Slashdot Mirror
100/1 Odds On 'First Contact' Within a Year
astroengine writes "After all the kerfuffle of 'Ambassadorgate' — when the UK media went nuts over the rumored promotion of Mazlan Othman to become the UN's first choice as mankind's alien point of contact — it would appear that gamblers saw this as a tip that an alien landing was imminent."
What a waste of an opportunity for a f1rst c0ntact post. Damn, and I even rushed over while the headline was still red!
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
If aliens do visit massive fluctuations in currencies and wealth will render said bet meaningless. It only makes sense to vote against.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
... that some bookies figured that by giving great odds on an impossible events, idiots would flock to give them money.
No, all "100 to one odds" means in this context is if you bet a dollar they'll be here in a year and they show up, you win $100. It has nothing to do with the real probabilities, which are as close to zero as you can get.
Free Martian Whores!
The summary is incorrect. The 100 to 1 odds aren't even for first contact, but merely that the US/UK will announce the existence of aliens. From TFA:
the gambling company is offering odds of 100/1 on either the US President or the serving British Prime Minister to announce the existence of intelligent extra-terrestrials within a year of the bet being placed.
Well, after ruling this planet for 35 million years or whatever, the dinosaurs just up and disappeared. Obviously they developed space travel and decided to migrate to a better part of the galaxy.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Do you realize how much our understanding of the universe has changed in 100 years? Do you realize how much our technology has advanced in 100 years?
For all we know, there is a galactic Internet accessible via quantum effects of some sort. Tapping that would be first contact. Alternatively, synthetic lifeforms may be trying to replicate themselves by broadcasting the schematics for their hardware/software throughout the universe via radio waves, being "born" whenever some curious species detects the signal and builds it. Build it and talk to it -BAM- that's first contact. Considering the size of the universe and the principles of evolution, this later idea seems down-right likely, not just plausible.
We don't have to be physically visited to make first contact.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Think of the steam engine. It is a single invention that caused and made possible the entire industrial revolution.
Now you're giving Valve too much credit.