Faces from the Chasmas

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by jrich</i>
<br />Wow, Galileo and Bruno. You certainly imagine yourself in good company.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">They weren't comparing themselves to Galileo and Bruno. They were commenting on the limitlessness of the rationalizations by Galileo's bishops and Bruno's enemies once they had predetermined where the truth must lie and were no longer open to model revisions based on new data. But frequently, reality is quite different from what we feel certain must be so. And we need to continually remind ourselves of that or we are doomed, like the bishops, to be the butt of jokes by future generations for our blindness even in the face of what will then appear to have been compelling evidence.

Of course, we could also end up like Perceival Lowell, who thought he saw canals on Mars. The best course for the scientist is to use data to form hypotheses, then set up protocols (to mute the influence of biases) for testing those hypotheses. Anyone who follows scientific procedure rather than prior belief has nothing to fear from the judgments of history.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">However, if we are to believe there existed a race of aliens so obsessed with art as to use an entire planet as an easel ... Are you now also claiming to know the motivations of the aliens?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">It is not necessary to know the mind or motivations of others to determine that the end product is a reasonable and predictable one.

Consider our own situation. Arguably, we are an intelligent species with a future. In a few millenia from now, spaceflight will presumably be so common and easy that family vacations to the Moon will be affordable in time and cost. But when visitors get there, no one place where they might land would be representative of the whole Moon. So the first step would likely be to hop onto an orbiting space station and get a close-up overview.

Once that happens, is it any stretch at all to predict that the various surface operations (mining, communications, research, industry, museums, etc.) would compete for tourist visitations and dollars by building surface attractions? What better way to get the attention of those in the orbiting space stations above than large-scale surface art?

If such a scenario is a possible near-term future for our species, why is it so unimaginable that it would also have been a possibility for any previous intelligent species of the now-exploded parent planet that had Mars as its moon?

It is easy to think of countless reasons why flat art on Mars is an unreasonable proposition. The trick here is to adopt the premis that flat art really does exist on Mars, then start asking what that tells us. Suddenly, several reasonable possibilities come to mind. But if the premis is never seriously entertained, one will never think of reasonable explanations for it. -|Tom|-

"Wow, Galileo and Bruno. You certainly imagine yourself in good company."

Wow?... No, not me. But I do place Halton Arp, TVF, and a few others in such company.

And what about you...How do you see yourself?? Hmmm?

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by neilderosa</i>
<br />And what about you...How do you see yourself?? Hmmm?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">On this topic, a dim Michael Shermer.

JR

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by jrich</i>
<br />On this topic, a dim Michael Shermer.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
That's interesting, and it puts some perspective on your point of view.

I think one has to be careful, though. There are people who believe weird things, and then there are people who believe weird things.

Not too long ago, I met some "friends" of friends who seriously (and I mean seriously) believed that the original moon walk (you know: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind") was a hoax perpertrated on the public. According to this theory, the space ship landed in Texas.

Now, here's the scary part. Those same people recently went on vacation to Cuba. Seems Castro is some sort of hero to them.

I don't think what we're doing in this forum is in <i><b>that </b></i>category.

rd

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Of course, we could also end up like Perceival Lowell, who thought he saw canals on Mars. [Tom]<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Lowell's "canals" were, I am told, originally termed <i>canale</i> by Secchi (1858) and Schiaparelli (1877), who first observed them, which is better translated from the Italian as "channels." There did turn out to be a lot of channels on Mars after all.

Anyway, that notwithstanding, here are some more faces.

Our first "black Martian," M1801893, "Bill."



M1801893, "Snowdog."



E0500049, "Serena."



Serena in color,



E1103633, "Jeronimo."



And what the hey, Here's M1301494, "Crying Man."



Neil

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Once that happens, is it any stretch at all to predict that the various surface operations (mining, communications, research, industry, museums, etc.) would compete for tourist visitations and dollars by building surface attractions? What better way to get the attention of those in the orbiting space stations above than large-scale surface art? [Tom]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

If this senario were correct, it might be logical to expect to find inscriptions associated with the various faces, who may have been (as one guess) different famous personalities of this civilization. So one prediction might be that such inscripions would be found in some cases.

Neil