Alien Life (Intelligent Or Otherwise) In The Universe

[Kyuuketsuki]

I split this from Ev's "Why 'Rational faith' Is An Oxymoron" because I thought I'd drifted too far off topic but that it made a good discussion topic anyway.

Another example would be UFO's...

Yes ... I would class that as a new age religion of sorts

I do agree with that to some extent. So I guess the question for you would be; would someone believing that Alien life (Intelligent or non) exists being more of a logical reasoning? Mostly because of our "Current" technology in showing just how truly small we are in comparison to our solar surroundings. And especially with what we know about what life needs to be in place or survive.

I do believe there is life out there (I figure the universe is so big there has to be) and I also figure there is a chance of that life being intelligent but given that mankind might only last a million years (and I think that's optimistic if we carry on the way we are) and that evolution (an other world version of) will mean they are probably as selfish as we are and so might also only last a million years you get the problem of whether they will co-exist (time-wise) with us so the chance of us actually meeting anyone else seems staggering low to me.

My best guess is that if we ever go inter-stellar (and thus hopefully ensure our survival) we will find the remains of other intelligent life. In some ways, given the aggressive nature of evolved species, the other alternative strikes me as a bad thing ... unless they've out-evolved that aggression they would probably destroy or enslave us (though they might be a bit B5'ish and largely ignore us).

None of the above I claim as fact, just belief, more of a hope I suppose.

Sorry ... I love science fiction but you're right about the belief in little green men.

Kyu

[LEDO]

"If we ever go inter-stellar"...

I think the chances of that are about the same as the second coimng of Jesus. Most likely the germs of one species would destroy the other even if we did meet.

[leo-rcc]

I'm still looking for intelligent life on this planet.

[Dotard]

I'm still looking for intelligent life on this planet.

Here I am. Ya found me.

[Edwardo Piet]

Beware of the one who claims to be intelligent. He is probably ignorant..

Lol

EvF

[leo-rcc]

I'm still looking for intelligent life on this planet.

Here I am. Ya found me.

Uhuh....

[Samson]

None of the above I claim as fact, just belief, more of a hope I suppose.

I couldn't agree more with you on the "Hope" part...

Sadly enough, we have more than our fare share of hillbilly inbreeds that the first sign of any type craft from space coming into our atmosphere, they would start shooting the sky up and claiming them to be demons..

If Ignorance truly is bliss, then those people are the happiest in the world...

[Darwinian]

It may be that the only planet with intelligent life on it in our galaxy is our own. At least we know about this one.

As for life throughout the rest of the galaxy I think that it is probably plentiful. This is based on various factors including the amount of organic compounds out there and the fact that once life does get going then it seems nearly impossible to completely extinguish.

However, we mustn't forget that most of this galaxy is pretty hostile towards life. We are lucky here in that we live in a pretty quiet part of the galaxy, orbiting a nice stable star in a relatively calm solar system with a planet at just the right distance from our Sun. And let's not forget the Earth's magnetic field which protects us from solar and cosmic radiation.

It may be that environments such as ours are rare. On the other hand, estimates for the number of stars in our galaxy range anywhere from 200 billion to a trillion (if you count all the orbiting dwarf galaxies) so to think that our little world is the only one that has, or has had, or will have a technological civilisation on it I think highly unlikely.

It is also true that many races that emerge as we have may never reach a stage were they move on to colonise other planets in their solar system instead being wiped out by some natural catastrophe or more likely, by their own hand (or equivalent).

However, it only takes one race to dodge all the bullets and make it to the next level and then something interesting happens. Imagine a race, very much like our own. Eventually they colonise their moon and shortly after establish a presence on a nearby planet, perhaps similar to Mars but luckily for them, far more hospitable.

You now have a multi-planet race. The chances of them being wiped out have now drastically lessened. It isn't long until they have colonised every planet and moon and asteroid they can and shortly turn their attention to nearby stars.

For us the nearest star is Alpha Centuri at about 4 light years and would take many thousands of years to reach meaning either we perfect some kind of suspended animation or, more likely create vast generation ships where the crew to arrive at it's destination are distant descendants of those who originally began the journey.

For our alien race this may not pose such a problem. For all we know they may have perfected forms of propulsion that we are yet to even consider. They may also have far greater life expectancies.

You could then imagine that, after several million years, a vast area of the galaxy has been populated by this first inter-stellar journey and a whole web of colonised worlds now exist spreading out in all directions from the original home planet.

It would now be impossible to eradicate this race.

Evolution would of course still take place, either by natural or artificial selection and it is not too implausible I think to imagine that after enough time has passed by the original memory of the first race and it's great quest for colonisation will be lost. Many races, now seemingly alien to each other would be spread-out through, possibly hundreds of light years of the galaxy.

At some point they will contact each other again and be amazed to learn that they all have similar body plans and biology and the quest will begin to trace their origin.

[g-mark]

Yes ... I would class that as a new age religion of sorts

New age. Haven't UFO been documented through out human history?

[leo-rcc]

Have they?