Aliens.

[Åzurε]

I think we are, as a planet, alone in the universe. If there was reasonable, physical proof otherwise I'd gladly revise, but until then I'm pretty firm on that.

 

[Pokehead]

There may be other life out there, but Aliens aren't going to invade the earth.

Dammit, all that money wasted on firearms, and what will I do with my nuclear stockpile now?! Sell it on E-Bay?!


Ok, now to actually contribute to thread and stay on topic.

Quite frankly, I think its impossible for aliens NOT to exist. As posters before me have said, there are billions of stars in the Milky Way alone. And there are billion of galaxies in the KNOWN universe. The math tells us we can practically bet our lives on it. Now, will we ever meet is another question entirely.

 

[s l u g]

I find it impossible to think that there are no aliens and i find it pretty egotistical of people to think that we are the only ones in all that space.
I think that the possibility of aliens on earth is highly improbable though not because i have a closed mind but because of many logical reasons one of which is from hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, which i find a very logical outlook of the universe (in a warped way!), it's the fact that the average population of the universe is zero because the universe is so huge that only if a being inhabited every point in the universe would the average equal one i hope your following this... so because there's so many people on earth and because the nearest star is billions of miles away the nearest populated planet must also be miles and miles away add that to the probability that they have space flight capability and the possibility that they'd head our way and it all adds up to a high improbability that aliens have ever come anywhere near earth but it is still possible but i think that if aliens had really visited earth we would have absolute proof that they had as they probably would've tried to have made contact because after all one of the reasons for space travel is to meet new life & civilizations and to boldly go where no on has gone before ?

 

[lx_theo]

The only actual reason I can think of for a person to completely void the possibility is that they are religious enough to think we are that special that we are a one of a kind in the sentience respect

 

[I Laugh at your Misfortune!]

Arthur C. Clarke is quoted as saying "Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."

I have to say, I agree.

 

[Captain Fabio]

It isn't impossible.
It is very possible if you think about it.

But who knows.

 

[~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~]

anything can happen, but for this topic, i really don't care


:t354:TG

 

[The Scientist]

This galaxy alone contains more or less 10 billion stars, and the chance of a star having the same habitable condition such as ours is less than 10%, and in that 10% there is another 10% of having a habitable planet such as ours. I'm talking here a very small probability of having life in other star system. Nevertheless, that small percentage mean big to us. If we are able to communicate to other advanced beings(which I doubt at this present technology), we are able to conclude that there are other advanced life forms other than us. And of the billions of galaxy and of the centillion(more or less) stars there, it is almost impoosible to say that we are alone.

Alternate forms of life don't necessarily need Earthen conditions to live.

Don't forget kiddies, humans are adapted to Earth, not the other way around.

 

[Miz en Scène]

I wrote nearly an entire paragraph on this in another thread and I thought I might as well post it here too.

Alternate forms of life don't necessarily need Earthen conditions to live.

Agreed and Seconded.

I'm a fairly scientific and religious person so here's my view.

Life is a relative term. Generally we think something is a living being when it is carbon/nitrogen/ect. based manifestation of something that can grow and reproduce. However, as I've said, life is a relative term. There could be other forms of life that are not element based nor are physical. They could be photon based, heat based, energy based life forms that do not necessarily have to grow old or reproduce. They would not even have to think.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is. With other creatures, the definition of life varies. For example, a rock at the side of the road. It does not breathe, does not grow, does not reproduce, and it doesn't think. To us, that would mean that it was not a living organism. But, from a rock's point of view, it is there it exists and it has cousins (i.e. gravel, quartz, heavy metals) therefore from its point of view it is a living thing. To it, humans could just be natural phenomena.

Life as I've said is a very relative. Who's to say that beams of light are not life. Even more radical would be, beings made of light. Beings made of heat. Who knows, maybe dark matter is a sentient form of life that makes up much of the mass of the universe.

If, you're still insistent on life on other planets. More commonly speaking, intelligent life. You can use the Drake Equation.


The Drake equation states that:

where:
N is the number of civilizations in our galaxy in which communication might be possible; and
R* is the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
fp is the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fℓ is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc is the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L is the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.[2]

 

[darthvagabond100]

yup, i think there are definitely aliens or other lifeforms out there that can vastly range in intelligence and appearance. also it is true that not all life forms require earths attributes to spawn/survive.

 

[Guillermo]

The universe is too large for another lifeform to not exist.