When we use the phrase “out of this world” it means something is totally amazing, like something you have never seen before. But when we discover something that is literally out of this world, it is also metaphorically out of this world, because it’s out of this world.
Out of this world
A couple of hours ago, we watched Felix Baumgartner parachuting from 30 kilometers up in the sky. It was a big television family moment, watching this falling star and explaining that that was a human being. It crossed my mind that if he screwed up and plummeted dead into the desert dirt, we might be traumatizing the little ones for life, but it all went well. In fact, it was out of this world.
Just finished watching a Discovery Science program talking about how we are likely to react if we do make contact with an intelligent alien species and they talked about the Drake Equation, which I always thought was called the Sagan Equation, but you learn something new every day and sometimes that means unlearning something you had already learned, but learned wrong. The equation is a way to calculate the probability of making contact with extraterrestrials, which is basically a=number of stars that might have planets, b=number of planets on which life has evolved, c= is any of that life intelligent, d=has any of that intelligent life developed technology (they say dolphins are pretty smart, but they will never develop technology – no thumbs, for one thing, and it’s pretty unlikely that any water based species will ever develop metallurgy), e= how long that species might last before either blowing itself up in a nuclear war or polluting its home planet to death, like humans would, or just until it’s sun goes nova. At the time this equation was formulated, we hadn’t actually discovered any extrasolar planets. We have now confirmed that there are billions and billions, maybe trillions of them. Out of this world.
Then, there was the other news story today out of Roswell, New Mexico (that’s where the Baumgartner jump took place, too), about a BBC News crew that was trying to film a documentary at Area 51, because, you know, the dead alien they keep on ice there. Anyway, guys with guns stopped them, made them lie face down on the ground for hours with aforesaid guns pointed at their heads, said things like “We could make you disappear, nobody would ever find your body,” and took their cameras. If they truly had nothing to hide, you’d think they’d swing the gates wide, have an open house weekend for all visitors, start running tours through the place, debunk these rumors once and forever.
I can think of one good reason why they wouldn’t do that. And it’s out of this world.
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