Hm, we only have 8 planets now.

[Warrior]

I was saying, if there's intelligent life out there, maybe they're thinking these same things about us. IE, we believe we revolve around the sun, and we call it a star. If there are moon men, perhaps they think they revolve around the earth, and that it's a star. A really funky one that only gives light from weird angles. And the other planets, to them, are other stars. I just think it's kind of cool.

What the hell....somewhere an Astronomy teacher is crying right now.

Why, exactly?  Everything he said is factually correct, as far as I can tell..

That is so incredibly retarded, who the hell thinks like that. Astronomy teachers usually teach valuable information not babble on about their rendition of the how the universe works.

[iago]

I was saying, if there's intelligent life out there, maybe they're thinking these same things about us. IE, we believe we revolve around the sun, and we call it a star. If there are moon men, perhaps they think they revolve around the earth, and that it's a star. A really funky one that only gives light from weird angles. And the other planets, to them, are other stars. I just think it's kind of cool.

What the hell....somewhere an Astronomy teacher is crying right now.

Why, exactly?  Everything he said is factually correct, as far as I can tell..

That is so incredibly retarded, who the hell thinks like that. Astronomy teachers usually teach valuable information not babble on about their rendition of the how the universe works.

I don't think that he's giving any rendition on how he thinks the universe works.  He was giving a, "wouldn't it be interesting if...." scenario, about how aliens might feel about our star.  Not the deepest thought, but I don't think he even attempts to put forward any facts or even any opinions. 

[Sidoh]

Why, exactly?  Everything he said is factually correct, as far as I can tell..

Not really.  Assuming they think they revolve around "the star" Earth makes no sense to me.  A star is a sphere of burning gas, which Earth is not.  Giving a word a totally different, unaccepted definition makes a statement pretty false, if you ask me.

[iago]

Why, exactly?  Everything he said is factually correct, as far as I can tell..

Not really.  Assuming they think they revolve around "the star" Earth makes no sense to me.  A star is a sphere of burning gas, which Earth is not.  Giving a word a totally different, unaccepted definition makes a statement pretty false, if you ask me.

So the possibility that moon-men might consider earth to be a star is a false?  How can an opinion be incorrect?

[MyndFyre]

I was saying, if there's intelligent life out there, maybe they're thinking these same things about us. IE, we believe we revolve around the sun, and we call it a star. If there are moon men, perhaps they think they revolve around the earth, and that it's a star. A really funky one that only gives light from weird angles. And the other planets, to them, are other stars. I just think it's kind of cool.

What the hell....somewhere an Astronomy teacher is crying right now.

Why, exactly?  Everything he said is factually correct, as far as I can tell..

Because he's assuming they would have the same definitions as we.  If they called the earth a star and the sun a planet, to us, the earth is still a planet and the sun still a star.  It's just word trivialities and semantic crap.

[Rule]

It's just word trivialities and semantic crap.

Right up your alley then.

[Sidoh]

So the possibility that moon-men might consider earth to be a star is a false?  How can an opinion be incorrect?

Because the definition of a star is objective; opinions have nothing to do with it.

[iago]

So the possibility that moon-men might consider earth to be a star is a false?  How can an opinion be incorrect?

Because the definition of a star is objective; opinions have nothing to do with it.

Aliens wouldn't necessarily have the same definition, and I think that was his point.  They might consider the Earth the same way we consider the Sun/a Star. 

I don't think aliens' opinion of earth is objective at all, unltil we meet aliens and ask them. 

[Rule]

So the possibility that moon-men might consider earth to be a star is a false?  How can an opinion be incorrect?

Because the definition of a star is objective; opinions have nothing to do with it.

Aliens wouldn't necessarily have the same definition, and I think that was his point.  They might consider the Earth the same way we consider the Sun/a Star. 

I don't think aliens' opinion of earth is objective at all, unltil we meet aliens and ask them. 

So you're saying his point was that aliens might happen to use the English word "star," and give it a completely different definition.   Seems like rather meaningless speculation...

I could interpret his post to be saying, "aliens might have a completely different perspective of our solar system than we do," but it's hard to interpolate anything subtle or non-obvious from what was wrriten.

[iago]

So you're saying his point was that aliens might happen to use the English word "star," and give it a completely different definition.   Seems like rather meaningless speculation...

I could interpret his post to be saying, "aliens might have a completely different perspective of our solar system than we do," but it's hard to interpolate anything subtle or non-obvious from what was wrriten.

I can agree with that.  It still doesn't make him wrong, technically, just useless.  And I think I said that

[Joe]

Why, exactly?  Everything he said is factually correct, as far as I can tell..

Not really.  Assuming they think they revolve around "the star" Earth makes no sense to me.  A star is a sphere of burning gas, which Earth is not.  Giving a word a totally different, unaccepted definition makes a statement pretty false, if you ask me.

In my said theory, star simply means the center of the universe to them, for clarification.

[Rule]

Why, exactly?  Everything he said is factually correct, as far as I can tell..

Not really.  Assuming they think they revolve around "the star" Earth makes no sense to me.  A star is a sphere of burning gas, which Earth is not.  Giving a word a totally different, unaccepted definition makes a statement pretty false, if you ask me.

In my said theory, star simply means the center of the universe to them, for clarification.

Can you explain why they're using English?

[Sidoh]

Aliens wouldn't necessarily have the same definition, and I think that was his point.  They might consider the Earth the same way we consider the Sun/a Star. 

I don't think aliens' opinion of earth is objective at all, unltil we meet aliens and ask them. 

Then the word "star" becomes meaningless, which is exactly what I was saying.  Just because two words are pronounced the same way in two different languages doesn't mean that they have the same meaning behind them.

Opinions are never objective, but that isn't the point of what I'm attempting to say.  The definition of a star is objective.  The definition behind the word we use to represent the definition is objective.  Sure, you can choose any arbitrary sequence of communication methods to accomplish this, but that doesn't mean that two matching ways in two different languages should have the same definition.  It's a burning sphere of gas.  Words mean nothing if their definitions aren't considered.  If two words in two different languages are pronounced in the same way but have totally different definitions, what's the point of comparing them for the sake of definition?

The alien may say: "The Earth is our *star*," but according to our definition of a star, "a celestial body of hot gases that radiates energy derived from thermonuclear reactions in the interior," we would not agree, so we either assume that a) The aliens are incorrect because they are ignorant and are unable to determine that the Earth is not a burning ball of gas or b) The aliens have a different definition for the word "star."  If b) is true, we can also assume that they have another word to represent our definition of "star."

This is such a useless argument.

In my said theory, star simply means the center of the universe to them, for clarification.

The sun is not the center of "our" universe.  It is the center of our solar system, which is not even close to a universe.  It never was the center and never will be.  If the "center of the universe" even existed (I don't think it does), it would be the same point in space from every vantage point.

Can you explain why they're using English?

Haha, exactly why I said the argument I'm having with iago is dumb.  haha.