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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
The Earth has been lawned with life for something over 3.5 billion years. That's a span of time great enough to encompass some honest-to-goodness catastrophe. For example, 700 million years ago, Earth underwent a planet-wide deep freeze, with ice covering the oceans from the poles to the equator.
Seth Shostak
Life
Time
Great
Example
Enough
Earth
Has-Been
Some
Something
Catastrophe
Over
Poles
For Example
Freeze
Oceans
Encompass
Underwent
Been
Years
Covering
Years Ago
Ice
Span
Billion
Deep
Million
Million Years
Today's voguish threats, including climate change, population growth, massive war, and resource depletion, are all amenable to a fix if we act prudently. And even if we don't, these problems are incapable of obliterating all of humanity, let alone destroying the Earth. No, the real End of Days will happen slowly, as the Sun ages.
Seth Shostak
Today
War
Alone
Change
Humanity
Problems
Will
Resource
Earth
Sun
Destroying
Threats
Slowly
Days
Massive
Climate
Climate Change
Real
End
Amenable
Fix
Happen
Ages
Incapable
Act
Even
Including
Population
Population Growth
Growth
It's easy to reckon that the oomph to hurl even a Smart Car-size spacecraft to another star at, say, 20 percent the speed of light (and land it when it arrives) is the energy contained in 50 billion gallons of gasoline. The tank's not big enough.
Seth Shostak
Light
Smart
Big
Energy
Speed
Enough
Reckon
Say
Hurl
Easy
Percent
Contained
Another
Tank
Big Enough
Spacecraft
Land
Billion
Even
Star
Gasoline
It's worth noting that invoking God as the entity who set our universe in motion isn't contradicted by the data. Of course, scientists would say the supreme being hypothesis is faith, and outside the realm of science - that it's not amenable to experiment. But we currently have the same problem with the notion of parallel universes.
Seth Shostak
God
Faith
Science
Problem
Worth
Experiment
Universe
Our
Say
Would
Parallel
Data
Entity
Outside
Hypothesis
Invoking
Supreme
Supreme Being
Course
Motion
Scientists
Amenable
Same
Currently
Being
Realm
Noting
Notion
Who
Universes
Set
Astronomers still can't decide what the shape of our universe is. Is it closed and finite, which is to say, is there a countable tally of all the galaxies that exist, even beyond the ones we can see? Or is it infinite? The latter possibility is still on the table.
Seth Shostak
Closed
Universe
Our
Say
Latter
Possibility
Table
See
Finite
Shape
Beyond
Still
Exist
Infinite
Decide
Which
Galaxies
Even
The next time you check your moves in the mirror and reflect on how special you are, consider that somewhere in this universe or in another parallel universe, your double might be doing the same. This would be the ultimate Copernican Revolution. Not only are we not special, we could be infinitely ordinary.
Seth Shostak
Time
You
Mirror
Somewhere
Reflect
Revolution
Universe
Consider
Would
Would-Be
Parallel
Only
Could
Check
Another
How
Doing
Ultimate
Same
Infinitely
Moves
Ordinary
Might
Double
Next
Your
Next Time
Special
Lamentably, alien audiences may be frustrated by the switch to digital television. That's because the transmitter power for DTV is fairly evenly spread across the spectrum. The spikiness is gone, and from afar, the attention-grabbing squeals of analog television's carriers have been replaced by DTV's smooth, low hiss.
Seth Shostak
Digital
Alien
Power
Gone
Analog
Television
Fairly
Because
Smooth
Audiences
Spread
Afar
Been
Replaced
May
Frustrated
Low
Across
Switch
Spectrum
Television is ephemeral, a fact that some will find reassuring. But earthlings will continue to pump the kilowatts into the ether. And eventually, when those signals have washed over a few hundred thousand star systems, someone may notice.
Seth Shostak
Will
Few
Pump
Hundred
Those
Television
Signals
Systems
Thousand
Find
Some
Someone
Fact
Over
Continue
May
Ephemeral
Ether
Notice
Reassuring
Washed
Star
Eventually
Thanks to the fact that the Earth isn't a perfect sphere, and invoking a bunch of Newtonian physics, you can deduce that our planet wobbles, too, taking roughly 26,000 years to trace out a small circle on the sky, a phenomenon known as precession.
Seth Shostak
You
Physics
Sky
Circle
Thanks
Too
Our
Earth
Sphere
Our Planet
Out
Small
Fact
Perfect
Taking
Invoking
Trace
Known
Years
Bunch
Planet
Deduce
Roughly
Phenomenon
'Battleship' is not a film that Francois Truffaut would have made. Nor would any of those other namby-pamby European directors. Nope, this picture eschews that Continental obsession with small stories, set in quaint towns filled with pockmarked folk doing their banal things.
Seth Shostak
Made
Picture
Other
Those
Would
Folk
Small
Directors
Obsession
Quaint
Towns
Continental
Doing
Nor
Banal
Any
Stories
European
Filled
Film
Things
Set
About the only things that are unique to Earth are our biota and our culture. If aliens ever come here, they'd most likely be either biologists or music fans. Neither one has much reason to antagonize our armed forces.
Seth Shostak
Music
Culture
Fans
Alien
Music Fans
Our
Earth
Neither
About
Only
Armed
Come
Armed Forces
Most
Likely
Forces
Antagonize
Either
Much
Reason
Unique
Ever
Things
Here
Biologists
There's no doubt that the Moon is more than a handy night light and a hair restorer for werewolves. It's responsible for the substantial amplitude of earthly ocean tides. These are of obvious influence if you're a geoduck, a type of clam that people dig up at low tide.
Seth Shostak
You
People
Light
Moon
Hair
Ocean
Doubt
Dig
Type
Earthly
Responsible
No Doubt
More
Obvious
Tide
Tides
Werewolves
Up
Than
Handy
Substantial
Influence
Low
Night
We haven't yet found a speck of evidence for biology on another world, so we have no objective way to judge whether life is a onetime fluke or a near-inevitable phenomenon.
Seth Shostak
Life
Judge
World
Life Is A
Biology
Fluke
Way
Evidence
Objective
Another
Whether
Found
Speck
Phenomenon
It seems obvious that if a species has the brainpower for speech, along with the sort of appendages that can manipulate a pair of pliers, it will eventually blunder into science, technology, and radio.
Seth Shostak
Technology
Science
Will
Seems
Along
Obvious
Sort
Blunder
Manipulate
Radio
Pair
Eventually
Species
Speech
In general, when moviemakers talk to scientists, they usually see them as a resource to solve particular technical problems or script problems for them. So, something like: what sort of weaponry would aliens be able to wield?
Seth Shostak
Problems
Alien
Resource
Would
Solve
Weaponry
See
Able
Something
General
Particular
Like
Talk
Sort
Scientists
Script
Them
Technical
Wield
I think there's a lot of intelligence out there, but that's just my guess. Question is: Are they peaceable or hostile? You could say that the peaceable ones are just going to stay at home and play with their Nintendos, so if you do meet any of them, they might be hostile.
Seth Shostak
Home
You
Intelligence
Think
Meet
Guess
Say
Out
Stay
Stay-At-Home
Could
Hostile
Question
Lot
Any
Going
Just
Them
Might
Peaceable
Play
Any society that could come here could pick up the lights from New York. What should we do about that? Should we darken New York from now until the last human expires? Would we want to turn off all the radars at JFK airport?
Seth Shostak
Society
Airport
Would
About
Could
Pick
Lights
New
Come
Until
Off
Up
York
Any
Human
New York
Want
Turn
Turn-Off
Should
Now
Here
Last
Typically, only about 2 percent of the American populace tunes in to PBS's 'Nova' series - the most successful science show on the tube. 'Survivor' and 'X Factor' get twice the ratings.
Seth Shostak
Science
About
Percent
Only
Ratings
Factor
Most
Survivor
Get
American
Tube
Tunes
Successful
Show
Populace
Nova
Series
Twice
When I graduated high school, nearly a half-million people subscribed to 'Popular Electronics' magazine. Soldering up some radio or hi-fi amplifier on the basement workbench was not just a personal passion - a lot of young people were doing the same. The magazine expired in 1999 for lack of interest.
Seth Shostak
People
School
Passion
Young
Hi-Fi
High
Magazine
Some
High School
Doing
Were
Lot
Up
Subscribed
Personal
Same
Lack
Graduated
Just
Interest
Expired
Young People
Radio
Popular
Electronics
Basement
Nearly
Amplifier
I've often fantasized about visiting the Bahamian beach where Columbus first stumbled ashore in 1492. Sadly, no one knows where that beach is. In fact, no one's even sure which island Columbus first encountered (there are three candidates). It's a pity, a disappointment, and a lost revenue source for the Bahamians.
Seth Shostak
Disappointment
Three
First
Lost
Visiting
About
Beach
Fact
No-One
Columbus
Stumbled
Sadly
Knows
Sure
Island
Revenue
Source
Encountered
Often
Candidates
Where
In Fact
Pity
Which
Ashore
Even
NASA's Office of Commercial Exploration has been concerned about protecting the landing zones where humans first walked on the Moon, and one of my colleagues, ecologist Margaret Race, has been part of their deliberations.
Seth Shostak
Moon
First
Colleagues
Has-Been
About
Part
Protecting
Concerned
NASA
Been
Walked
Commercial
Office
Where
Race
Landing
Exploration
Margaret
Humans
Zone
According to 'Star Trek' mythos, Starfleet Command - operational headquarters for a flotilla of craft that keep the cosmic peace - is located in San Francisco's Presidio, in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge (still carrying traffic, even in the 23rd century).
Seth Shostak
Peace
Trek
Francisco
Located
Carrying
Cosmic
Shadow
Headquarters
Operational
Still
Command
Traffic
According
Craft
Golden
San
Century
Bridge
Even
Star
Star Trek
Keep
Gate
Star Trek's genial premise is that the cosmos is flush with intelligent species, and our descendants will interact with them face-to-face, thanks to warp drive and some winsome space cadets.
Seth Shostak
Space
Will
Drive
Thanks
Trek
Our
Flush
Some
Face-To-Face
Cosmos
Genial
Intelligent
Interact
Them
Warp
Premise
Descendants
Star
Species
Planets that don't currently sport plate tectonics, such as Venus and Mars, are scarcely habitable. Tectonics might be a requirement of any world that aspires to a rich diversity of life.
Seth Shostak
Life
World
Diversity
Rich
Scarcely
Mars
Habitable
Sport
Venus
Any
Currently
Might
Planets
Requirement
Plate
Our brains are continuing to evolve, and perhaps a few tens of thousands of years from now, our descendants will walk around with five pound brains, allowing them insights that we can't imagine.
Seth Shostak
Walk
Will
Few
Our
Evolve
Thousands
Thousands Of Years
Insights
Pound
Allowing
Tens
Tens Of Thousands
Perhaps
Around
Continuing
Years
Brains
Five
Them
Descendants
Now
Imagine
We'll be 'outsourcing' our creativity and our thought processes to manufactured components that could be inconspicuously implanted beneath our coiffeurs. Welcome to the Borg. You might not be entirely comfortable with such cybernetic enhancements, but all the smart money says it's going to happen.
Seth Shostak
You
Welcome
Creativity
Money
Smart
Thought
Beneath
Our
Says
Components
Entirely
Could
Outsourcing
Comfortable
Going
Happen
Processes
Might
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