Aliens (extra-terrestrials)?

[QuarkDriven]

I think they probably do exist, but since I'm not sure on that, I voted on the last option. Interesting post, btw.

I voted yes as well, but I'm curious about your yes. In your catholic opinion/view, would they still be of god or something outside? and please don't take this as facetious or condescending. (I hope it didn't come across that way) I really am curious... 

[Napoléon]

Relevant:

http://news.sky.com/story/1511796/aliens...ok-like-us

[QuarkDriven]

My yes vote is simple I suppose. It comes down to the numbers of planets, stars, solar systems and galaxies that we can obsesrve. The numbers are outrageously large and thats just the ones we know of... We cannot possibly be the only ones with life.. Maybe they're not as intelligent as us or maybe they are far more intelligent than we can ever comprehend.. Maybe its simple life as in bacterial, but we cannot possibly be the only life in this universe....

[Iroscato]

[Redbeard The Pink]

I think it's mathematically likely that complex life forms exist elsewhere in the universe. Basic chemistry and biochemistry seem to indicate that if the right materials and conditions are present, organic compounds and eventually whole cells can start to click together on their own. This seems to have happened on Earth at least once. It took billions of years for complex life to start showing up out of simple life forms, so that would seem to suggest that complex life is something more of a rarity than simple life. The universe is filled with so much material, time, and opportunity, though, that even exceedingly rare events could happen billions of times. Rare doesn't mean impossible. Far from it.


Whether or not live things have managed to arrive from other planets is a whole other question. The ET Encounters crowd tends to eschew over-dependence on evidence and often has to resort to logical fallacy, dogma, and misrepresentation of evidence to support their beliefs and claims.

Gosh, who does that sound like?

[Mister Agenda]

It's hard to extrapolate from a sample size of one. My personal assessment is that microbial life is probably fairly common and technological civilizations are vanishingly rare. It's a big universe so we're probably not the only one, but we could easily be the only one in this galaxy. The fusion of two microbes to produce the mitochondria-powered cells that drive complex organism could have occurred a billlion years later or never. Without a large satellite to produce significant tides, the colonization of land would have been greatly delayed. Without a planet like Jupiter shielding us, we migh still be subject to frequent asteroid strikes. Even if life forms wherever the chemistry is right, there are other conditions to meet to get to something like us.

[Anomalocaris]

It only takes a single instance of a 'pave the galaxy' alien to get a paved over galaxy.  If you're thinking billions of worlds developed life = or superior to us, where's the concrete ??

Now if there are only a few, or just us, technological civilizations, an otherwise empty galaxy (which is what Borowitz etal is finding, BTW) is to be expected.

The implicit assumption is paving over the galaxy (in a way detectable to us) would remain a good use of a civilization'so resources for long enough period of time to allow at least some civilizations to actually pave over the Galaxy.     I don't think that assumption is necessarily a strong one.

[pocaracas]

• the first single core CPU was released in 1993 with clock frequency of 60 to 66 MHz. 22 years later there are more than 64 cores CPUs.

Wait! wait, wait, wait!
That's wrong!

There have been tons of CPUs and many were around before 1993.
In 1991/2, I used an Intel 80286 with the blazing clock speed of 8MHz...
And this was on a home computer. According to the wiki, that processor model came out in 1982!


Now, on topic: I replied that I'm not sure... because, I'm not sure.
No ETs have been found yet (except for philae's carbon detectors)...

They are likely to be out there... but not exactly within reach.

[rado84]

There have been tons of CPUs and many were around before 1993.
In 1991/2, I used an Intel 80286 with the blazing clock speed of 8MHz...
And this was on a home computer. According to the wiki, that processor model came out in 1982!

That doesn't mean anything. 8-9 more years out of 23 or 32 and all compared to the progress which man kind could have achieved in 1000 years still don't change anything. If you read carefully what I said and start thinking, you'll understand it.

[pocaracas]

There have been tons of CPUs and many were around before 1993.
In 1991/2, I used an Intel 80286 with the blazing clock speed of 8MHz...
And this was on a home computer. According to the wiki, that processor model came out in 1982!

That doesn't mean anything. 8-9 more years out of 23 or 32 and all compared to the progress which man kind could have achieved in 1000 years still don't change anything. If you read carefully what I said and start thinking, you'll understand it.

Doesn't matter! It was wrong!
I win, you lose!