seth Shostak
Alone
Universe
Telescope
Allen
Could
Never
Array
Prove
As far as I can tell, the only unambiguous consequence of the claimed invasion of Earth by beings from another star system has been a nonstop torrent of TV specials. So if you're one of the many who believe the aliens are here, you really do have to admit this: They're the best houseguests ever.
Seth Shostak
Best
You
Alien
Believe
Earth
Claimed
System
Tell
Has-Been
TV
Torrent
Admit
Invasion
Only
Another
Nonstop
Been
As Far As
Far
Really
Who
Many
Beings
Star
Ever
Here
Consequence
Humans have existed only for the last 0.001 percent of cosmic time. All of which says that - unless the Homo sapiens brain is the one-and-only instance of cogitating machinery - nearly all the intelligence that's out there is beyond our level. And that intelligence is more than just a little bit beyond.
Seth Shostak
Time
Intelligence
Our
Unless
Bit
Machinery
Says
Out
Cosmic
Percent
More
Only
Instance
Beyond
Existed
Brain
Than
Just
Just A Little Bit
Which
Little
Little Bit
Sapiens
Nearly
Level
Homo
Homo Sapiens
Humans
Last
Clearly, unless thinking beings inevitably wipe themselves out soon after developing technology, extraterrestrial intelligence could often be millions or billions of years in advance of us. We're the galaxy's noodling newbies.
Seth Shostak
Technology
Intelligence
Thinking
Extraterrestrial
Unless
Out
Could
Wipe
Advance
Developing
Soon
Clearly
Inevitably
Years
Often
After
Galaxy
Themselves
Us
Billions
Beings
Millions
Three-fourths of the universe is hydrogen, and oxygen is incredibly abundant, too. So H2O is something you can find nearly everywhere.
Seth Shostak
You
Universe
Too
Incredibly
Everywhere
Find
Something
Hydrogen
Abundant
Oxygen
Nearly
Despite tantalizing suggestions of fossilized microbes in meteorites, puzzling and possibly biogenic methane gas in the martian atmosphere, and a long-standing controversy over the Viking lander experiments of nearly 40 years ago, there's still no Exhibit A that points unequivocally to biology in our own back yard.
Seth Shostak
Own
Biology
Back
Despite
Our
Possibly
Atmosphere
Martian
Points
Long-Standing
Puzzling
Over
Yard
Still
Exhibit
Years
Years Ago
Unequivocally
Controversy
Experiments
Nearly
Gas
Suggestions
A factory that can turn carbon nanotubes into a sheet a yard wide and long enough to stretch one-fourth of the way to the moon is not something you'll find at your local industrial park. That's the show-stopper for the space elevator. The ribbon.
Seth Shostak
You
Space
Moon
Long
Enough
Local
Way
Find
Something
Park
Factory
Industrial
Sheet
Yard
Ribbon
To The Moon
Turn
Your
Carbon
Elevator
Wide
Stretch
In a movie, it's often important to have aliens whose gestures and facial expressions can be 'read' by humans. And in the days before sophisticated computer animation, most extraterrestrial bit players were guys in rubber suits. Such practical considerations forced Hollywood's hand when it came to aliens - they look like us for good reasons.
Seth Shostak
Good
Suits
Alien
Important
Before
Extraterrestrial
Considerations
Bit
Guys
Facial
Computer
Animation
Days
Like
Sophisticated
Look
Most
Practical
Forced
Read
Came
Were
Hand
Gestures
Often
Movie
Hollywood
Us
Reasons
Whose
Expressions
Players
Humans
Rubber
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