The Ramblings of Octavo

So, you may have noticed some changes to the blog recently — I’ve upgraded to WordPress v2.2 which is great and I’m currently evaluating various plugins and themes, so don’t be too surprised if the look and feel changes quite a bit over the next week or two!

I still need to upload some of our Kruger park pics to the Dargo Gallery - I’ll try and get to that this week too, but don’t expect too much!!

I’ve also recently reinstalled Freelancer and Ibis and I are busy exploring Bretonia at the moment.

Before I get into my post, I’d like you very much to check out this post on Ibis’ blog! Another shining example of the abhorrent morals and attitudes on display in the bible.

A good friend (TheGrimm) and I have been discussing the possibility of intelligent life outside of our planet. He made the argument that although most starsPulsars, Neutron stars and other exotics are generally not exactly suitable to the formation of life as we know it have Goldilocks zones around them, few of these stars would actually have planets inside that magical zone. Even fewer of those planets would be suitable to the development of life and for that life to have any appreciable chance of evolving intelligence, the solar system would need some gravitational vacuum cleaners to keep if safe from meteorsIn our own solar system, Jupiter and Saturn fill these roles for us..

All of these together, he argues, make the chances very small indeed. It is all too easy to agree, as it seems statistically almost impossible for all of the right ingredients to come together in the right time and place to form not only a suitable solar system, but for life to get started and have the opportunity to evolve far enough for intelligence to arise. That is, until you consider three counter arguments.

1) We know that as statistically improbable as it is - it has happened AT LEAST ONCE. Here on Earth. We are proof that it may be very, very unlikely but it can and has happened.

2) According to NASA estimates there are somewhere between 200 000 000 000 and 500 000 000 000That’s 200 - 500 billion GALAXIES in the universe with each galaxy having anywhere between 5 and 500 billion stars in them. Even eliminating 99.99% of all of the stars in the universe, we would still be left with BILLIONS of solar systems with the right basic ingredients for life to form and have time to evolve intelligence.

3) All of this assumes that life requires earth-like conditions to arise. Extremophiles have proven us wrong here. There are any number of human-lethal planets that may evolve radically different, but no less intelligent life forms.

Your thoughts appreciated.

ETA this

Christians believe that God, the creator of the universe, incarnated itself as Jesus around 2000 years ago and walked the earth. This is such a fundamental tenet of Christian doctrine, that I don’t think many Christians actually stop to consider the implications. I challenge believers to sit down and really think about it. Examine it critically with a logical mind.

First of all, if you believe in a God, it makes would make sense to also believe that intelligent life has arisen elsewhere in the universe. What other purpose does the rest of the universe serve otherwise? I mean, what an incredible waste of time and effort for God. Why create all those billions of galaxies and stars if not to create life on many of them? So, assuming for an instant that there are other planets out there with intelligent beings on them. Did God also incarnate himself on those planets? Does Christianity exist elsewhere in the universe?

Second, getting back to earth - why did God incarnate at the time and place he did? That may sound like a silly question, but it’s not really. Why did God not incarnate in ALL cultures? Surely that would have been a much more intelligent way of spreading the word? Why did he not incarnate among the Mayans or the Egyptians or the Polynesians? Why did God choose the Hebrews as his “chosen” people? If he created all life on this planet, why is he so exclusionary? So biased against the rest of humanity? What did the Mayans do or not do that did not make them worth a visit by the one true creator of the universe?

I want people to think about these things. If God is capable of all things, why was he so terribly inefficient when it came to spreading the word of his existence? Why did he not give all people and all cultures the same choices and options? What made the Jews so special? Do you really believe that an all-loving God would be so bigoted as to choose a single nation as his “chosen” and not even let other cultures know of his existence? Why no Mayan Jesus?

Comments welcome

Happy Birthday my love! I hope you have an awesome day!!

Yes, I’m taking a break from my usual atheist rants Ibis has it covered for today (http://www.ibis.dargo.info). Instead I want to do a short review of this under-rated game.

I first got this game in December last year and immediately played through the Empire campaign, but I wasn’t terribly impressed. I felt the game was too easy, the units were pretty but because the game was stuck with using known military units from the movie, they lacked balance and scope. Recently I picked it up again and tried playing it from the Rebellion side and I’ve since come to appreciate the game a lot more. It’s actually very strategic and yes it IS unbalanced - but that’s kinda the point.

The Empire is supposed to be near unstoppable with powerful units and money to burn. They are the Empire with half the galaxy’s resources behind them. The Rebellion on the other hand, is an underground movement, strapped for cash and technology and this is reflected in the game quite well. Playing the Rebellion is much tougher. Your units get minced by the superior Empire technology and should you take control of an Empire planet, you can bet that sooner or later you will hear the dreaded “Fleet approaching”, meaning a Star Destroyer or two are about to hyperspace in to reclaim their planet.

In all, I’m quite happy with the game now and I really love the way it manages to mesh itself so well into the events in Episode IV - it really tells the story of what went on between the Rebellion and the Empire just before we meet Luke on Tatooine. In fact, playing as the Empire, you even get to capture Princess Leia over Tatooine and witness the destruction of her home planet.

Anyways that’s it for now. Hoping to upgrade this blog to a newer version of wordpress soon and perhaps update the skin again as well.