starship-design: Re: Aliens, why haven't they contact us?

[jimaclem@juno.com]

On Fri, 18 Jul 1997 00:42:30 -0400 (EDT) KellySt@aol.com writes:
>
>In a message dated 7/15/97 10:00:24 AM, TLG.van.der.Linden@tip.nl 
>(Timothy
>van der Linden) wrote:
>
>>Kelly,
>>
>>>>Immune systems usually see almost every non-self organism as 
>dangerous. I
>>>>wouldn't think that it doesn't matter much whether the non-self 
>organism
>>>>comes from space or Earth.
>>>>In some cases the body even starts killing something of itself, 
>this is
>>>>called an auto-immune disease.
>>>
>>>Immune systems arn't that good at detecting, much less combating, 
>'any'
>>>non-self organism.  They are best at detecting and defeating things 
>that
>the
>>>organism routinly is attacked by.  Alien micro life would not be 
>something
>>>were 'tuned' to fight or look for.
>>
>>As far as I know they are quite good at detecting, only finding the
>>"antidote" before it is too late can be a problem. However 
>antibiotics
>>usually can help quite a lot.
>
>You can't use an antibiotic on alien microbes.  They work by suttle
>disruption of celular chemistry.  I.E. something that will kill them, 
>but not
>us.
>
>>And even if we were not immune to alien bacteria, would we be able to 
>spot
>>it? Likely there are more Earthly bacteria that kill people than 
>Space
>bacteria.
>
>No way to know.  Can't even know anything basic about their celular
>construction or chemistry.
>

Just a thought to consider folks.  All living organisms on this planet,
including viruses have DNA and RNA constructed from the same four
proteins, adenine, cytosine, guanine and tyrosine.  (And I do mean ALL
life forms on this planet, from viruses to trees to us).  The chances
that an alien microbe, or anything else, would use these same proteins
seem rather small, thus rendering them and us relatively harmless to each
other since we cant read each other's cellular codes.

Jim