reply to post by StealthyKat
Egads! Slapped with a meme!
Though perhaps it is justified. When I wrote that post about an infinite universe and probability, I should have added that I was not a proponent of
the "Giant Cloaked Thingie Near the Sun" idea. It seems to me that the phenomenon discussed in this thread is most likely caused by a...well, by a
thread. (OP missed out some great thread title opportunities with this, IMO)
I find the "probability" discussions in threads like this one to be fascinating. On the one hand, people point to an ever-increasing stack of
evidence that indicates the observable universe abounds with "life as we know it" environments. We can also point to the ever-expanding list of
extremophiles as evidence for support of the existence of "life as we
don't know it"(I rarely see this point brought up, however.)
On the other hand, people point to the lack of
clear, credible evidence that this planet has been--or is being--visited by advanced, non-human
intelligences. It is also undeniable that there have been a great many fraudulent claims or hoaxes, as well as simple misinterpretations of
terrestrial phenomena.
So arguments can be made for the probability or "likelyhood" of either side of the debate. Too often, this results in bickering accompanied by much
waving of Occam's Razor, after which everyone goes home annoyed.
This particular discussion is interesting to me because of the "improbability" of both explanations. An errant fiber in the optics of a
zillion-dollar space telescope that was constructed using modern "clean room" environments? Not very freaking likely. A giant cloaked thingie
inside the orbit of Mercury? Not very freaking likely.
Given no other data, choosing the "least improbable" of those two scenarios would basically come down to personal opinion(IMHO). In this case
however, the rotation images give credence to the thingie being an errant fiber as opposed to an itinerant Death Star.
So if you remove the "...therefore Aliens" part of the meme, it fits my general opinion on the topic of ETs. In other words: