Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/24/exoplanet.reut/index.html

This article brings up an always interesting topic. With all of the focus on looking for life outside of our world, and with the exponential leaps in technology, it is a matter of time until we come across some type of life outside of our planet. When that day occurs, there will obviously be an impact to humanity that I can't fully grasp.

But if we look beyond the philosophical and religious impacts of such an event, I wonder what impact that will have on the way we live? Will it shake us to our core, what will it change?

What if we were to be able to test the theories of nature vs. nurture, the theories of evolution, the theories of intelligence, origin of life, and on and on in a completely different environment, where the controls were completely different. How much of an impact would that have on us?Would it be like exposing a man from the Roman empire to Wall Street, or to a child from the dark ages to FAO Schwarz, or would it be so much more?

When something changes something that we believe is absolute, does it weaken us or make us that much stronger? Does it allow us to change our paradigm and allow us to tap into those things that we didn't' even know we didn't know?

I hope to be there when this type of occurrence happens and see how it changes me.