OT: A New Planet in our Solar System!!!
Apparently, we have a new 9th planet to replace demoted Pluto, Planet X!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/01/20/n…
It is much further away from Earth than Pluto (and may take as many as 10,000 years to circle the Sun), but it is also much larger than Pluto. In my mind, this scientifically confirms what men have long feared....size matters....
January 20th, 2016 at 10:55 AM ^
Planet IX actually...
January 20th, 2016 at 11:05 AM ^
January 20th, 2016 at 11:23 AM ^
Outer space, bitches, outer space
January 20th, 2016 at 12:48 PM ^
RED ROCKS!
January 20th, 2016 at 11:06 AM ^
F that. Pluto still counts, mutha fawkers...
January 20th, 2016 at 11:08 AM ^
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January 20th, 2016 at 11:11 AM ^
Guys, guys, guys. Some are calling it "Planet Nine," and others "Planet X". The latter is the letter X, not the Roman numeral. So it is either Planet 9, Planet Nine, or Planet X, depending on which school of nerdism you follow...
January 20th, 2016 at 11:23 AM ^
well that could never be confusing.
January 20th, 2016 at 11:48 AM ^
The Romans must have really struggled with algebra.
January 20th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^
Is Al-Gebra a new Middle East terrorist group I haven't heard of?!?!?! :-D
January 20th, 2016 at 4:43 PM ^
The name does come from the Arabic. Wikipedia:
"The word algebra comes from the Arabic الجبر (al-jabr "restoration") from the title of the book Ilm al-jabr wa'l-muḳābala by al-Khwarizmi."
January 20th, 2016 at 12:38 PM ^
found algebra to be quite easy - X is always 10
January 20th, 2016 at 2:11 PM ^
A Roman walks into a bar, holds up his index and middle fingers and says, "Give me 5 beers".
January 20th, 2016 at 5:00 PM ^
January 20th, 2016 at 12:06 PM ^
When it swings by and the grid fails, massive tidal waves hit, WWIII starts, starvation & disease, nuclear holocaust will follow and simian-kind will inherit the earth.
You humans are fucked.
January 20th, 2016 at 5:00 PM ^
The turkeys shall have ape for dessert!
January 20th, 2016 at 6:01 PM ^
the Big X
January 20th, 2016 at 11:12 AM ^
BARNEY FOREVER, WIGGUM NEVER!
January 20th, 2016 at 12:14 PM ^
If they find life on it, our government will probably start sending it money...
January 20th, 2016 at 10:55 AM ^
January 20th, 2016 at 11:13 AM ^
if there is smoke up top, you know there is a fire burning below.....HAZAAAAAA!
January 20th, 2016 at 10:56 AM ^
So we're just expanding our solar system...just because? I'm OK with that.
EDIT: Just saw that it's an icy planet. Please name it Hoth.
January 20th, 2016 at 10:57 AM ^
The important thing is what media markets it brings.
January 20th, 2016 at 11:01 AM ^
Hoth? It's an icy planet! Shouldn't they name it Coldth???
Thanks folks, I'm here all week...
January 20th, 2016 at 11:42 AM ^
Christinith!! You idiot! You come to our house, you get my wife's name right!
January 20th, 2016 at 11:04 AM ^
More like Coldth... Right, guys?
I'm gonna go grab some coffee now.
EDIT: I've always had bad timing as a comedian. That is obvious.
January 20th, 2016 at 11:24 AM ^
January 20th, 2016 at 11:46 AM ^
The edge of the solar system is the heliopause.
January 20th, 2016 at 11:34 AM ^
January 20th, 2016 at 10:55 AM ^
January 20th, 2016 at 10:55 AM ^
The universe is a big place. We're not alone.
January 20th, 2016 at 11:04 AM ^
1. The universe is a freaking huge place (i heard one estimate that there are likely more inhabitable planets in the universe than there are grains of sand on all of the beaches on Earth. Wrap your mind around that for a moment).
2. I am 99.9% certain, however, that we do NOT want to meet whatever else is out there, at least should they have the technology to come find us. I am in the Stephen Hawking camp. We need to shut up and lay reallllyyyyy low until we are much more technology advanced. At that point, however, we will probably have transcended biology and will be just artificial brains living in artificial nanotechnology shells. So, you know, whatevs!
January 20th, 2016 at 11:13 AM ^
January 20th, 2016 at 11:24 AM ^
Of course that may be right, and of course no one knows. But if you read some of the best new work coming out on the intersection of AI and possible alien life, it is really quite frightening. A substantially older civilization capable of visiting us will almost certainly have developed AI. If so, they will have also almost certain transcended biology, and their intelligence will be greater than the combined intelligence of every human that has ever lived on this planet. And given that super-intelligent non-biological entities are almost certain to have priorities and perspectives that we cannot even begin to understand, the "meeting" between us and them would be absolutely unpredictable, and could be devastating. Imagine: They arrive, do their best to communicate with us, but our primitiveness leads them to believe we aren't even sentient in a meaningful way (like us and ants), at which point they flatten our planet for their own purposes...
January 20th, 2016 at 11:30 AM ^
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January 20th, 2016 at 11:54 AM ^
January 20th, 2016 at 12:18 PM ^
Great lunch time reading, thanks for sharing
January 20th, 2016 at 12:30 PM ^
Just read the first link... wow...
January 20th, 2016 at 1:06 PM ^
Plan on spending more than a lunch hour, he has several topics that are fantastic. I absolutely love the posts on procrastination...
January 20th, 2016 at 3:15 PM ^
Bolivia seem like a walk to the park after reading that.
January 20th, 2016 at 4:26 PM ^
(James Barrat) touches on some of this stuff too. I don't buy his whole thesis, but I found it interesting enough to read twice. His discussion of Super AI (so AI that is self-improving) was fascinating and sobering.
I like waitbutwhy as well--will check out those posts.
January 20th, 2016 at 11:30 AM ^
January 20th, 2016 at 11:36 AM ^
Where AI is going, with artificial super intelligence has many people wondering about human specie survival. Combine that with an alien life form and what you may get at your front door may not end well.
Life was so much metter when aliens were like ET.
January 20th, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^
If the hypothetical civilization has advanced to the point of just consciousness, shouldn't they be able to figure out that this 'human' civilization though primitive, is progressing along the path they themselves have progressed? I am assuming that once a civilization makes the leap from physical forms to consciousness, they are able to remember their history and have transcended from little kids stomping ants to a matured person having pets (better than being stomped on, I think).
January 20th, 2016 at 12:05 PM ^
We evolved from single-cell organisms, most of us know/believe that, and yet we have absolutely no problem decimating our planet and its "lower" life forms. Most of the time, it doesn't even enter our moral calculations.
January 20th, 2016 at 5:03 PM ^
We get to be pets!!
(now that's a sobering thought) <picks up phone to call for overdue vet appointment>
January 20th, 2016 at 1:40 PM ^
This has been my exact thoughts for decades.
We should not be searching for other life (I believe it naive to believe there IS NOT life out there, and lots of it!). Because much of the life that IS out there is technoligically well beyond us and they are to us as we are to ants.
No need to raise a flag and begin waiving it pointing out a resource rich planet.
January 20th, 2016 at 5:09 PM ^
it could be really rudimentary. Ever notice that whenever scientists search for signs of extraterrestrial life they look for single-cell lifeforms?
Still, I think it's not a bad idea to clean up our act / spacejunk, be a little more intentional on what kind of soundwaves / frequencies we're putting out there, and maybe not be waving a big towel-flag...
On the whole, tho: no need to panic.