Other Life.

[eLeMeFeYoH]

Heres my input on this, the universe is still expanding, RAPIDLY, and will continue to do so. I am a realist, and usually pretty close minded on BS like this, but statistically, the chance of there NOT being life forms, or equal to those of winning the lottery twice in a row, with the same numbers. So, I think its pretty unsurmountable that there IS other life form, just maybe not what Hollywood depicts it to be

 

[Call me Mike]

Different theories on how large the universe is. It could be infinitely large (meaning the light emitted is still too far away that it hasn't even come to Earth yet) and it would be extremely possible that someone completely similar to you is within our own galaxy.

If something is infinite, and you're part of it, something very similar (if not exact) to you would repeat in infinity, so yes, I believe there might be an exact copy of myself (and other life) in our universe, it's just too far away.

^ There's that theory (universe is infinitely large) and then there's this one as well:

Another theory says that we're not the only universe, and that there are an infinite amount of universe's exactly within us, but in a different dimension. The best to explain that is to just think of our universe as a marble, and every other marble, rock, pebble, grain of sand, on Earth is another universe in a different dimension (for clarafication, I'm not saying that a rock on Earth is an actual universe, just giving a smaller model).

So yes, life isn't just on Earth. Honestly, what are the odds of that.

Information/Additional Reading can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse

 

[TahBreezy]

I believe there are a undefined type of species out in the other galaxies. We stay in one galaxy, we don't know what is in the others.

 

[jaws101]

In my opinion, there HAS to be life on other planets. I can't believe that in an infinite universe, Earth is the only planet which has life. I understand that the chances for life to form are VERY VERY slim, because you need the perfect conditions, but the universe is ENORMOUS. Somewhere, in some distant galaxy (or maybe even closer than we think) there must be some planet similar to ours where life exists. Or even more probable, some different form of life is evolving somewhere, that isn't carbon based. Something we do not understand.

 

[Mantitz]

Warning, long ass post ahead.

There were topics about Area 51 & Roswell in General Discussion / Off-Topic not that long ago and apparently my posts have been deleted (I was going to copy and paste) not sure why but whatevs, I'll retype it. I do want to forewarn that I am in no way condemning alien life. Read on.

Aliens have NOT visited the Earth.. or at least we have NEVER captured them.. but most likely we haven't had any visitors. When you think of the unimaginably large distances an alien civilization would have to travel to make it to Earth, it becomes obvious.. but before we get to that, let me give you some figures.

• Light travels at 186,000 miles PER SECOND in a vacuum (~300,000 km/s)
• Light speed is the ultimate universal speed limit, you can not go faster than light no matter how much you try. In fact, actual light speed itself is at the very least an improbability in and of itself, because it requires an infinite amount of energy to move anything with mass at the speed of light

Now, our universe is about 14 BILLION light years across. A light year for anyone who is unaware is a measure of distance equating to the distance light travels in one year. That's one entire year of traveling at 186,000 miles PER SECOND. That's a pretty damn big distance. Life in our universe is most definitely out there. There's almost no denying that when you think about the sheer mathematical odds.. hell, there could even be life in our own solar system (extremophials (sp), definitely nothing advanced obviously).. but the time it takes for a civilization to sufficiently advance in order to make the long haul here is just a huge improbability. Life on Earth has been evolving for roughly 3.6 billion years, and how far have we come really? We're not even on Michio Kaku's universal civilization scale.

There's 3 types of civilizations:

• Type 1 - planetary, meaning it controls many/all of the planetary processes
• Type 2 - solar, able to harness the power of their parent star/neighboring planets
• Type 3 - interstellar/multistellar, meaning it can control multiple star systems and eventually the entire parent galaxy

What do we rank as? Type 0, we can't do any of the above.. and we've had 3.6 billion years to evolve. Granted there have been some bumps along the way, but even assuming that we had started out fresh with no interruptions along the way, the civilization would have to be MILLIONS times more advanced than us. Billions of years of uninterrupted evolution.. it's just NOT likely, and while I'm sure there are some pretty advanced civilizations out there, the idea that they would be close enough to us to make any sort of trip here, even at light speed, is even more improbable.

Furthermore, what would a civilization that much more advanced have to gain by paying us a visit? Additionally, let's assume for whatever reason they do decide to come to Earth. If we are billions of years behind these aliens and are already developing cloaking technology do you really think that they would not also possess this technology? Why would the openly expose themselves to us if we're obviously hostile? Also I'd like to point out that if a ship/civilization is advanced enough to make the long haul here, it is advanced enough to withstand anything we could throw at it and surely would not crash and give us the opportunity to reverse engineer it. I'm not saying these things would be impossible to kill, but it'd be like cavemen going up against an armored tank of modern day. They can try all they want, but there would be nothing in their arsenal capable of taking it out. Then let's assume that somehow we DID manage to capture an alien ship with an alien on board and did do tests and shit on it like Area 51 theorists claim. Would this not be seen as an act of war? Do I need to reiterate the vast advantages they would have over us? They would probably be capable of Star Wars type Death Star attacks, annihilating entire planets, maybe even on a grander scale if they really wanted to.

I know the point of the thread wasn't Area 51, but I thought it would be pertinent to touch on seeing as a lot of you have misconstrued Area 51. I'd also like to point out once again that I do embrace alien life as a fact. I have no doubt in my mind it is out there.. but we have almost certainly not encountered it. When I posted this last time a lot of people seemed to think I was saying alien life was an impossibility.

This could be true, but who says the extraterrestrials are built like humans? Sure if they were exactly the same as us and there planet is as old as ours then we would be equally advanced.

I'm not saying that I think aliens walk among us but its just something to think about, there is a chance that if there are other life forms they could be quite more advanced than us.

 

[ShockWaveee]

This could be true, but who says the extraterrestrials are built like humans? Sure if they were exactly the same as us and there planet is as old as ours then we would be equally advanced.

I'm not saying that I think aliens walk among us but its just something to think about, there is a chance that if there are other life forms they could be quite more advanced than us.

Yeah I acknowledged your point in my post. I just find it hard to believe that they could be THAT much more advanced than us. I do not doubt the power some civilizations must hold, but interstellar travel is a marvel that the majority of all life in the universe will NEVER master. They don't have to be built in the same exact way as us, but evolution will still take the same basic steps throughout the universe. I mean, you won't just go from a single celled organism to an advanced mammal overnight is what I'm saying. Plus a civilization advanced enough to make it here has no need for contacting us lol.

 

[Sillymonkey]

I do not see how we could possibly be alone in the universe.

Scientists have already confirmed that there are life forms that are not carbon based, on our very own planet.

If we can have life forms that have a completely different elemental structure on our very own planet, imagine what can exist out there.

 

[Call me Mike]

Light travels at 186,000 miles PER SECOND in a vacuum (~300,000 km/s)

• Light speed is the ultimate universal speed limit, you can not go faster than light no matter how much you try. In fact, actual light speed itself is at the very least an improbability in and of itself, because it requires an infinite amount of energy to move anything with mass at the speed of light

If I'm correct, during the big bang the enormous amount of energy released propelled the universe to expand at a speed faster than light. Sorry for sound like a troll, but I just learned about this recently and wanted to feel special, rofl.

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=167 - just glanced at this; didn't read all of it, but it's a start for some extra reading if you're interested.

 

[TheFantasy]

I do, we can't be the only living human/thing out there.

 

[Chiilii8]

I'm not believe at any other life at all.

 

[Arya]

Think about this; Life is like a game. Once you're to the end of the entire map, in any direction, there's the darkness. It holds nothing; you're the centerfold. In a way, we are in the center of the universe. We are the 'game', surrounded in all directions by the darkness, or, Chaos.

 

[The Don Kiluminati]

You can't expect life to be commonplace in the universe. Our telescopes haven't advanced enough to truly investigate these planets we've found so far. Our measurements etc are guesstimates at best when trying to figure anything out about planets outside of our solar system. We haven't ruled out entire galaxies as not supporting life either, I don't know where you got that from and it somehow makes me doubt you fully understand how big a galaxy is. Our galaxy alone is 100,000 light years across, with ~300-400 billion stars. That's pretty good odds that at least one other place out there is harboring life, right inside our own galaxy. Couple that with the fact there's trillions of galaxies with a similar amount of stars, and you tell me if you really think we're alone lol.

I never said were alone, I just gave arguements to both sides. I personally believe in reasoning, there's a popular theory (which i can't remember what it's called now) about the rarity of the circumstances in which the Earth was formed. Alot of things had to happen "coincidentally" and had one aspect failed, the Earth wouldn't be able to support life. Sort of like the big bang and the 4 elements that were formed.

Ofcourse with the vastness of the Universe, another Earth may be extremely rare, but you can't count it out, we just don't know whats out there for sure.