Alien Life do you believe?

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Are there things alive out there? Without a doubt - of course.

Are there something like "other people" out there that we can communicate with? I wouldn't count on it.

 

[Anika Hanson]

I believe in things which have irrefutable proof, however at the same time there is no proof that aliens don't exist, so I I don't believe either way. I do hope that there are aliens.

 

[indranee]

Yes, I am a believer in intelligent extraterrestrial life. It's just too improbable that we're alone in the universe, or even in the galaxy. As Carl Sagan said, it would be a terrible waste of space.

Alienesse, who is that in your ava?

 

[MikeS]

No mention of the Fermi paradox here? Where are they?

 

[JarodRussell]

No mention of the Fermi paradox here? Where are they?

The Fermi paradox is no paradox, because - as said before - you can't even calculate a probability to begin with. So there is no contradiction. The Fermi paradox is based on the Drake equation, and this cartoon sums up what most people think about the Drake equation:

 

[Sibo191]

Yes I thought the poll was too poorly worded to be taken seriously, so I voted no on principle.

Poorly worded, how so? Seemed like a straight forward to me.

Well taking the word 'believe' out gets rid of the pseudo-religious tone and taking 'alien' out gets rid of the tinfoil hat tone. "Do you think there might be other life in the universe?" would have returned 100% yes vote, but I'm not sure what anyone thinks that proves.

The poll question is this:

View Poll Results: Do to think there is life out there?

The term believe does not need to have any religious undertones. From Dictionary.com:

verb (used without object) 1. to have confidence in truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so...

So ummm... Pseudo-religious, and tinfoil tones?

 

[kythe]

Why is Frank Drake not taken seriously? He did a lot of the early research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life and brought a lot of attention to the possibility, but he is far from the only scientists who is searching for extraterrestrial life. Also, his theory was developed during the 1960's and 70's, but there is a lot more we know today about our galaxy as a whole.

Starting around the mid-1980's, astronomers began detecting planets around other stars, confirming that many stars do have solar systems of their own. Some of the first planets detected were gas giants like Jupiter, not surprising since they are very large. Now, better technology has made it possible to see somewhat smaller planets as well.

To date, over 500 planets have been discovered orbiting various stars, and there is ongoing search for what they call "Earth-like planets". The Gliese 581 system looks promising, but is also controversial. Planet-detecting is still relatively new to us, but the search for extraterrestrial life is becoming more mainstream in science (this is not even including the several space probes sent out within our own solar system looking for signs of water and microbial life - it hasn't yet been ruled out). This still doesn't mean we will be contacting intelligent humanoid aliens, but as for finding life, we are getting there.

 

[T'Girl]

Why is Frank Drake not taken seriously?

his theory was developed during the 1960's and 70's

there is a lot more we know today about our galaxy as a whole.

Basically answered your own question there.

 

[Deckerd]

To date, over 500 planets have been discovered orbiting various stars, and there is ongoing search for what they call "Earth-like planets". The Gliese 581 system looks promising, but is also controversial. Planet-detecting is still relatively new to us, but the search for extraterrestrial life is becoming more mainstream in science (this is not even including the several space probes sent out within our own solar system looking for signs of water and microbial life - it hasn't yet been ruled out). This still doesn't mean we will be contacting intelligent humanoid aliens, but as for finding life, we are getting there.

The search for extraterrestrial life is ONLY the space probes within our solar system. Identifying distant planets is not searching for life. In fact, since SETI has been abandoned, you could say the search is being completely confined to local planets.

 

[kythe]

The search for extraterrestrial life is ONLY the space probes within our solar system. Identifying distant planets is not searching for life. In fact, since SETI has been abandoned, you could say the search is being completely confined to local planets.

I wasn't aware of the latest status of SETI. Thanks for the link. It seems it hasn't been "adandoned" per se, as that the government funding for it has discontinued. I can't say I disagree with this move. When you consider how severely in debt our government is, there are certainly more important priorities now.

When Arthur C. Clarke first wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey", he believed it was realistic that humans would actually be exploring the solar system by 2001. When you consider the fast rate of scientific advances during the 50's and 60's, culminating in the first step on the moon, it seemed quite believable that in just 30 more years we would be going much further. Funding cuts greatly prevented this too.

 

[Skellington]

^ If more people thought like Clarke, the world would probably be a much better place. Unfortunately, he may have misidentified the motivations behind the space race. The Soviets beat the USA to space and the USA then had to redress the balance pretty sharpish. Once this had been done with the moon landings, it would have been extremely difficult to justify the added expense of a major push towards, say, Mars. The decline and collapse of the Soviet Union probably didn't help, either.

 

[Rom's Sehlat]

So in other words, because the Soviet Union fell we stopped exploring space? It's good to know that the Russians single-handedly kept space exploration going.

 

[Deckerd]

They're still single-handedly keeping space exploration going, since US astronauts will be using their rockets for the next few years at the very least.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

The human species is pretty sick in the head, all in all. Some people, by themselves, are okay.

You have that exactly reversed, the vast bulk of humanity are fantastic people, it's the fraction of one percent that are truly twisted


watching the news can give you a distorted view of the real world. as far as the news media is concerned, it is the squeky wheel that gets the grease, and if it bleeds it leads. it sells more soap and cars to show a screamin mob outside of a burning church in egypt, than to show hundreds of thousands of egyptians clamly tending their crops.

No, I think I'm not expressing myself correctly. People, by themselves, in mundane situations, are mostly good.

However, people, in hords, when confronted with the unknown (too unknown, not mildly), or an apocalyptic scenario, become sociopaths in order to survive. Most of them do. A few people would always do the right thing regardless of the majority, and they make all the difference.

Hence, I believe in the power of good. Because where most people would fuck up, some would end up saving the day.

 

[kythe]

Why is Frank Drake not taken seriously?

his theory was developed during the 1960's and 70's

there is a lot more we know today about our galaxy as a whole.

Basically answered your own question there.

Oops - I was re-reading this and realized I missed this response yesterday. I still don't think there is evidence of him being discredited in any way, he still seems to be taken seriously in many scientific circles. He just is known for something that isn't the most updated idea. I think Drake's theories have been expounded on as others have also formulated theories on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, but his ideas were not really dismissed.

 

[antiquityscion]

Well given the sheer vastness of the universe with an uncountable number of stars, surely there must be life somewhere out there.

As to whether or not we will ever make contact that is a separate question

+1

 

[JarodRussell]

Well given the sheer vastness of the universe with an uncountable number of stars, surely there must be life somewhere out there.

Why?

 

[Rom's Sehlat]

Well given the sheer vastness of the universe with an uncountable number of stars, surely there must be life somewhere out there.

Why?

Why not?

He is talking about statistically. Statistically speaking, with the uncountable amount of stars (basically infinite), chances are there is life elsewhere.

I personally don't think so, but I also don't really care. If they leave me alone, I'll leave them alone. Everybody's happy.

 

[Bill Morris]

Well, I would think that on any roughly Earth-sized planet of similar density in the habitable zone of a main-squence star, especially a planet with a moon of substantial mass or even a planetary twin, goo would form and eventually lead to formation of life. (There are 46 sunlike stars within 55 light-years of Earth, and some other types of stars can't be completely rulled out as possibile hosts, although Sun-sized flare stars seem poor candidates.) And even Mars may have had life in the past.

Two such main-sequence stars some 39 light-years from Earth are Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 Reticuli, which are roughly a billion years older than our Sun and only three light-weeks apart, which suggests that if a species at our present level of technological development a billion years ago inhabited an M-class world orbiting one of those two stars they would have been quite familiar with the characteristics of the neighboring system and perhaps highly motivated to send intersteller probes, given the relative quality of information and ease of doing so in comparison with our situation in that regard.

And a billion years or so later (our present day), having easy access to the art of Earth in its many forms, perhaps many such folks are Star Trek fans, some of which may even be active members of TrekBBS!

 

[MikeS]

It's a shame there isn't a "like" button on this board.

Thanks "LCARS 24".