Are We Alone in the Universe?

[Spirit of 73]

Things and Stuff

The recent trend among scientists in certain fields, so far as I can tell from perusing their writings, is to be sanguine about the chances of there being intelligent life somewhere else in the universe. This trend is really quite remarkable given the typical attitude of scientists in other areas and the paucity of evidence for this life. The same scientific community which stubbornly refuses to acknowledge some very clear indications of life on Mars turned up by the Voyager experiments of the 1970’s is nevertheless cautiously optimistic about finding it elsewhere. Many well respected scientists like Seth Shostak have spent many hours scanning the heavens for some sign of radio contact from another civilization, and a couple have even recently announced that, given the very real possibility of intelligent life evolving elsewhere, perhaps we shouldn’t so quickly scoff at UFO reports.

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Things and Stuff

 

[wamdue]

there may well be life on other planets, however for us to assume that they have nothing better to do than visit us (in secret) as very self centred

 

[TheBrew]

I think, mathematically, it is nearly impossible for there not to be life elsewhere.

 

[Arrqh]

Mathematically, we can't make any sort of determination. It is entirely possible that the odds of life forming on a planet are 1/x where x is the total number of planets in the universe. Or not. The Drake Equation not withstanding, we simply just don't know enough about the universe yet to honestly say anything about the possibility or lack thereof.

 

[Bad Bishop]

The same scientific community which stubbornly refuses to acknowledge some very clear indications of life on Mars turned up by the Voyager experiments of the 1970’s is nevertheless cautiously optimistic about finding it elsewhere. Many well respected scientists like Seth Shostak have spent many hours scanning the heavens for some sign of radio contact from another civilization...

They just don't know when to quit. SETI is a huge waste of time.

 

[-Brett-]

The universe is pretty big. I tend to doubt we're alone in it.

On the other hand, the universe is pretty big. I tend to doubt that any extra terrestrial intelligence would ever stumble across Earth, much less start secretly abducting hillbillies and anal probing them.

 

[wamdue]

^ what else would they do?

 

[Wicca who Wonta]

I don't think it's very probable that all the solar systems in all the galaxies of the universe lack life. Our planet is probably just too remote to have met any other sentient life forms.

 

[Skywalker]

If we are alone, it seems like an awful waste of space.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Off to the Science and Technology forum.

 

[C.E. Evans]

The same scientific community which stubbornly refuses to acknowledge some very clear indications of life on Mars turned up by the Voyager experiments of the 1970’s is nevertheless cautiously optimistic about finding it elsewhere. Many well respected scientists like Seth Shostak have spent many hours scanning the heavens for some sign of radio contact from another civilization...

They just don't know when to quit. SETI is a huge waste of time.

Isn't the range of radio signals that can be listened to actually somewhat limited? After a light-year or so, the signals are impossible to distinguish from just background noise, so any alien contact would have to be relatively close to Earth to begin with...

If we are alone, it seems like an awful waste of space.

Unless we regard stars and planets as life-forms of their own, then the Universe is chock full of life...

 

[Jolaris]

If we are alone, it seems like an awful waste of space.

"There are billions of stars out there in the universe. If only a small percentage of those have planets that can sustain life and only a small percentage of those planets have intelligent life there are literally millions of civilisations out there."

Best movie ever made. (The book is almost as good). It makes me cry several times every damn time.

 

[TerriO]

I firmly agree with the theory behind the Drake equation. It's statistically very highly improbably that we're alone in the universe. We're probably just in a remote area that hasn't been explored yet.

 

[USS KG5]

I firmly agree with the theory behind the Drake equation. It's statistically very highly improbably that we're alone in the universe. We're probably just in a remote area that hasn't been explored yet.

Or whichever alien race has explored this far left well alone. It is quite logical that they would have a good look from very high orbit where we would be highly, highly unlikely to see them and then be on their way.

 

[Deckerd]

I firmly agree with the theory behind the Drake equation. It's statistically very highly improbably that we're alone in the universe. We're probably just in a remote area that hasn't been explored yet.

Or we are the most advanced species so far.

 

[Meredith]

They could have converted a large amount of matter in the universe into giant planet sized computers and uploaded their minds into them, we call this "Dark Matter".

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I don't think we're alone.

We may not ever *find* other civilizations, but that doesn't mean they're not there.

In God's infinite universe, anything is possible.

 

[Arrqh]

I firmly agree with the theory behind the Drake equation. It's statistically very highly improbably that we're alone in the universe. We're probably just in a remote area that hasn't been explored yet.

The Drake equation does not suggest that in any definitive way. If anything, it was designed to show how complex such a prediction is mathematically speaking and the uncertainly involved... and there is considerable disagreement as to the values of the terms which would have a huge effect on the prediction.

Drake's point, as I understand it, was not "these are the chances of life occuring" but "these are the factors and currently unmeasured variables involved."

 

[Triskelion]

Went to a SETI conference once. I learned that 1+1= ∞
Meaning, if life happens here, and it can be shown to happen in one other instance, then it's scientifically valid to go ahead and project the existence of life throughout the universe.

If that's the case, then we are in for a very interesting and strange future!

 

[TerriO]

I firmly agree with the theory behind the Drake equation. It's statistically very highly improbably that we're alone in the universe. We're probably just in a remote area that hasn't been explored yet.

The Drake equation does not suggest that in any definitive way. If anything, it was designed to show how complex such a prediction is mathematically speaking and the uncertainly involved... and there is considerable disagreement as to the values of the terms which would have a huge effect on the prediction.

Drake's point, as I understand it, was not "these are the chances of life occuring" but "these are the factors and currently unmeasured variables involved."

Then I must have been operating on a bad understanding of the theory.

Personally, I believe it's ridiculously highly improbable that of all the known stars out there, even if the smallest percentage of them have planets in orbit, and the smallest percentage of those starts have planets orbiting in the habitable zone, and the smallest percentage of those planets have the building blocks of life, that's still a boatload of planets out there that hold the potential for life.