TOK Presentation - Do Aliens Exist?

[vodkabreath]

So, that's the topic I decided to stick with. And I had it all planned out in my head, I figured I knew what I was going to say. But when I actually sat down to put it on paper, nothing (much) came, and I'm left with three quarters of a page.

I'm confusedddd. I spoke about how perception and reason are used in answering this question and how they can both be unreliable. And then I kind of stopped.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

My presentation is in less than 3 weeks, by the way, so I'm kind of panicking.

[Afterglow]

Some key points you should include:

- define alien. Is it a someone who isn't human, a living organism or a green mars-man?

- Define existing. For instance, for an alien to exist doe sit have to be able to think, speak or etc?

- Relate it to real-life situations. Why is this question important?

- If the second one in point one, then you can try to put some interesting research from NASA and such. Some links that MIGHT be useful

(haven't browsed them yet)

http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov/habitable-planets/ra7.html

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/

http://www.astrobiology.com/

http://www.resa.net/nasa/

This was an interesting article - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3588721.stm

Edited November 14, 2007 by Afterglow

[vodkabreath]

How would you prove reason's problem of verification? Or what example could I use? I'm a little stuck, haha. And yes, I'm still working on my 'Do Aliens Exist?' topic. Six more days!

Edited November 27, 2007 by vodkabreath

[Negin]

Try bringing a fallacy as an example. It's like saying, "A is B, and C is B, so the most logical explanation would be that A is also C." But an example of how this could go wrong is saying something like, "Dogs are mortal. Cats are mortal. Dogs are cats."

It could work.

[Guest Impashence]

Some key points you should include:

- define alien. Is it a someone who isn't human, a living organism or a green mars-man?

- Define existing. For instance, for an alien to exist doe sit have to be able to think, speak or etc?

- Relate it to real-life situations. Why is this question important?

- If the second one in point one, then you can try to put some interesting research from NASA and such.

I think you should also use real-life examples too. Talk about the lack of or importance/significance of evidence. That is a huge problem with alien cases. The lack of impirical evidence. And then you have a lot to talk about with REALLY knowing something, and the different areas of knowing, and truth, etc.

You could also talk about hypnosis in alien cases and how that might actually be suggesting memories and planting false memories, not bringing up old ones. - There is again a lot to talk about here with truth and what is real, etc.

We watched a documentary recently about all of this. I agree with afterglow in that you need to research more on this. I'm sure there are some interesting things that have been said by psychologists on this topic too. Go for it!

[ysl89]

How do you perceive aliens?

Must they always be flesh-eating organisms?

How do you know they are aliens?

They might just be new findings. Are the micro-mini organisms that scientists discover today aliens?

What defines an alien?

If it is something from another planet, then how do we know if the new discoveries that seem to belong to the same category as the inhabitants of planet Earth really originate from Earth or some lost undiscovered planet? Or even better, are we aliens? Although there has been the theory of evolution, we never really know if we originated from Earth, do we? Some researchers suggest that we come from a speck of dust. But isn't the Earth formed from dust from the galaxy? So how do we define alien?

And how can we know for sure if there are other living organisms in some far away galaxy if our technology has so far only been able to travel to Pluto (that's how we discovered it, right? and now it's been disproved)? A famous actor who believes in scientology once said, " It is just plain arrogant to think that we are the only living creatures in this vast universe".

[Dooga]

universe has a sum of near infinate possibilties. Life requires certain circumstances to survive, but there is a huge quantity of planets able to sustain this need.

Dictionary defenitions:

• a hypothetical or fictional being from another world.

• a plant or animal species originally introduced from another country and later naturalized.

• [ attrib. ] relating to or denoting beings supposedly from other worlds; extraterrestrial : an alien spacecraft.

Yes aliens do exist.

No personal offense:

Do not use anything in this post. Never give a dictionary definition, you will kill your teacher and she will have to give you a low mark.

Infinite possibilities is one way to prove that ANYTHING can happen, so don't mention that, because it's over the limit. Saying that there are many planets and that there is a high possibility is good, but if you lack any real life examples, or very convincing experiments, you will end up discussing how we use our ways of knowing to determine truth, and the scientific process, and this will just cover too much of the TOK curriculum in one presentation.

I do not recommend this topic because it does not pertain to a knowledge issue in real relevant life.

Edit: Sorry I guess you already presented your topic. How did it go?

Edited January 13, 2008 by Dooga

[diabolicalangle]

nice replies everyone, but i think he already did his presentation... he said 6 days more on Nov 27th

[vodkabreath]

Yeah, hahaha. Thank you for your responses, guys. I found it very helpful, but like diabolicalangle and Dooga said, I presented this in December.

And Dooga, it actually went better than I expected, hahah. I even surprised my TOK teacher with it. So, thanks everyonee, I'm not sure I could have done it as well as I did without your help. :]