Comment by gabrielblack | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gabrielblack | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Exactly: that remind me Kary Mullis, a Nobel Prize (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kary_Mullis#Use_of_hallucinoge...). I had a colleague AIDS denialist, he told be that AIDS doesn't exist and that's a fact because Mullins sayd so. So I read about this man that is a brilliant biochemist but with no title or specialization or experience to qualify him as AIDS expert. Reading about his personal life, I learned he was also an hallucinogens addict.About that, he also claimed "to have been rescued from a fatal accident by a person travelling in an astral plane, and to have conversed with an alien disguised as a raccoon" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/08/19/kary-mulli...). So I asked to my colleague: "what's your opinion about aliens?", his response: "they are among us, I'm sure: Mullins sayd so!". :-)

And yet this is the former head of a space agency talking about space aliens. He's within his field of expertise.

The inventor of PCR is about as “within his field” on HIV as this guy is on aliens.

The field still seems fairly undifferentiated, so 'space agency' seems to cover space travel, astronomy, satellites, and anything else outside the atmosphere. Who else is more credible, someone from SETI?

Anyone with actual proofs, I think. We have to filter the source according to the type of information: a political tabloid isn't a good source of information for science, even if someone post it on HN. An accredited scientific journal is a good source. Furthermore, it's necessary looking for "red flags" in our source (critical reading): if the source has few verifiable facts or no verifiable fact at all, maybe it's a case of "alternative fact" (aka bullshit). The search for alien life is taken seriously by the scientific community and a researcher has all the motivations to be part of the history proving the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. If you ask me, I am "probabilist", I think that they could be out there. I'm waiting for evidences. This article is not.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com