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Originally Posted by Warren Platts
If we were getting hammered by GRB's every 100,000 years, the hominid lineage would have gone extinct a long time ago, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pzkpfw
Some dodgy maths.
300,000 - 200,000 = 100,000, yes.
But that is not the implication of what Neverfly wrote.
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No, it isn't. The basis of what I wrote is that a Nearby Supernova (actually several of them) are possible, maybe even likely, to become a threat within (between this very moment and ---) 100,000 years.
Within 200,000 years, it's likely.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Warren Platts
It's a paraphrase, but that's what he basically said (I think he used the word "arguments" instead of "debate"). It's toward the end of the lecture.
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Given your history, perhaps it's best if you just quote him directly from now on.
We are intelligent beings, allow us to hear his words without your interpretation of them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Warren Platts
Fortunately, you're not a threat to the planet.
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Is that a zero chance or a non zero chance?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Warren Platts
Necessary for what? Warp drive or the next Nobel Prize?
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Do you always think in terms of some fantastic device or prize?
Did Watson and Crick's work on DNA lead to a Genetic Altering Machine?
The progress of science does not turn about that quickly. The reach for greater understanding DOES yield the amazing machines and the huge results, but it doesn't do it as fast as we would like.
But the Warp Drive etc must have foundations in the understanding we build today.
Newton never built a space probe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Warren Platts
I never said ALL KNOWN quantum mechanics or relativity would have to be wrong in order for Giddings and Mangano's arguments to be wrong.
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Pretty much, it would all fall under heavy scrutiny.