Self-study
Paula: Support Earthlike planets seem to be the rule rather than the exception, so Support there probably are intelligent beings on other planets. ████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ███████ █████ ██████████ █████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ █████████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██████████ ████████ ████████ █████████████████ ███ █████ ███████████ ████████ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ ████████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████████
███████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █████████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ████████████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████ ███████ ███ ████████████ █████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ █ █████ ██ ████ ███ ██████
Speaker 1 Summary
Paula says radio telescopes will probably find intelligent aliens. This is backed up by two chains of reasoning. First, intelligent aliens probably exist, because Earth-like planets are common. Second, aliens probably have radio communication, because they would have the same math and physics as humans, and develop similar technology.
Speaker 2 Summary
Ashley thinks it’s pointless to look for intelligent aliens using radio telescopes. Why? Because like legal and political systems, there’s no reason to think alien tech would develop like ours. This is also supported by the fact that our science and technology have been influenced by our unique characteristics and environment.
Objective
We’re looking for a disagreement. Paula and Ashley disagree about whether radio telescopes will find intelligent aliens who have also developed radio communication.
20.
The dialogue provides the most ████████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ███████
a
it is probable ████ █████ ███ ███████████ █████ ██████ ███ ████ █████████ █████ █████████████
Paula agrees with this and Ashley disagrees, making this the point of disagreement. Paula explicitly makes this claim. Ashley argues that technology depends on unique factors in each setting. This implies that alien technology would develop differently, likely without radios.
b
it is probable ████ █████ ███ ███████████ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █████████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██
Neither speaker makes this claim. Ashley gives legal and political systems as an example of likely differences between aliens and humans. She uses this as an analogy to argue that alien technology would also be different.
c
our technology is ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████
Ashley agrees with this, but Paula doesn’t give an opinion. Paula argues that alien technology would be similar to ours based on how math and science work, but never discusses the influence of our cognitive makeup one way or the other.
d
there is likely ██ ██ ███████████ ████ ██ █████ ███████
Paula agrees with this, but Ashley doesn’t state an opinion. Ashley discusses possible aliens in the abstract, but never weighs in on whether intelligent aliens are actually likely to exist or not.
e
scientists should spend ████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████ ████████████████ ████
Neither speaker talks about this claim. The discussion is just about whether radio telescopes are likely to find aliens, and doesn’t touch on the broader search for extraterrestrial life or whether we should spend more money looking for aliens.