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"Encounter 2001" To Send Human DNA To Space
Scoria writes: "CNN dot com reports that the Houston based company Encounter 2001 will ship a part of your DNA to space in 2003 for $50. They're apparently hoping that aliens will find the "message" that they send.
The ship will use solar sails the size of a football field as its primary accelerator and will take fifteen years to pass Pluto, at which point it will be travelling at 7.8 miles a second.
Pioneer 10, alternately, is currently moving at 7.605936 miles (12.24 km)/sec.
There are 4.5 million total slots, go make sure that there are in fact geeks in space!"
I can think a better use of $50 to insure that your genes get propagated. It's called asking out that cute girl in class, taking her to a fancy restaurant, then knocking her up.
This story, incidently, is supposed to be the first entry into the Library of Congress that has the word "Fuck" in its title.
bukra fil mish mish
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The Incas were far from "primitive." They had metallurgy, architecture, and over 103 species of potato. They did lack gunpowder.
Their fall to Spain was much more due to their lack of immunity to smallpox than anything the Spanish intentionally did.
Then there are the Maori of New Zealand. They didn't have gunpowder or metal, but they invented what became modern trench warfare and seriously kicked ass until the British resorted to the Treaty and Treachery technique.
By and large, though, the success of Western Imperialism owes at least as much to disease as it does technology.
bukra fil mish mish
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Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
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I would consider it, but they should include copies of DMCA and UCITA, and shrink wrap the DNA. I wouldn't want some skanky alien bitch to reverse engineer me, and use me for her sex slave.
Any alien race sufficiently advanced to travel the interstellar distances to reach us will be able to do whatever they please to us, DNA or no.
In fact, we'd probably be beneath their notice. What can we, stuck on this pitiful rock, offer to a race that can span stars and mine asteroids? (Other than amusement, of course).
Witness the results of every encounter between advanced human races and primitives (like the Spaniards and the Incas). It almost always ends up VERY poorly for the primitives (Japan was a notable exception).
Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
Simply follow these instructions: Duplicate the enclosed genetic material using a polymerase chain reaction. Incubate one copy of the resulting DNA of the PCR reaction for 10 seconds in a in an accelerated artificial womb set to a ratio of 2,371,680:1, then decant. Email the resulting organism (a "human") to the name at the top of the list attached below (using standard MIME matter encoding and transmission protocols.) Delete the email address at the top of the list, and add your own at the bottom. Send as many copies of this letter, along with copies of the PCR-duplicated DNA, to as many of your friends, znarmates, and for that matter complete strangers as you can. By the miracle of geometric progression, in no time at all THOUSANDS of "humans" will come your way. BUT: Don't break the chain! Fribnar-belzapsle of Barnard's Star II broke the chain, and was promptly diced by a malfunctioning frebble. Threequietchimes of Lalande 21185 IX broke the chain and was voted to be that week's consumption member of his local colony group. For that matter, brainnode 0x3f2b9877d of epsilon Eridani VI broke the chain, and their entire planet was promptly turned to grey goo by runaway nanomachines. But I followed the instructions, and in less than 30 kiloseconds I was the proud owner of over 300 extremely musical, fertilizer-producing, delectably-regurgitating young humans! So act now! Here is the list, make sure you add names:
belzar@massquan.com.wolf359
colonysegment-alpha -14@qwr.edu.ev-lacertae
napkinnumeratordrone376@w orkcubiclefarm452.biz.eta -cassiopeiae
snat@frelb.org.yzceti
439angstroms@ bluelight.com.rigel
duckmouthfence@picosquish.com .vega
ratpizzle@goatse.ax-microscopium
100101001 11101001@001110100102.1001.binar
powersthatbe@ove rusedsentientplanetformula.com.mcc affrey
Also, did you know that there are cute, young college aged girls that live near you who are lonely and want to meet men. Please help these girls out, by giving them a call at 1-900-ALL-BASE. (1.59/minute).
Someone you trust is one of us.
I am willing to spend $50 on this just to throw in my support for commercial space exploration. Solar sails are a great idea that NASA has not yet explored, and I'm glad to see someone trying it out.
Now you all know, that they will NOT sell all 4.5 million of these things. How big is this ship anyway?
The problem with this is that we are giving the evil aliens the blueprints of our species. There is the chance, however unlikely, that they might find a weakness... and exploit it.
They can't do that, it's illegal under the DMCA!
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
When I was four, watching men walk on the moon, and for years later, I wanted nothing more than to grow up and be an astronaut. A very small part of me still does.
And now, hey, now a very small part of me can be part of the first interstellar human hairball! Sign me up, while I've still got hair to contribute!
Having developed launch capabilities, the hairless water-ape now launches its spores into space. That completes the cycle of the amino acid based carbon chemistry life form. Be sure to tune in next millenium for another exciting edition of Mutual of Andromeda's Wild Universe.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
4.5 million times 50. Wow, thats $225,000,000. I wonder what their incentives are! Anyway, it does cost a lot to build space crafts so maybe it will mostly be offset by that.
Andrew
So the aliens will get our DNA, ok. They'll clone us, raise a few baby clones, and find out that we're ugly.
Don't be surprised when a few alien battlecruisers stop by to destroy this planet of ugly humans.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
$225,000,000.
Methinks that they don't give a shit about sending stuff to aliens, but making a few $ while trying to see whether the solar sail concept really works.
Lets be, well, understanding that this is the USA and nothing happens if its not for money or personal gain.
Why was there a link to mission to mars there? I never saw it..
The slashdot 2 minute between postings limit: /.'ers since Spring 2001.
Pissing off hyper caffineated
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Geeks: "Dont send out DNA into space, aliens will exploit us!"
Encounter 2001: "That is only theoretical"
Aliens: "Making the theoretical possible since 2003"
The Lottery:
"Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness." - M
Weakness in the human genome? Never!
Why would jesus do that to us?
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The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. --Ben Franklin
The way I see it, this is the only way to increase the chances that an evil army of me-clones takes over the world.
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The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. --Ben Franklin
1) Aliens discover DNA bank probe travelling through space (aka needle in a haystack); or,
2) Aliens find Earth after having received over 100 years of beacon-like EM communication (radio, tv, etc).
I know which I think is the more likely scenario. (Hint: even number.)
A novel gift idea? Maybe. Valuable science? Definitely not.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
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Once: you're a philosopher. Twice: a pervert.
When I first heard of this, the alien warlord concept was the first thing that popped into my head too. But really, it is far more likely that the probe would be discovered by our descendants than some alien race. In a thousand years the human race will most likely either be dead or colonizing other star systems, if it's the latter then our genetic makeup may have been altered significantly. A probe full of pure DNA samples could provide an interesting biological baseline or at least anthropological study.
Of course, I'm still not sending them $50. But the concept kind of validates things for those who do.
Supreme Commander Vxnor: "Sub commander Rtlof, what are the results from your exploration of the alien spacecraft retrieved from the outer reaches of our solar system?" Commander Rflof: "Sir, our preliminary research found the capsule empty. However, the aliens left behind an assortment of snack food, including protien strands encased in a tasty and crunchy glass tube."