Is There A Such Thing as Extraterrestrial Life?

[Derek The Infamous]

Are we alone in the universe? Discuss.

[Todd]

Given the fact that the universe is basically infinite and there are hundreds of billions of galaxies out there, I highly doubt we're alone.

[Dedicated]

Given the fact that the universe is basically infinite and there are hundreds of billions of galaxies out there, I highly doubt we're alone.

I agree with this. It'd be ignorant to assume we are the only beings in the universe.

[Derek The Infamous]

Okay, taking those two viewpoints into mind...how long do you think we (as humans) are from finding alien life? Do you believe we'll find it in our lifetime?

[Theazninvasion68]

1) We acknowledge that the universe is uniquely tuned for life.
2) We know that the universe has been here for...around 14 billion years.
3) We know the famous "Drake Equation"

Simply put: unlikely.

However: I won't say it can't happen, i will say it's unlikely but I won't throw out the possibility of being alien life. 14 billion years is a Looooooooooong time.

I saw unlikely because the chances of finding them in this universe is not only astronomically slim, there are other universes that they could possibly exist in.

[Todd]

The closest galaxy to us is 25,000 light years away (http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/milky-way/the-closest-galaxy-to-the-milky-way/). Radio signals travel at the speed of light. So if alien life in this particular galaxy sent a radio message to us today, we would receive it in 25,000 years. And nothing moves faster than the speed of light (at least nothing that's been discovered yet) which means the chances of us discovering anything are basically none. And will humans exist in 25,000 years? I doubt it. I think humanity will eventually die off, whether it's catastrophic climate change, trigger happy dictators with nuclear weapons, or natural causes, such as what killed off the dinosaurs. We simply don't have the lifespan here on earth to explore much beyond our solar system.

[Derek The Infamous]

But what if the alien lifeforms lack the technology to visit Earth. What if they are like us; stranded here on Earth, looking to the sky and wondering if something else is out there? It might have been 14 Billion years, but maybe nobody's found out how to pay us a visit yet :P.


The closest galaxy to us is 25,000 light years away (http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/milky-way/the-closest-galaxy-to-the-milky-way/). Radio signals travel at the speed of light. So if alien life in this particular galaxy sent a radio message to us today, we would receive it in 25,000 years. And nothing moves faster than the speed of light (at least nothing that's been discovered yet) which means the chances of us discovering anything are basically none. And will humans exist in 25,000 years? I doubt it. I think humanity will eventually die off, whether it's catastrophic climate change, trigger happy dictators with nuclear weapons, or natural causes, such as what killed off the dinosaurs. We simply don't have the lifespan here on earth to explore much beyond our solar system.

Excellent theory. I too feel we will die off before we discover Alien life.

[Todd]

But what if the alien lifeforms lack the technology to visit Earth. What if they are like us; stranded here on Earth, looking to the sky and wondering if something else is out there? It might have been 14 Billion years, but maybe nobody's found out how to pay us a visit yet :P.

There's probably aliens discussing that right now on a band fansite's message board on their internet :P

[Derek The Infamous]

There's probably aliens discussing that right now on a band fansite's message board on their internet :P

I tried to think of a witty response but I couldn't. :lol:

[Theazninvasion68]

There's probably aliens discussing that right now on a band fansite's message board on their internet :P

:lol: oh gosh.

So we can say, not in this lifetime?

[Dedicated]

I literally have the same thoughts on this as Todd :lol:

[Dr. Octogonapus]

The logical side of my brain wants to agree with Todd.

The other side of my brain wants to go into a long rant about the pyramids, the Nazca lines, the fact that most ancient religions are all based on stories of "gods" who came from the sky, and stuff like that, and say that extraterrestrials already visited Earth thousands of years ago.

Either way, I'd give a pretty confident "yes" to the question of whether or not life exists elsewhere in the universe.

[11:54]

You can put me in the group of 'believing there are other life forms out there', but my beliefs also branch out to the fact that I think, whatever is out there, are far more advanced than we are. I don't mean anything specifically, such as more advanced with say, computers or something, just advanced in general. Of all the weird crap that has happened (sightings, crop circles/signs, whatever else), it's really hard for me to believe that we haven't already been visited, and that they're just that much smarter than we are so we can't "catch" them, and I don't think we ever will.

Make sense? I'm a bit tired.

[Sarah]

I watch way too much X-Files to disagree sorry. And plus the many years I've buried my head in books about the supernatural and extraterrestrial life has convinced me that there is.

We are not alone.

[Dr. Octogonapus]

You can put me in the group of 'believing there are other life forms out there', but my beliefs also branch out to the fact that I think, whatever is out there, are far more advanced than we are. I don't mean anything specifically, such as more advanced with say, computers or something, just advanced in general. Of all the weird crap that has happened (sightings, crop circles/signs, whatever else), it's really hard for me to believe that we haven't already been visited, and that they're just that much smarter than we are so we can't "catch" them, and I don't think we ever will.

Make sense? I'm a bit tired.

Makes sense. As a species, we're nowhere close to possessing the technology to visit areas of the universe that might support life. We're probably still hundreds of years away from that, if it ever happens at all. So for any alien race to be able to visit Earth would automatically make them far more advanced than us.

[Babali]

I definitely believe in extraterrestrial life.

What if there are foreign beings on this planet already that we cannot see, on different wavelengths, frequencies that the human eye can't pick up. Have you ever thought that over millions of years possibly a rare species of dinosaur evolved conscious thought and preserved itself?

Are not all species on this planet alien in kind of the way you think of an alien, some weird foreign being that originated from another planet, but isn't this planet one of those random planets? Who's to say we all came from Earth, anyway?

[esaul17]

What? Earth can't be one of those random planets as by definition those planets have to be other than earth. That is why it is alien. And while it is possible I dinosaur got conscious thought, that would not make it an alien. And there is no evidence that it has happened, so the null hypothesis is it hadn't. Burden of proof is on others to prove it did happen, until then we cannot reject the null. Basic scientific method.

And it is not completely ruled out that initial unicellular life could have originated on asteroids or the like crashing on earth, but it is not the leading hypothesis. However, after the start we can see very clear molecular relationships organizing species into phylogenies. Fossil records mimic these phylogenies. There is no hole in which something just popped up as if from another planet. So again, while not impossible, we do not have any evidence for it so we cannot reject the null that things didn't come from other planets.

This kind of speculation can be fun, but it is completely disconnected from reality and, while may make one sound deep and thoughtful, is ultimately superficial dross unable to stand up to reasonable critique.

Anyway, as for the question on if there is extraterrestrial life. I think it seems likely due to the sheer number of other planets. But then again, we don't actually know what the odds for life arising are- so possibly the odds are around 1 in the number of planets in the universe. Unless we know that, we can't say much with any certainty. This said, I find it quite unlikely that they visit earth on a regular basis now, or that their visits in the past explain phenomenon such as pyramids. I do doubt they have visited at all. The trip alone seems far too long, as Todd said.

[Dean]

I think so, yes, and I'm not going to rule anything out besides that. I try to be realistic and lucid about it but it's a subject that fascinates me anyway.

[Luke]

The closest galaxy to us is 25,000 light years away (http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/milky-way/the-closest-galaxy-to-the-milky-way/). Radio signals travel at the speed of light. So if alien life in this particular galaxy sent a radio message to us today, we would receive it in 25,000 years. And nothing moves faster than the speed of light (at least nothing that's been discovered yet) which means the chances of us discovering anything are basically none. And will humans exist in 25,000 years? I doubt it. I think humanity will eventually die off, whether it's catastrophic climate change, trigger happy dictators with nuclear weapons, or natural causes, such as what killed off the dinosaurs. We simply don't have the lifespan here on earth to explore much beyond our solar system.

This, but also this:


The other side of my brain wants to go into a long rant about the pyramids, the Nazca lines, the fact that most ancient religions are all based on stories of "gods" who came from the sky, and stuff like that, and say that extraterrestrials already visited Earth thousands of years ago.

Either way, I'd give a pretty confident "yes" to the question of whether or not life exists elsewhere in the universe.

I believe that we were indeed visited thousands of years ago by extraterrestrial beings. Anyone here watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? It's actually based on real findings of pictures found painted on Mayan temples and caves that tell tales of beings descending from thr sky and living among humans for a time before returning back into space. As farfetched as it sounds there's a common story in many acient civilisations and tribes that all tell of extraterrestrial lifeforms visiting the earth.

So in a nutshell, yes, I think there is life outside of this planet but it's also my belief that we were already visited thousands of years ago and civilisation as we know it will cease to exist before we make contact again.

[Babali]

What? Earth can't be one of those random planets as by definition those planets have to be other than earth. That is why it is alien. And while it is possible I dinosaur got conscious thought, that would not make it an alien.You missed my point. That's fine, it was kind of a confusing one, but I agree with what you say.

[Harlz]

civilisation as we know it will cease to exist before we make contact again.

Bummer :(

[Babali]

Bummer :(
Yeah, because Luke knows all. No use living in fear, mate. We need to focus on saving ourselves before looking for aliens.

[Derek The Infamous]

Earth is technically an alien planet, if you consider that IF there were to be extraterrestrial life out there; that they would view us as aliens from another planet, just like we'd view them in the same way.

[esaul17]

Earth is technically an alien planet, if you consider that IF there were to be extraterrestrial life out there; that they would view us as aliens from another planet, just like we'd view them in the same way.

Yes, to life from other planets earth is an alien planet. But to people from this planet (RE: All of us) earth is not an alien planet. The word "alien" is relative. So earth is technically an alien planet in some contexts, but in this context it is not an alien planet by definition, no matter how technical you wish to be.

It's like if you were in England and asked someone "Are you from a foreign country" and they replied "No, I'm from England". If you say "Well technically, to some, England is a foreign country" the correct reply is "Sure, but for us it isn't, so technically I am still not from a foreign country".

[Babali]

Yes, to life from other planets earth is an alien planet. But to people from this planet (RE: All of us) earth is not an alien planet. The word "alien" is relative. So earth is technically an alien planet in some contexts, but in this context it is not an alien planet by definition, no matter how technical you wish to be.
The point is, say there were five to ten different planets in the universe with beings on them, and we all met up and had this space center. They'd probably all look completely different, but we'd be the 'Human Race' from 'Earth', we'd be a completely foreign alien to all of them. So to think of what aliens might look makes the mind go a little crazy, as well, because it'd probably be so unique looking.

I just think people live in a bubble where they don't question themselves about things like this and realize that maybe we don't know everything, maybe there is no God in the sky that's going to judge us when we die or maybe the universe is God, God is an alien, who knows! It's fascinating discussion, and does it really matter in the long run? I don't know, we're all going to die anyway, and then what's after that? What's the point to any of this other than just enjoying the ride and taking as much in as you can, while you can, without taking it for granted? Hm.

Extraterrestrial life, you know... They definitely wouldn't like us. Come on, we suck.

[Amanda]

I watch way too much X-Files to disagree sorry. And plus the many years I've buried my head in books about the supernatural and extraterrestrial life has convinced me that there is.

We are not alone.

Same here! I want to believe. :P

On a more serious note, I do believe there has to be other life forms. I have to agree with others who say that we probably won't discover any new life forms in our life time. It's sad and I would be so stoked if we did, but I don't think it will happen.

[El Muerto]

Are we alone? I'm sure we're not.
Are we ever gonna see them? I hope so. :)

[Louis]

Guys, LeBron is not one of us.

He's just too good at basketball.

Anyway, I believe. I want to see life from another planet. I continue to hope.