Saturday, May 05, 2007

Belief in the Unbelievable

During this week's discussion of ghosts and hauntings, we've talked a little about the willingness of people to believe in the unprovable... and I did mention aliens in passing. In many ways the willingness to believe in extraterrestrial visitors is similar to the willingness to believe in ghosts. And I do love me some Carl Sagan.

4 comments:

Sean said...

I liked Carl Sagan, but the real fun lies in geeky debates about what numbers should go into The Drake Equation.

annie said...

How about the best of both worlds? Carl Sagan on the Drake Equation :-)

Sean said...

Good ol' Carl, bringing astronomy to the people.

I think the equation is missing a term, though: what fraction of intelligent civilizations are in hiding? I wouldn't assume that other civilizations would actually "come in peace".

annie said...

Mmmm.... anti-social aliens. I could totally dig that.