An interesting argument and many good points. I do just want to mention this though:
3. Our atmosphere's depth and it's general makeup needs to be pretty close
Yes, for intelligent life such as we know it, such an atmosphere is almost certainly a requirement. But don't forget that Earth didn't start out with the atmosphere we have today, it was initially very hostile and required a lot of time for life itself to 'Terraform' the Earth to this point.
No, we won't be doing crossword puzzles with the lifeforms we find on such a planet - but it will still be a form of alien life we're very interested in finding. Assuming life is as prevalent as I suspect it may be, we are likely to find many more such examples than we will spacefaring alien races.
and history tells me that I'm just going to keep at it!
LOL, a man after my own heart!
My comment was intended to be mildly humorous, not factually correct.
Fair enough. I don't understand why didn't you say that then, rather than defending the mis-quote. Sorry for my heavy-handed response though.
So you can read a wikipedia page and have a penchant for overdramatizing trivial things.
Well.. this is Slashdot..
You must be the life of any parties that you manage to get invited to.
Hahaha indeed, the few who do invite me seldom make the mistake twice.
I don't think you should assume everyone else in the world dislikes the presence of other human beings as much as you do.
Of course not, most people get along just fine with other humans, I merely offer my POV in which robots replacing humans for interaction is a highly desirable outcome.
Well, coincidentally I'm known across the galaxy for having said "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," even if I never actually said it.
Seems legit, right?
Coz I'm known to have said it. Guess you're also quite a fan of that 640k quote attributed to Bill Gates!
Any other mis-quotes or out-and-out falsehoods you feel could do with promoting whilst we're at it?
Sounds like you might be fresh out of arguments by way of rebuttal.
Don't let Dave's criticism disrupt your activities though. Especially avoid reviewing your own position; this is a dangerous tactic that can lead to education and potential understanding.
Never stop to consider the gap between perceived and actual knowledge and experience of a topic. Wikipedia means everyone can now be an expert.
gain a pristine planet, completely cleansed of humanity. Wouldn't that be nice? Get rid of all the evil, evil people.
I'm having a hard time seeing anything wrong with your proposal good sir.
Great response, thank you.
What truly frightens me about this insidious thing is that although (as you point out) the pattern is easily recognisable, most people who should know better choose to look the other way.
I think this is in part due to the relative comfort of our lives in modern times, but mostly down to idealistic bullshit that has no basis in reality.
Why think critically or consider the arguments of one's opponents when one can simply scream 'RACIST!' and win arguments by default?
We have a lot of progressive idiots that like to make everything into a gender/race issue.
Indeed. This seems to be the direction Western society is moving in. Self-castration as punishment for the collective sins of all of us horribly, violently entitled white males and self-immolation as atonement for failing to respect the religious idiocies of women-hating bronze-age nomadic tribal life.
instead of having a chip on my shoulder.
That kind of bullshit, anti-social and profoundly racist attitude will get you precisely nowhere in today's world.
Machines have less problems. I'd like to be a machine. -- Andy Warhol