This:

I hope they come soon, because I AM looking for a date (hot twi'leks from star wars) weekends are lonely now.
But, 2012 duh!
Lol Jk

I think this is an interesting thought experiment. Given the sheer number of stars, and by extension, planets in the galaxy (much less the universe), it seems probable that life exists elsewhere. How common it is, who knows? That is of course an important unknown variable in Drake's equation.

With the theoretical problems with FTL travel, and the practical issues of subliminal spaceflight, it's probably safe to say that any ET's visiting earth would be far more advanced than we are. Better hope they are benevolent, or that we have nothing they want. As to their possible motivations for visiting, it would likely be the same as ours: curiosity. Were we to detect ET life, would we not want to investigate it?

With all that said, until we gain a greater understanding of the frequency of planets with the capacity to support development of advanced life, the question is highly speculative, if interesting.

A related question that I think is equally interesting: Which is likely to occur first, an earthly visitation by ET life, or human discovery of extant ET life (even if it's microbial)? I think it's probably the latter, possibly even in our own solar system. I hope I live long enough to see us explore that possibility (Europa, for example). I'm not terribly optimistic on that one, considering the state of our space exploration programs, but one can hope.

Quote:And I'm fairly certain that the whole nationality thing exists in any aliens that might have a similar society to ours.

That is what is called an 'ethno-centric' view. I can see no reason an advanced civilisation would have such a primitive socio-poltical system,nor indeed an economic system as deeply flawed as consumerist-capitalism.

One world government, language,and socio-economic system would be more efficient (theoretically) more equitable and far more efficient with hideously expensive projects, such as space exploration.

I defitniely believe there's life out there
As mentioned each star is a system of planets
And our sun is just one
And if we believe the universe isnt just for us, then I'm sure there's life out there
Maybe some more advanced, maybe some still at celular stages

I'm gonna YouTube crystal blue persuasion now

(June 7, 2012 at 7:49 pm)Polaris Wrote: Never. There is more of a chance that all the religions are true than we will be visited by little gray men.

When it comes to probability, it's the other way round.
Many hundreds of billions of stars with many planets around each one. Billions and billions of galaxies. The fact that there are more stars in the cosmos than there is of every grain of sand on this planet. Estimated at around 500 million life capable planets in this galaxy alone. Statistically speaking, there's gotta be life out there.

Besides, we've found a planet that's earth like. Discovered by the Hubble space telescope. Kepler 22b. 20 light years away. In space terms - A stones throw away. You never know, Kepler22b may have life on it. 61 confirmed exo-planets found.






Go science!

Quote:Greetings again fellow seekers,

I would like to introduce you with the basic information of a new (but old) religion entitled Alienology.

What is Alienology?

Alienology is a modern religion based on the first religion that mankind endorsed and offers a precise path leading to full understanding of the purpose of the human race and the true origins of Aliens.

Alienology concentrates on the genetic potentiality and believes that many human beings are lost members of the family that existed thousands years ago before the existence of the first Homo sapiens species.

To separate Homo sapiens from Aliens, there is only one path. The reality of the contact between the Alien Gods and their descendents, the Aliens.

The purpose of the Alienology is to find the lost members of the Family (as mentioned before), guide them in order to distinguish the truth from the lie and eventually make them remember their original heritage.

The teachings are not ideas to he collected, but a path to be followed.

The potential Alienologist knows that:

His experience of the contact with extraterrestrial entities is real.

The difference between the entities perceived as the “grey ones” and the real Aliens.

Alienology will offer a new way of thinking and living within modern society and can improve everyday life mentally and bodily. It is not a twist of fate that Alienologists live longer than the average human being and are successful concerning their jobs, public image and interpersonal relationships.

http://www.alien-ufos.com/religion-spiri...ology.html

This guy by the name of 'Alienologist' is legit. They're out there people and for the cheap joining fee of $60 you can meet one (later on he says that..).

This guy has a loose nut! Or maybe he's a very intelligent entrepeneur (as this whole forum accepts aliens to be real without anyone questioning it from what I've seen).

(June 7, 2012 at 5:21 pm)Welsh cake Wrote: 1. If they had the technology for interstellar travel, how the hell would aliens even know we exist? Our planet is an insignificant pale blue infinitesimal spot in the vast cosmos.

Actually, our planet is extraordinarily conspicuous if you know what to look for. Not many objects are as bright in some of the radio frequency wave lengths we use for communication as our planet. Sharp spikes in radio emission in those frequencies doesn't occur in nature, and would make us stand out like a sore thumb to anyone with technological capability even just a couple decades beyond ours who are interested in looking.

Anyway, we are fairly close to being able to take detailed spectrographs of earth sized planets within a few dozen light years. That means we are within a few years of being able to detect atmospheric evidence both of life roughly similar to ours, as well as evidence of gas emitting industrial processes we can understand.

So within a decade or two, if there was another earth populated by a technological specie similar to ours, we will know.

(June 7, 2012 at 5:21 pm)Welsh cake Wrote: 2. Why the hell would they even care about coming here? If they're all that advanced then I'm fairly confident they'd be smart enough to know this trip isn't exactly what you'd call "necessary" and horribly uneconomical at best. If they're violent, then what's stopping them from invading?

That's a better question. I see no compelling reason why any technologically sophisticated alien must be interested in contacting us. The notion of intelligent aliends wants to "know we are not alone" seems horribly anthropocentric, and in any case, suppose all the aliens capable of visiting us have long ago known perfectly well they are not alone, why visit us in particular?

---

(June 7, 2012 at 9:37 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: I think this is an interesting thought experiment. Given the sheer number of stars, and by extension, planets in the galaxy (much less the universe), it seems probable that life exists elsewhere. How common it is, who knows? That is of course an important unknown variable in Drake's equation.

With the theoretical problems with FTL travel, and the practical issues of subliminal spaceflight, it's probably safe to say that any ET's visiting earth would be far more advanced than we are. Better hope they are benevolent, or that we have nothing they want. As to their possible motivations for visiting, it would likely be the same as ours: curiosity. Were we to detect ET life, would we not want to investigate it?

With all that said, until we gain a greater understanding of the frequency of planets with the capacity to support development of advanced life, the question is highly speculative, if interesting.

A related question that I think is equally interesting: Which is likely to occur first, an earthly visitation by ET life, or human discovery of extant ET life (even if it's microbial)? I think it's probably the latter, possibly even in our own solar system. I hope I live long enough to see us explore that possibility (Europa, for example). I'm not terribly optimistic on that one, considering the state of our space exploration programs, but one can hope.

I also think the number of places in the universe where microbial life have spontaneously arisen would vastly outnumber the places in life where life attain the sort of sophistication required for intelligence. So by sheer chance, we'll find perhaps tens or hundreds or thousands of separate indiginous lineages of primitive life before we find anything so sophisticated as an earth worm.

(June 8, 2012 at 12:33 pm)Chuck Wrote: That's a better question. I see no compelling reason why any technologically sophisticated alien must be interested in contacting us. The notion of intelligent aliends wants to "know we are not alone" seems horribly anthropocentric, and in any case, suppose all the aliens capable of visiting us have long ago known perfectly well they are not alone, why visit us in particular?

Agreed.

I think we may be able to deduce what possible motivates said highly advanced alien race would have to visit us. Granted this is all speculation, but by simply drawing comparisons from history in human culture and civilisation we might surmise if the intentions of such races are benign or not.

1. Scientific curiosity. Granted this is diminished considerably somewhat as they'd easily be able to research us and observe us constantly via probes without ever having to set foot, or tentacle, or whatever, on Earth. Not to mention if they've already been studying thousands of Earth-like planets for potentially thousands of years or so, Earth would seem rather dull and remote in comparison.

2. Trade and Tourism. We may not have anything we think they might want. Could be, they find our crap, souvenirs, intellectual property and waste/junk absolutely fascinating.

3. Natural Resources. What if, for all their technological marvels, all their sources of renewable energy, simple consumables are precious and dwindling on their home world? They may have the need to mine and harvest Earth's materials far more than we currently do. This depends on point 1 really and how self-sustained these guys are.

4. Charity/Conservation. They could be far more empathic than us, and needless to say are disgusted that we're damaging our own diverse biosphere, killing off other species and allowing over two billion of our own to exist without basic sanitation requirements. They may be compelled to change that.

5. Immigration/Occupation. This may go under 'natural resources' but it could be that they simply want to colonise Earth for their own purposes. It could be our highly advanced neighbours have a startlingly high population and are rapidly running out of space. Then again, they may be waging war with another galactic race and seek to merely use Earth as an outpost or munitions dump.

What do you think?

What makes you think we'll be able to comprehend or even tolerate the alien mind?

We hardly tolerate our own.