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| do you believe in UFOs and/or life on other planets? |
| yes |
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72% |
[ 45 ] |
| no |
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14% |
[ 9 ] |
| i'm an alien! |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| God, as humans know It, is an Alien! |
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1% |
[ 1 ] |
| i'd go anywhere, anytime, any place with your alien, handsome ass, boy next door... |
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4% |
[ 3 ] |
| you're a neurotic psychopath that needs to be hospitalized, TBND! |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| i once had sex with an alien and now my baby can read minds... |
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6% |
[ 4 ] |
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| Total Votes : 62 |
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Message |
ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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 Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 9:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
So would you rather go out with the long horned, green skinned girl who danced for Jabba the Hutt or would you rather go out with the green skinned girl who danced with Captain Kirk?
For the ladies who is sexier- Worf or Chewbacca?
To seriously answer the topic, odds would seem to dictate that there is other life. However there is a microscopic chance that we are somehow the first sentient life form to exist in this universe. Possibilities are endless.
And define life and aliens. Sentient or not? carbon-based or not? Matter-based or energy-based? |
Isn't Chewbacca a woman? I would go for a Klingon woman myself since they fight dirty in the bedroom.
An Earth like planet would possibly also have Earth like life. If the selection pressures are similar to Earth we should be prepared to expect this. I'm not saying there would be human like creatures, but certainly life familiar to us. If you take life on earth many organs and appendages have evolved in separate species. The eye has evolved several times from scratch in nature. So it wouldn't be a huge surprise to find aliens that can see. But would their eyes be like ours or a spiders, or a lobster.
Expecting to find human like intelligence would demand similar selective pressures that brought about our own. Our own planet has yet to produce an alternative, but perhaps there are alternative forms. Maybe it is a limit of our own intelligence to imagine how other forms may arise.
I also except the possibility that we are alone despite the numbers. |
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AgentM
Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Location: British Columbia, Canada
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 10:02 pm Post subject: |
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| ED209 wrote: |
| An Earth like planet would possibly also have Earth like life. If the selection pressures are similar to Earth we should be prepared to expect this. I'm not saying there would be human like creatures, but certainly life familiar to us. If you take life on earth many organs and appendages have evolved in separate species. The eye has evolved several times from scratch in nature. So it wouldn't be a huge surprise to find aliens that can see. But would their eyes be like ours or a spiders, or a lobster |
Well there are a huge number of variables and random mutations that go into evolution, so while you may be right about life on Earth-like planets, we shouldn't go looking for sentient life necessarily expecting humanoid species. There could be humanoid life, or it could be something completely different, silicon based instead of carbon based for instance. We should keep open minds and not limit our exploration. |
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ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:10 pm Post subject: |
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| AgentM wrote: |
| ED209 wrote: |
| An Earth like planet would possibly also have Earth like life. If the selection pressures are similar to Earth we should be prepared to expect this. I'm not saying there would be human like creatures, but certainly life familiar to us. If you take life on earth many organs and appendages have evolved in separate species. The eye has evolved several times from scratch in nature. So it wouldn't be a huge surprise to find aliens that can see. But would their eyes be like ours or a spiders, or a lobster |
Well there are a huge number of variables and random mutations that go into evolution, so while you may be right about life on Earth-like planets, we shouldn't go looking for sentient life necessarily expecting humanoid species. There could be humanoid life, or it could be something completely different, silicon based instead of carbon based for instance. We should keep open minds and not limit our exploration. |
I would also add that human life is very limited itself in such an exploration. It's great putting men on the moon and sending people to Mars, but we as humans are really limited. Jumping around space in a Millennium Falcon is probably not an option. Robotic exploration of deep space is probably our best chance. Collecting and collating data over thousands of years well outside the lifetime of the average human being. Of course this wouldn't really benefit us as humans, but as part of human discovery it would be invaluable. The cost would be though abandoning our bodies. This was one of the themes in 2001 with the monoliths.
Any signs of life would be a major discovery. It would be wholly down to the environment this life evolves in, to what shape it takes. I'm just trying to say that the chances of finding humanoid life would increase if the environment is similar to our own. But we shouldn't be limited to such as search. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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There's no way we are the only living things in this universe.
I don't think, however, that other living things in other parts of the universe are smarter than us, though, or they would really have made contact already. |
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AgentM
Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Location: British Columbia, Canada
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 11:47 pm Post subject: |
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| ED209 wrote: |
I would also add that human life is very limited itself in such an exploration. It's great putting men on the moon and sending people to Mars, but we as humans are really limited. Jumping around space in a Millennium Falcon is probably not an option. Robotic exploration of deep space is probably our best chance. Collecting and collating data over thousands of years well outside the lifetime of the average human being. Of course this wouldn't really benefit us as humans, but as part of human discovery it would be invaluable. The cost would be though abandoning our bodies. This was one of the themes in 2001 with the monoliths.
Any signs of life would be a major discovery. It would be wholly down to the environment this life evolves in, to what shape it takes. I'm just trying to say that the chances of finding humanoid life would increase if the environment is similar to our own. But we shouldn't be limited to such as search. |
I agree. It would take some major, currently unforeseeable breakthrough discovery to allow for human interstellar travel...unless we wanted to take the generation ship route. You're probably right about the robots. |
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mld
Joined: 05 Jan 2009
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 3:35 am Post subject: |
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| AgentM wrote: |
| ED209 wrote: |
| An Earth like planet would possibly also have Earth like life. If the selection pressures are similar to Earth we should be prepared to expect this. I'm not saying there would be human like creatures, but certainly life familiar to us. If you take life on earth many organs and appendages have evolved in separate species. The eye has evolved several times from scratch in nature. So it wouldn't be a huge surprise to find aliens that can see. But would their eyes be like ours or a spiders, or a lobster |
Well there are a huge number of variables and random mutations that go into evolution, so while you may be right about life on Earth-like planets, we shouldn't go looking for sentient life necessarily expecting humanoid species. There could be humanoid life, or it could be something completely different, silicon based instead of carbon based for instance. We should keep open minds and not limit our exploration. |
Sorry to nitpick, but evolution rarely has to do with random mutations. Basically, the idea is that each species varies in certain respects (height is a good example), and that there is competition for life (e.g. escaping from predators, getting enough food, etc.). If conditions favour taller beings, than the shorter ones will not procreate as much as the taller ones and the species will gradually increase in height. Mutations (if they can even reproduce) often get diminished in a few generations and don't make much of an impact. I suggest reading Darwin (Origin of Species). It's a bit technical and beyond my head, but it does put the case very clearly (and it's surprising how solid it was even back then when they assumed the earth was much younger).
Anyway, getting back to the actual topic, I agree that the odds that at some point in time intelligent life existed somewhere in the universe are pretty stacked. For starters, we don't really even know how big the universe is but it's certain it's beyond comprehension (not to mention the question of whether it is finite or not - and then I have my own potential theories about the barriers).
However, if you look at life on earth, there has only been life intelligent enough to ask this question for maybe a few hundred years and only able to start to explore the question recently. In the 4.5 billion year history of our planet that is practically no time at all. Who knows how long this period will last? 100 years? 1000 years? A million years (most likely not the way things are going now)? My point is that even if there is/was/will be life on other planets, the odds that it is currently as intelligent as we are is ultra slim. Factor in the level of advancement necessary to just communicate (even one-way, as in Contact) it gets smaller. I very much doubt that we will be visited by UFO's (or have been), though one cannot rule it out (I'm sure someone seeing an airplane 1000 years ago would be beyond baffled, but today they are commonplace and well understood).
As someone else mentioned, it could be the case that we are alone out here, but odds are against that I think.
Thus, in my opinion, this question can never fully be settled (unless there is contact, or proof of life on Mars - the latter being much more likely than the former) and is really just an interesting exercise in thought and statistics.
A good book (which sort of talks about these things) is What Do You Believe but Cannot Prove (or close to that) edited by John Brockman. Some interesting perspectives on this idea on there if I recall correctly. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 5:27 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Isn't Chewbacca a woman? I would go for a Klingon woman myself since they fight dirty in the bedroom. |
Chewbacca's a chick? wikipedia lists him as male, so I hope that's the case. If there is something that changes this in one of the novels or something then THAT is some news.
CRAB PEOPLE.
It would be sad if there wasn't any other life out there. I have to admit I, like a fair number of us I suspect, wish we could have humanity progress into some sort of Star Trek-esque future.
I guess in this case my beliefs have to follow the odds. As a X-tian this is one of the issues one of faith tackles and comes up grasping at straws because the issue is completely outside the realm of the Bible and praying about such things is totally pointless. I for one hope that there are other worlds. |
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the boy next door
Joined: 08 Jun 2008
Location: next door
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| Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 7:14 am Post subject: |
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<- what i need to know right now is who had sex with an alien and now their baby can read minds? huh? who are you 4 people? pray tell? some baby has been reading my mind lately and getting my handsome ass in BIG TROUBLE with Megan Fox! 
is it your mind-reading, half alien brat, huh? well, is it? |
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Sergio Stefanuto
Joined: 14 May 2009
Location: UK
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| Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 12:27 am Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
I don't think, however, that other living things in other parts of the universe are smarter than us, though, or they would really have made contact already. |
In my opinion, there certainly are other beings that are as intelligent, or more intelligent, than humans - and the number of planets and/or satellites with such beings is, at the most cautious estimate, somewhere in the millions at least - but the fantastically-huge distances in space are an insurmountable obstacle to ever encountering them. There are, of course, many ways around this for the believer in alien visits - travel through wormholes, faster than light travel, etc - and indeed for the skeptic - for example, the Fermi Paradox. I don't rate either, personally. |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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All I can say is that seeing as cosmologists now are entertaining the 'mutiverse theory' the possibility that our universe is only one of countless others, it could be possible.
I will of course beleive it when I see it. |
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AgentM
Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Location: British Columbia, Canada
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| Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:08 am Post subject: |
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| DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP wrote: |
All I can say is that seeing as cosmologists now are entertaining the 'mutiverse theory' the possibility that our universe is only one of countless others, it could be possible.
I will of course beleive it when I see it. |
Yep, multiverse theory is quite interesting! How can you 'believe it when you see it' when in the case of parallel universes, you never would??  |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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| AgentM wrote: |
| DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP wrote: |
All I can say is that seeing as cosmologists now are entertaining the 'mutiverse theory' the possibility that our universe is only one of countless others, it could be possible.
I will of course beleive it when I see it. |
Yep, multiverse theory is quite interesting! How can you 'believe it when you see it' when in the case of parallel universes, you never would?? |
Depends on whether I'm able to send my 'data' through a wormhole or not... |
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agentX
Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Location: Jeolla province
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| Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 3:16 am Post subject: |
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| If Christians think Jesus was conceived by the immaculate reception, then I can think aliens visit the Earth on a constant basis. I'd like to see the Freepers deal with that logic. |
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