Karl Freeman

PHYS 1040

Conversation Pape

One of the best practices to have when studying science is to have conversations and

discussions about science with other people. It gives us the opportunity so share and learn off one

another along with providing different eyes. A chance to get a different perspective, or see things

with a different lens. So much about science is keeping your mind open for fact and avoid

blocking information because of belief. This paper will include the overall process of a planned

discussion that had taken place at my home during a fantastic meal and some fine IPAs on

4/15/2017. This paper will discuss the topic of the discussion, the preparation on planning the

discussion, who it is I invited and why I choose them and the events that happened during the

course of the discussion.

In preparation of the discussion the goal was to make it something that all participants

would want to include themselves with. A broad topic of extraterrestrial life was going to be the

main focus. Though being such a vague topic it was best to include sub topics. This is to keep the

conversation flowing with less chance of flowing off into topics that are off subject. The

decision was then made to divide the topic up into 4 parts. The first is the main and obvious

question of Do you think there is life in the universe? which would include why they think

that. The second is what life might look like or what forms of life? The third is the detection or

discovery of life, and last being the ability or changes of visiting other life.
 The setting of the discussion was meant to be relaxing and open. Considering the length

of the conversation needed to span over an hour. Doing it over the course of a meal was a

practical way of making sure things felt natural and enjoyable. My wife and I invited over my

co-worker and a lifelong friend. Both of which enjoy science as passionate hobbies. My co-

worker who is very passionate with modern technology and a huge fan of space travel was a

prime candidate. So often at work we can get lost in long conversation ranging from black holes,

to GMOs. He enjoys focusing more on the space and time theories and will get lost talking

about relativity. My lifelong friend as much as he enjoys talking space travel seems to prefer the

topics of creation and biology along with nature environment. His self-taught knowledge on the

planets evolution process allows a different line of thought to be brought in. Both bringing

something completely separate of each other to the table. My wife is currently a PHD student at

the University of Utah for Counseling Phycology and she eats and breaths the scientific method.

The student that she has been taught her to use it in almost every aspect of her life. She is the

most practiced and the only true scientist at the table along with already being experienced in

these type of discussions.

The discussion started out well and right as planned. In case any dead spots in the

discussion were to happen a series of basic questions had been written down on a flash card to

help move silent moments along but it was never actually needed. The topic had everyone

willing to give their views and thoughts and all seemed eager to share why. Though at the early

stage of the topic it was a unanimous consensus that it was very unlikely that there wasnt any

other life in the universe. When really thinking about the overall infant space in the universe and

the amount of stars each able to have orbiting planets the odds are in your favor that one of the

planets out there is hosting life.

 Though the discussion quickly moved on to talk more about intelligent life out in the

universe. It was a bit of a surprise that is the path it took considering that intelligent life was not

really the most obvious. My co-worker brought up radio frequencies and waves and started

talking about how he has read of the possibility something is interfering with the voyager

satellite. His sources were never actually stated though he had claimed to have had come across

this information multiple times. The comments made caused the discussion to go off track and

time was spent talking about the golden record that plays songs from earth. This lead to us

starting to talk about exploration which was relatable enough to bring the discussion back into

the main topic. It seemed agreed upon that dedicating life in faraway galaxies or solar systems

was a challenge and not possible as we know it now. My wife had brought up that notall life

needs to be intelligent nor does it need to match the same elements that life on earth have. This

idea involved the thought that if a planet was mostly liquid methane and its atmosphere was

hydrogen. It would be possible for the life on that planet to match those elements. Though

because we ourselves wouldnt live on such a planet it would be hard to think of what life would

actually look like. This was not something the other two members shared. Though the thought of

it cant be dismissed. The discussion tended to lean more towards the idea that we look for life in

the examples we have which is our planet earth.

My friend brought information that he got from a video of Noam Chomsky called Racing to the

Precipice. Noam is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic,

and political activist and the video was actually about climate change. The information he cited

was a comment that Noam made about dumb life was more abundant then smart life. In the

context it was used in the video it was more stating that intelligent life will kill itself off. Though

the example was used for the context of the discussion to lead him into stating that we are more
likely are going to find life in a molecule form. If not that then as a fungus considering that it is

the largest organism on our planet.

It was then discussed that they felt the odds of life was actually closer then we think and

will on day we will be able to visit it. This was about life within our own solar system all the

people in the decision had a strong excitement stating why they though that moons were places

that are harvesting life. The most talked about was Europa and its mass oceanic body. Since it

was earlier agreed upon that life will be similar to that here on earth and the chance of water

under the ice on Europa that it would host many different forms of life. That was towards the

end of the night and some of the last comments made overall that stayed on topic.

In over view of the night there are some things worth mentioning about the experience. It was

surprising to actually see how much we all disagreed with each other even on such a broad topic.

It was also odd how many ideas got dismissed. The other two would dismiss myself and even

more so my wife more times than not. I found this interesting considering the two of us are the

only two students at the table. My wife was prepared in bring her resources of information and

many times started researching more while the discussion continued. There were also many

times information was given then shortly later disproved only to have it come back up again.

Though the night was enjoyable some changes for the future might include the people

that are involved. All though I enjoy having these talks with my co-worker and friend I feel a lot

that was provided was based on personal opinion and belief and a blindness to certain facts was

present. They also lacked preparation and did not have very much source material to back up

there statements. To prevent this clearer expectations will be set to allow for a more inelegant

discussion to happen. In the end however it was fun to hear of the theories and ideas everyone

had.