(May 10, 2019 at 2:02 pm)polymath257 Wrote:(May 10, 2019 at 1:21 pm)Brian37 Wrote: Again, even life at our level would be likely too. But again, the universe is so big, it is still that needle/haystack for them and us.
Distance. While there could even be more advance life then ours, because of distance, it would most likely be just as stuck locally where it is, like we are, even if it had a slightly longer range. I will say this though, if I were intelligent alien life, and spotted us, with the way we behave to each other now, I wouldn't try to contact us even if I could. We are a very violent species.
I really do think you are over complicating this. It only takes water and amino acids for evolution to occur. As individual atoms, those atoms are plentiful in the universe. But no, I still do not buy any Area 51 or Roswell crap.
In theory if we could go to every rocky planet in the universe, as big as it is, we should expect to find life at our intellectual level. But again, distance and time and energy are going to make it almost impossible for life to communicate with each other over those distances.
Yes, it only takes a few common compounds to get life started (as far as we understand). But what I am saying is that even once we have life, that doens't imply the existence of complex cells, let alone intelligent life.
And I definitely don't agree that we should expect life at our level wherever we go. As an example, if you look at the Earth over the last 3.8 billion years for which it has had life, there has been *agriculture* for only the last 10,000 years or so (well, except for ants) and the use of radio waves for only the last 100.
If we take the Earth as an example, it would be *very* unlikely to find a technological species over the time it has had life. Even as a percentage of the time Earth has had multicellular life, humans have been around a very small fraction of that time.
What I would *expect* in going to a planet similar to Earth orbiting a star similar to the sun and at the right distance, is to see *bacterial* life primarily with a chance of complex cells. Much less likely is some form of land 'animal' and even less likely is something technological.
Why should we not expect life that thinks at our level? Of course we have not found it, and likely we wont. But again, the universe is FUCKING HUGE.
You are far too focused on our modern science and saying, "Why haven't we yet".
If you agree it is possible for microbial life to exist elsewhere, why couldn't the same compounds lead to a comparative evolution we see here?
Again, the universe is 13.8 billion years old with trillions of galaxies, and billions of stars each, which means trillions of planets.
DISTANCE for our life, and anything else that is out there is going to make it hard if not impossible to find.
I don't know what other example I can give you.
Think of a single grain of sand on any beach, and know that there are more stars in the universe than sand just on our planet.
We are only alone in the context that we are remote. But to say that no other life at our level or more advanced does not exist, is absurd to me.
Again, I'd bet, if I could live the entire future of the universe until it suffers heat death, and that we could visit every rocky planet in the universe, it would not surprise me one bit, if other life with our level of language existed. I simply would say, it is stuck where it is at, just like we are stuck where we are at.
