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planet of the apes hypothesis

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aliens

Failure of the Planet of the Apes Hypothesis

Charley Lineweaver, a scientist with the SETI Institute, argued today that pure human vanity, not scientific evidence, leads us to believe that if humans were wiped off the face of the Earth some other species (probably an ape of some kind) would rise to fill the "intelligence niche" that we Homo sapiens currently occupy. He calls this the "Planet of the Apes hypothesis," and believes that life here on Earth has already shown it to be false. That means the way we're searching for extra-terrestrial life — or even the act of searching itself — is terribly misguided. More »

1:40 PM on Thu Apr 17 2008
By Michael Reilly
4,966 views, 36 comments

Latest by Spiral: I may have missed someone else say this, so I apologize if they did. So SETI would stop doing actual work because a new theory says they might be wrong? I find that a poor reason to stop searching. "Billy, your more »