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Found at: gopher.quux.org:70/Archives/usenet-a-news/NET.space/82.03.09_sri-unix.932_net.space.txt

Asri-unix.932
net.space
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!KING@KESTREL
Tue Mar  9 12:55:11 1982
life is dangerous on planets!
	I was recently musing over the possibility that the dinasours
met their untimely end at the hands of a large meteorite, and the
separate musing that one dinasour was beginning to show some
intellegence when the extinction happened.  The idea was put forth
that an intellegent, warm-blooded reptile might have evolved tens of
millions of years ago if this disaster hadn't happened.
	Is it possible that there is intellegent life on Earth now
because an unusually long period has passed since the last meteorite
has hit?  Perhaps attempts to calculate the distance to the nearest
neighbor ought to include a term for intellegences that never "make
it" because they keep getting creamed.
	I don't think I'd like to live on a planet the neighborhood of
which contained stars .5 parsecs apart!  First, the Sun might be the
target of an occasional near-collision.  Second, because of the higher
density of gas & dust in that region once (or how did there come to be
so many stars?) there might be more junk in the solar system then we
have.  Third, the cometary halo would be more frequently disturbed.
	Does anyone know whether the distance from the Sun to its
nearest neighbor is unusual?
						Dick
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