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2 - Early Speculations

2 - Early Speculations. For thousands of years, many have found it absurd to think of Earth as the ONLY place where life existed. c. 400 BCE - Metrodorus of Chios - "It is unnatural in a large field to have only one shaft of wheat and in the infinite universe only one living world. ”

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2 - Early Speculations

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  1. 2 - Early Speculations

  2. For thousands of years, many have found it absurd to think of Earth as the ONLY place where life existed c. 400 BCE - Metrodorus of Chios - "It is unnatural in a large field to have only one shaft of wheat and in the infinite universe only one living world.” c. 50 BCE - Lucretius - "Nothing in the universe is unique and alone, and therefore in other regions there must be other Earths inhabited by different tribes of men and breeds of beasts.”On the Nature of Things There cannot be more worlds than one. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) - WRONG!

  3. The Copernican Revolution 1543 - De Revolutionibus Orbium Caelestium (The Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs) Earth is NO LONGER at the Center 1600 - Giordano Bruno burned at the stake for teaching Copernican astronomy & the idea that there must be "an infinite number of suns with planets and life around them". 1609 - Christian Huygens Cosmotheoras - argued for similarity of worlds & their life forms. Durand

  4. There followed heated debates among philosophers, theologians, and others... “Dream not of other worlds; what creatures there Live in what state, condition, or degree” - Rafael’s advice to Adam in Milton’s Paradise Lost - 1667 “...the Almighty, who has not left us with a drop of water unpeopled*....should leave such immense bodies destitute of inhabitants? It is surely much more rational to suppose them in the possession of human beings...” - George Adams, Lessons on Natural and Experimental Philosophy - 1794 * an apparent reference to Leeuwenhoek’s discoveries using his newly-invented microscope see: The Extraterrestrial Debate, 1750-1900, Michael J. Crowe

  5. 1900 - Percival Lowell Claims to see canals on Mars Describes physiological, social, and political traits of martians…..

  6. Communicating with ETs c. 1820 - Karl Gauss - Plant huge forest of trees in “right triangle” - demonstrate to ETs that we know the Pythagorean Theorem (visible from Mars?) c. 1840 - Joseph von Littrow - do same thing but use kerosene-filled trenches in Egypt

  7. 1899 - Nicolai Tesla - Attempts to send radio burst as “message” & listen for a “reply” 1922 - Marconi - listen for signals from a boat at a remote ocean location

  8. Fermi-Hart Paradox: • 1950’s - Enrico Fermi: • If life is abundant in the galaxy, ETs ought to be HERE • They are not • So where ARE they? • 1970’s - Michael Hart • Sets out to do first calculations of planetary evolution to see if life should be common or rare

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