Aliens

[Task]

If aliens do exist then that means that they have been evading us for century's, so they would obviously have higher intelligence. I believe aliens exist but I also believe that we should give up any hope of FINDING them.

 

[Richard Lynch]

A few years ago I used to think that there were aliens who looked at me in the night sometimes, but it turned out I was having a thing called sleep paralysis which makes me see hallucinations just after waking up if I am sleeping in a certain position. It was very scary but it doesn't happen any more because I found out that it only happens if I am laying on my back so now I always lay on my belly. You see?

Hey, kudos to you for realizing this. Sleep paralysis is actually often mistaken for alien encounters and abductions. I've experienced it three or so times, but I've seen ghost-like figures, shadows and fog-like mists. Bright lights outside the window and shadowy figures moving around the room are the most common, and I can easily see how the paralysis (brought on because your brain cuts of the motor cortex from your body when you dream; otherwise you'd act your dreams out!) can lead to the alien visitation idea.

I'm pretty sure it's (somehow) been mathematically proven that there has to be life out there in the universe.

Kind of. I think what you're thinking of is the Drake Equation, which is a little sketchy because some of the values of the parameters are based solely on guesstimation, but it's interesting nonetheless!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

As for me, I agree with most. There's an old quote by scientist and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke that I heard once, and it's never left me (I'm paraphrasing based on memory here):

Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth. Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. And as we know, every star is of course a sun, (highly likely) with planets revolving around it. So just within the Milky Way, there is enough room for everyone living, and everyone who once lived, to have their own world.

I believe there's life out there, and I believe it slightly naive to think there couldn't be. The universe is just too damn big.

Now alien visitation and abduction... that's a different story. ;)

 

[Rich Boy Rob]

I'm pretty sure it's (somehow) been mathematically proven that there has to be life out there in the universe.

Intelligent life, I'm not so sure on... but it probably does exist.

That's the Drake Equation. It doesn't prove the existence of alien life per se, but is more like an estimate of how the potential number of alien civilisations (not just sentient animals but actually sapient) in the Milky Way.
According to Wikipedia it is: N= R* x fp x ne x fe x fi x fc x L

I think we haven't found life because we're looking for it under Earth's standards. Obviously, if life developed on another planet, it won't be under Earth's standards. It'll be under that planet's standards. That, I think, will make it really hard for us to find life if it doesn't walk up to us with a ray gun or something.

Obviously life on other planets will completely different to terrestrial life, but at this stage due to the fact we have no real frame of reference as to what, if any habitats are most likely to be habitable by aliens, all we can really do is look for planets similar to Earth, with plenty of liquid water and an Oxygen rich atmosphere. Besides, while we are still earthbound we can only really look for planets with the possibility of housing life similar to ours. We will only ever find proper proof for the existence of extra-terrestrials if we either actively seek them out in space or they present themselves to us.

I agree with what many here say. If we saw alien life, depending on the conditions it has evolved under, we might look straight past it without even noticing. Why says it must be organic? Who says it must be carbon-based? Who says it needs to be built up of physical matter, or even be visible to our visual spectrum? Who says it is even confined to just this dimension, or has to have originated in this dimension? There are so many possibilities. Many, many worlds that may have their own unique way for life to live.

I agree with most of what you say, but I'm having trouble what you mean by in-organic life. Do you mean life made up of say, minerals like metal or rock?

Although, depending on who finds who, it could be problamatic for us. It is human nature, and i belive to be every inteligent beings nature, war and conflict advance civilization fastest. Look at how far planes came from the begining of WWI to the end of WWII, or how the cold war brought us to space. IMO any advanced civilization would be a violent civilzation. Ive never seen the hippies planning a space mission, but we seem to think, or mabye just hope, that this is how other civilzations will be. No advanced civilization would come in peace. only to conquer.

I disagree. We only evolved as a militaristic species because that was what suited our evolutionary path. We needed to compete for food and territory with both ourselves and our now extinct relatives such as the Neanderthals. We simply kept on fighting because that is how we are programmed to survive.
There may be other species out there who have no concept of war. The most likely candidates would be (the equivalent of) a herbivorous civilisation. They would not have needed to evolve a way of killing their prey, as they had no need to. Humanity only invented weapons as a way of killing our prey more efficiently, another species may have started out by making tools to retrieve food from alien flora.

 

[Tacogeddon]

Seems like PC gets one of these threads every month or so! In my opinion, aliens are a pretty decent "probably" because on a scale of 1 to 10, the Milky Way is around the "oh damn" level of big. Sol is one of many hundreds of billions of stars, which in itself is the problem, unless Humans or another species can find the appropriate hammer with which to smash the laws of physics to death with and invent Faster than Light travel, we might just never find each other. If we DO find each other, then we might be limited to tossing messages back and forth like the world's most lag-ridden instant message chat.

And all that is considering they think even marginally like us!

 

[Jolene]

I think that intelligent aliens will look pretty much the same as humans do. I think that the human shape is the most suitable for intelligent life and stuffs.

 

[Rich Boy Rob]

I think that intelligent aliens will look pretty much the same as humans do. I think that the human shape is the most suitable for intelligent life and stuffs.

Although that may be true for planets very similar to ours, it's highly unlikely for others. For example a Super-Earth with immense gravitational would more likely have either poly-pedal life or possibly slug like creatures to support their massive weight. Then again a low-g planet or possibly moon may have life more adapted to low-grav flight that glide on the winds. Even ignoring gravity, a planet with a water or at least liquid surface would have aquatic and possibly airborne life.
Even looking at earthly life, octopuses are a highly intelligent race. Try telling me they look like us. Internally they're set out completely differently aswell, for instance their brain is wrapped around around their trachea and they have no skeleton.

 

[Alkaide]

The poll results say what I want to...

I believe in aliens, we are not alone in this universe.

 

[The Doctor]

Yes. We Cant Be The Only Inhabitable Planet In The Infinite Galaxy.

As For UFO's. I Dont Think They Exist. Unidentified Flying Objects Exist But Not In The Sense Of :

. I Think Aliens Have More Dignity Than To Fly Around In That :D

I Wouldnt Call Them Aliens Really Because Alien Is Just A Word To Describe Something Unknown.

Like Some Foods Are Alien To Me :D

 

[Magmarizer]

Then again a low-g planet or possibly moon may have life more adapted to low-grav flight that glide on the winds.

A small planet wouldent have the gravity to hold a atmosphere capable of supporting life. Not even a mars sized planet does. although life could arise on that planet, it would be forced to live in the seas.

 

[Ray Maverick]

You haven't added the "I don't know" choise in the poll.

 

[.Gamer]

Law of Averages says that there has to be something else out there. I believe in that so I hit yes, do I believe that they come to earth and stay in New Mexico? No.

 

[KejiBebi]

Yes I believe in them.
There's no way this is the only place in the whole universe that harbors life. The universe has an infinite amount of space.
Whether we will ever prove there is another place with life I don't know, but I do strongly believe it is there. =]

 

[Dawn]

Do I believe in aliens..? Hahaha! HAHAHA! What do you mean? I am an alie--

.../tinfoilhat

Nope. Just a normal alien fearing human here. Nothing to see.

 

[Rich Boy Rob]

Not even a mars sized planet does. although life could arise on that planet, it would be forced to live in the seas.

Well now I know that's not true. I'm not sure how long ago it was (I think it was a few billion years ago), [EDIT: It was apparently the first few billion years of Mars' life] but anyway Mars only lost it's atmosphere and possible water because it died as a planet. It's iron core solidified, causing it's magnetic field to fade and it's atmosphere to escape the planet. Before that, scientists think it was very like earth with a warm climate and a water rich surface.

 

[Mobile Tisk]

Yes, I believe aliens do exist and that some of them disguise themselves as humans. Because some people are just so fat/fugly that it isn't possible for them to be human.

 

[Lacy LePlante]

No, I don't necessarily. I believe there may have been at some point, but they're probably long dead on some planet on the opposite end of the universe. That is, somewhat-intelligent life. I'm sure there's microscopic organisms somewhere in the universe, probably in our solar system.

It's extremely unlikely there is anything we'll ever see in our planet's lifetime. It's not something we should waste our time seeking out, since even if there is life out there, it will never affect us.

 

[ChrisTom]

Well if you're talking about the stereotypical, cliche, "Grey Alien" as seen in cartoons and Roswell Mexico Souveniers, No. I don't believe in those*. Mainly because they are too humanoid. The odds of extraterrestrials is VERY likely, but the odds of them looking anything remotely like us (2 eyes, 2 legs, 2 arms, humanoid figure) is unbelievably slim.

However I do believe there is Extraterrestrial life, certainly that more intelligent than us. If I may quote from (fuzzy) memory:

The following is purely hypothetical and based off of statistics:

Planets(2 to a star): 10 to the 44th power
Planets with hypothetical lifeforms: 100,000,000
Planets with invertebraes: 106,089
Planets with vertebraes: 103
Planets with semi-intelligent life: 74
Planets with human intelligence: 17
Planets with above human intelligence: 6

-Andromeda Strain

My guess is that the creatures probably look like insects or squids. The most realistic yet humanoid interpretation I've seen is from "District 9" but even they were too humanoid. Whatever the creatures are they are sure to be nothing like we ever imagined.


*I think that if these "Grey Aliens" are real, they are NOT extraterrestrials, but time travellers from a future mankind. They would be evolved humans who mastered time travel...

 

[Eldrei]

I believe in Aliens more than Gods.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Put me in the "most likely, but I'm not gonna say yes for sure until they come to Earth" category. We probably aren't the only planet in the universe that can support intelligent life, but I would like to see the proof for myself.

 

[Guillermo]

Yes. We Cant Be The Only Inhabitable Planet In The Infinite Galaxy.

As For UFO's. I Dont Think They Exist. Unidentified Flying Objects Exist But Not In The Sense Of :

. I Think Aliens Have More Dignity Than To Fly Around In That :D

I Wouldnt Call Them Aliens Really Because Alien Is Just A Word To Describe Something Unknown.

Like Some Foods Are Alien To Me :D

You're kidding me, right? That thing is awesome.

Anything we have no information on is unknown.

And yes, the universe is far too large for our planet to have the only source of life. Whether it be aliens, humans, some kind of bug/alien/dog thing, something exists. You'd be a fool not to believe so.