On: Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?

[DougWebb]

That looks so much like mold.

[jlgreco → DougWebb]

It really does. However, one should keep in mind that humans have overzealous pattern-matching engines. We are really good at erroneously seeing things that we recognize.

[betterth → jlgreco]

And when it comes to Martian geography, we are hopelessly bad at judging scale. It's very easy to be several orders of magnitude off without a guide or legend.

[RickHull → betterth]

Google Mars, the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.

[jlgreco → betterth]

True. While there are examples of life getting this large or larger on Earth (blooms, clonal colonies, etc), this seems unexpectedly large for a planet that seems otherwise lifeless.

[rapind → betterth]

So you're saying it is a Chow Chow looking down on us.

[JonnieCache → jlgreco]

Correction: humans are overzealous pattern-matching engines.

[jlgreco → JonnieCache]

Eh, we have other things as well. Meat for one. ;)

Maybe you could say that we are meaty pattern matching engines.

[jrajav → jlgreco]

Who said computers couldn't be made out of meat?

[js2 → jrajav]

How could you make that comment and not link to http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html

[shangaslammi → jrajav]

You mean like http://techland.time.com/2012/04/18/crab-computing-the-futur...

[jlgreco → jrajav]

I'd say we are proof that they can be. ;)

Saying that humans are pattern matching engines seems equivalent to saying VW Bugs are internal combustion engines to me though.

[JonnieCache → jlgreco]

I meant the "essence" of humanity, as in "what separates us from the animals."

That is what it means to be uniquely human: to match patterns, overzealously.

[technolem → JonnieCache]

Most animals are pattern matchers. Overzealous ones at that. Our specialty is abstraction and formal logic.

[tripzilch → DougWebb]

I agree, that particular image really reminds me of roots of some sort (though obviously if you zoom in, they're not really roots). However, in this other picture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mars_Global_Surveyor_1.jpg the structure really looks more like a Diffusion Limited Aggegrate ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-limited_aggregation ), which can also be generated by non-living chemical processes.

I'm not sure if these two pictures are of the same phenomenon, actually?

[dwd → DougWebb]

First thing that comes to mind is the xenofungus from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

[squidsoup → DougWebb]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a giant sentient fungus.

[loteck → squidsoup]

Gravemind?