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Fibonacci series demonstrates intelligence, but only if …

Denyse O'Leary
April 24, 2012
Extraterrestrial life, Intelligent Design, News
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SETI@home screensaver

A friend sent this: From Alien Encounters: The Message on the Science channel

After discussing how the Fibonacci series is found throughout nature,

If we got a message that contained the Fibonacci series, the most important thing [it] would say is, “This really is from intelligence.” – Douglas Vakoch (psychologist, SETI Institute)

So it would demonstrate intelligence only if we can attribute it to a space alien? And they never write, they never phone … Or what?

Question: How did science get into this mess?

Comments
I remember the old Star tRek series. mostly they preached about humans having evolved but in one episode they said people on earth were from humans from other planets. they just don't like the Christian story of Genesis I think. Probably this was and is behind much of evolutionary biology.Robert Byers
April 24, 2012
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Everything is an approximation. The problem is then to find an explanation for a set of observations. A good explanation fits the data well and satisfies a number of criteria such as parsimony, falsifiability, and predictive power. As far as I know, Fibonacci series are really widespread.Eugene S
April 24, 2012
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That´s not true There are real fibonacci sequences throughout nature.deadlock
April 24, 2012
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This is mostly a confusion. 1: The Fibonacci sequence is not found throughout nature. As best I can tell, it is never found. What we do find, are approximations. These seem unremarkable, because they are what you would expect when the rate of growth is proportional to the current size. 2: What would impress us, coming from an alien, is an exact Fibonnaci series, not a mere approximation.Neil Rickert
April 24, 2012
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This is the "philosophy of science" showing. It's really about leaving open-ended "answers" that can be filled in at will to fit whatever agenda one happens to be in need of at a particular moment. Very convenient, ya know.Brent
April 24, 2012
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