Inferior Civilization?

wlm_efn@... [spacesettlers] wrote:

> sailor.barsoom wrote:
> > To put it bluntly, we are all of us disgustingly ignorant on what it
> takes for a
> > planet to give rise to one or more intelligent beings. We make our
> decision
> > with our hearts because our heads don't know jack.
>
> An oasis of wisdom, in a desert of assumptions, presumptions and unproven
> ideas.

Well, OK, I agree with the basic point, but I think it's overstated.

There are things we DO know. We have a grasp of mathematics. We know
how big and how old the galaxy is (and what other galaxies are nearby,
or not). We know how heavy elements form from lighter ones, how long it
took our planet to form, and how long it took civilization to arise on
this planet. We understand evolution. We know the central limit theorem.

So, clearly it's not true that we don't know anything.

OK, sure, it could be that everything we think we know is false; maybe
the whole universe was created five subjective seconds ago, with all of
us in our current chairs and with entirely false memories planted by
some kid in a different universe as part of his science fair project.

But it's quite reasonable to doubt that. We must assume that the
evidence we have accurately reflects the universe we live in, until
contradicted by other evidence.

So, given all that stuff we know, there ARE reasonable conclusions that
can be drawn. And, there are entirely unreasonable conclusions that can
be drawn by ignoring some or all of the stuff we know.

Everybody's entitled to their own opinion, but some opinions are more
sensible than others.