Do You Believe There is Intelligent Life Beyond Earth?

[Wolfgang Mozart]

Drake's Equation is used to show that chances are that intelligent life evolved in other parts of the universe.

 

Then I consider the possibility of Superstring Theory: alternative universes/dimensions where we would be completely oblivious to any intelligent life there.

 

And consider our limited intelligence: we may not have the cognitive abilities to see what is really out there, similar to how lower animals cannot know what humans know.

 

Reputable news sources, such as the History Channel, document many UFOs which to date have not been identified.

 

Stories about actual contact with ETs.

 

Paranormality/UFO/ET sources:

http://www.rense.com/ufo/ufo.htm

http://www.rense.com/historic/hist.htm

http://www.rense.com/general44/nmxx.htm

http://www.rense.com/general41/dayfo.htm

http://www.rense.com/general41/flying.htm

http://www.rense.com/general41/flying.htm

http://www.rense.com/general32/rapidflight.htm

http://www.rense.com/general31/woods1A.htm

http://www.rense.com/general32/rend.htm

http://www.rense.com/general43/orig.htm

http://www.rense.com/ufo4/historyofufo.htm

 

So, do I "believe"? Well, I am agnostic, as I think any rational person would be. But, I will say that I do find Earth very boring and hope that there is more to the universe.

 

Regards,

 

Wolfgang Mozart

[mooeypoo]

Like you, I'm also agnostic. I doubt practically everything

 

I do believe in life on other planets. Note: believe in LIFE in other planets. Not even just the possibility. I find it extremely illogical to think there AREN'T any life out there in such a huge infinite expanding universe.

 

HOWEVER

 

I strongly doubt they look like us. Even a little. Most of the UFO stories tell about green/gray little creatures with legs, hands, huge eyes and massive brains, probably two, three or fifteen fingers, clumsy legs, and so on.

Those, I strongly doubt.

 

Why? Well.. a few reasons:

 

1. I actually believe life is not only what we define. Life can be energy like. Life can be a "thought" lifeform. Life can also be something we can't possibly comprehend, like you said yourself.

 

2. I think about the vast universe, and the time it exists (according to today's science, of course), and I think that there's a muuuuuch much bigger possibility that if life came here they would be looking A LOOOTTTTTT different than us, since the possibility of life that look like us (hands/heads/eyes/legs..) actually existing relatively close enough to us to reach us in such short time (even if they found a way to travel faster than life, odds are we will encounter other life forms first) is slim.

I'm not saying a definite no. It *may* be, I haven't spent all my time actually getting into ALL the details of EVERY UFO encounter, but in my opinion, it's less plausible.

 

Furthermore, if ou notice, most of the stories are almost the SAME.

That, granted, can say they're talking bout things that actually happened -- BUT they can also tell legends. If you take 100 people that survived the same fire, each would tell you a COMPLETELY different story (what they've seen, what they felt, how it started, who got out first... yadda yadda).

 

Even if those things happened to all those people, I find it weird they ALL tell the EXACT same story.

Different people should have had different approaches... I don't know.. it's.. weird.

 

In any case, I also find the entire UFO case interresting. It doesn't matter if those are actual aliens or some covert experiments with weird air-crafts that the government is doing (all hail x-files!! ) - either way it's interresting to find out what the hell those things are

 

So good post, but to sum it up (my opnion anyways) - There should be life out there, but UFOs aren't necessarily it

 

~moo

[aman]

When we build an instrument to detect sentience at a distance, even simple like in marine mammals, then we will be able to do a SETI type survey of the sky and look for more of us. I would imagine sentience would have an elecromagnetic signature although very weak. Maybe a detector on the far side of the moon. As far as life in very simple forms I think it will be soon evident in many areas of our universe. With the latest detection of excess methane in the Mars atmosphere we should be finding some little critters making it soon.

Just aman

[Pinch Paxton]

There should be other life out there statistically. I think that intelligent lifeforms would look something like Earth life, although which animal doesn't matter too much. Hands seem to be important, but I can imagine an intelligent parrot, or dog, cat, dolphin. Energy as a lifeform seems possible, but I doubt we would understand their communication, so we may not notice them.

 

Pincho.

[atinymonkey]

According to recent thinking, we are statistically most likely to be the first galaxy to be a candidate for the development of intelligent life. Bear in mind that everything outlying from this point in the universe is younger than our own galaxy only the galaxies more internal would be candidates for development, and the chance of one of those other solar systems managing development of life is very very slim. If there are any other galaxies where life is going to develop, it will probably happen a lot later on. So, if there are UFO's flying around anywhere in the future they may well be populated with guys from earth.

 

If you want to bring statistics into it all, anyhow.

[Sayonara]

Galaxies "further out" than ours are more numerous and have had more time to become populated. I don't follow your point at all.

 

(Not to mention the fact that with billions of star systems per galaxy, we probably don't need to look that far.)

[mooeypoo]

No, we won't need to look far, but the odds are that the lifeforms that are CLOSER, are not similar.

 

Think about the odds of finding in such a huge universe life forms that not only have evolved similarly (having eyes, legs and so on), have also developed QUICKER and really close to us.

 

I'm not saying its impossible, I'm just saying it's more logical that the lives that ARE close, are not like us at ALL.

 

 

if.. err that made any sense grammatically.

 

~moo

[Sayonara]

I see what you're saying, but I don't see what 'similarity to us' or level of technological advancement has to do with the overall chances of finding intelligent life off Earth.

[Sayonara]

The speciation discussion is now here:

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3527

[Dave]

Hmm, kinda out of the question.

 

Unless faf/blike have a momentary lapse in mentality and make you a mod.

[java]

I dont know if there is intelligent life beyond earth. I think that it is possible for us humans to live on others planets if we so wanted to. I dont believe there is any other form of existence besides animals and humans.

 

Java

[Bryn]

If there are other aliens close by it's quite possible they would be alot like us. Dunno if it's been proven but it's certainly a theory that simple bacteria/viruses or just bits of RNA/DNA could be flung out from whether they evolved into space and then populate other worlds. So they would have a similiar basically molecular/cellular structure to us. So there could easily be aliens like us, not perhaps strictly humanoid in structure but closer than you might think.

 

If the above is possible i think it'd be a lot more probably that aliens living locally would be related to us than aliens who have evolved of there own accord.

[Dave]

I'd be very surprised if there wasn't some form of extraterrestrial life out there, but given the conditions that we have it must be fairly rare - whether it exists at the same time and at the same evolutionary stage as us is the question we should probably be asking.

[aman]

If aliens evolved more mental than physical and had less need for technology for advancment, I think they would be horrified by the brutal nasty portion of all our existances. Still this tempers our growth and makes us an extremely resiliant and interesting lifeform. I can't imagine better circumstances than ours to make a very tough lifeform. If others evolve we will have to be pretty patient to judge them and spend a great effort understanding them.

Just aman

[mooeypoo]

I dont know if there is intelligent life beyond earth. I think that it is possible for us humans to live on others planets if we so wanted to. I dont believe there is any other form of existence besides animals and humans.

That's depressing... we're all alone...

 

Seriously though -- I find that either naive or patronizing-the-universe.. There's an infinite universe, and we're the center of it (the ONLY ONLY LIFE FORMS EXISTING!)... does that sound plausible?

 

It *might* be the case, but it's going to have to demand someone PLANNING it this way which would make it less reasonable and will demand a proof of its own.

Therefore, the LOGICAL thing to say is that there *are* life out there, and only if shown otherwise there aren't any.

 

If there are other aliens close by it's quite possible they would be alot like us.

Uhm... why's that?

 

 

~moo

[Dave]

Seriously though -- I find that either naive or patronizing-the-universe.. There's an infinite universe, and we're the center of it (the ONLY ONLY LIFE FORMS EXISTING!)... does that sound plausible?

 

How do you know the universe is infinite?

 

But apart from that, I agree with you. There must be life somewhere else in the universe; the place is just too big for there not to be. However, the chances of there being life at the same stages of evolution as us is (in my opinion) very small indeed.

[mooeypoo]

You're right. I don't know the universe is infinite.. I'm guessing, based on logical assumptions made by observations into space and mathematical calculations.

 

I allow myself to assume that, but you're definately right in saying it's not certain, and most definately is FAR away from being a proven fact.

 

I still think we're not alone though

 

And I wouldn't say "stage" of evolution because some planets might be older or newer - I would say just different evolution alltogether. It's not that we'll find lesser species (we might, but not all of them will be most probably) == we'll just find DIFFERENT species.

I don't even think we'll be able to communicate on the same level because our definitions of practically everything would be different. They might not even fit our regular definition of life. It's still a definition we made to describe LIFE ON EARTH.

 

We can never know what's out there.

 

~moo

[Dave]

We're almost certainly not alone, but (apparently) the form of life we're most likely to encounter is something like single celled lifeforms or bacterium.

[Guest me6]

Well, if a human goes up in a spacescraft (or shuttle, which ever you prefer) and lands on the moon, then YES.

[mooeypoo]

Anyone ever thought of the possibility we already HAVE met "aliens" we just don't know it?

It may be either 1) they're out of our preception abilities, or 2) something htat has been here for a while and "evolved" with us -- like cocroaches or deep sea fish or something...

 

I just ponder that thought sometimes ..

 

~moo

[ExtraSense]

Did you try to communicate with cockroaches?

[mooeypoo]

Did you read my post?

 

What if we CANT communicate with aliens? does that make them not aliens? how does communicating has ANYTHING to do with this?

[Sayonara]

Sayonara3' date=' you are a stinky PIG!

Stay away from My Threads

[/b']

This isn't your thread, idiot.

[mooeypoo]

COULD YOU STOP RUINING PERFECTLY GOOD THREADS!! GEEZ.

 

I vote we all put that idiot on ban. That way, it REALLY doesn't matter what he says and we can all continue debating in a NORMAL way.

 

Nobody care what he thinks anyways.

 

All for it say aye.

And click "ignore list".

 

~proud israeli prostitute on a camel that goes moo

[mooeypoo]

And please lets get back to the subject. Life on other planets is a GOOD subject. I'd love to continue debate.

 

Where were we..?