We are not alone....

[Mem]

If you consider the fact that there are 100's of Billions of stars in our Galaxy

and 100's of Billions of Galaxies in our Universe

you would have to be very conceited to think we are the only intelligent beings here in our Universe , anyone disagree?

 

[rob_just_rob]

I think you would have to be very conceited to call us intelligent beings.

 

[Heather LouAnna]

Dance Monkeys Dance

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

If you consider the fact that there are 100's of Billions of stars in our Galaxy

and 100's of Billions of Galaxies in our Universe

you would have to be very conceited to think we are the only intelligent beings here in our Universe , anyone disagree?

I disagree.
I think your question is unanswerable.
To answer, we have to know, at a minimum, first, what the chances of life occurring are, given certain conditions, and second, the number of times those conditions have been met.
We cannot know either, but we are particularly at a loss with the first.
Therefore, even though you rightly point out that there are a (literally) astronomical number of stars, solar systems, and such like ... you can never move from that fact to any estimate of probability.
So it might be conceited to think we are the only intelligent beings here in our universe, but it's not conceited to say we have no idea, absolutely none, whether we are or not.

 

[Mem]

I disagree.
I think your question is unanswerable.
To answer, we have to know, at a minimum, first, what the chances of life occurring are, given certain conditions, and second, the number of times those conditions have been met.
We cannot know either, but we are particularly at a loss with the first.
Therefore, even though you rightly point out that there are a (literally) astronomical number of stars, solar systems, and such like ... you can never move from that fact to any estimate of probability.
So it might be conceited to think we are the only intelligent beings here in our universe, but it's not conceited to say we have no idea, absolutely none, whether we are or not.

My question is answerable...You answered it, the question was "anyone disagree?"

I've seen programs where it has been surmised by scientists that it would be strange if every galaxy did not have at least one form of intelligent life.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

My question is answerable...You answered it, the question was "anyone disagree?"

Well, yes and no.

Your question was: you would have to be very conceited to think we are the only intelligent beings here in our Universe , anyone disagree?

While I do say that you indeed would have to be conceited to think we are the only intelligent beings, your argument seems to be that such a notion is implausible, whereas I'm saying it's unassessible.

Nonetheless the question is fascinating, and I'm eager to see what other posters say.

 

[rob_just_rob]

I've seen programs where it has been surmised by scientists that it would be strange if every galaxy did not have at least one form of intelligent life.

I would have hoped that scientists would have been taught not to surmise about matters of science, in scientist school.

Still, I suppose it's better to say that than to say that god put intelligent life here and only here (the other prevailing "theory").

 

[hung9mike]

I've seen programs where it has been surmised by scientists that it would be strange if every galaxy did not have at least one form of intelligent life.

I remember seeing one in which Carl Sagan (as I recall) estimated that there were a small number... I think he said as few as 10, but maybe the number was larger than that... of planets in the universe that currently have intelligent life.

Of course this is merely an educated guess, but it seems likely, given the size of the universe, that we are not unique.

 

[jeremyA]

Ah well...funny you should mention that because my college project is the design of receiveing equipment which in conjunction with suitable telescopes will look for and very accuratly measure the duration of laser light seen coming from astonomical objects in the hope that with a large enough number of suitably equiped telescopes will will be able to detect messages from intelligent aliens being sent with laser beams rather than radio waves, the idea being that its easier to build a super powerful laser transmitter than it is to build a radio transmitter with the same power.Basicvally its the same sort of idea as the more famous seti.org project.
In actual fact the figures for numbers of planets are vague but there are perhaps 100 billion stars in our gallaxy of which maybe 10% have planetary systems,10% of those have conditions suitable to support life and maybe 1 % of those support intelligent life.Considering that there are nobody knows how many gallaxies certainly more than 100 billion,then the chances of there being only one sentient life form in the universe is so small that it would be nothing short of a miracle.....

 

[DC_DEEP]

Interesting hypotheses. While I do appreciate the work done by SETI and others, I can't help but wonder if all their efforts (and money) could be in vain. Even if there are 100 planets "out there" with intelligent life, we don't have any reference except ourselves. Our assumption is that sending such things as prime numbers will indicate to other intelligent beings that we are also intelligent beings. That may or may not be true. They may not use or comprehend mathematics in the same way we do. They may or may not use electromagnetic communications, they may or may not optic or otic organs.

When Voyager was sent out (I think that was the one...) with the gold LP record of various "earth sounds", it just seemed so pointless to me. Of course, the assumption at the time was that any intelligent life form that found it would have a phonograph handy to give it a whirl. What would Plato have done with a DVD? And 100 years from now, what would any intelligent human being do with a cylinder from an original Gramophone? If the beings "out there" don't have eyes, what good does sending them photos/holograms do?

 

[Dr Rock]

dc deep raises the most pertinent question, and one that is almost always overlooked whenever this is discussed: even supposing there are other sapient creatures somewhere out there in space, what do you wanna do about it? if they're capable of observing US, then it'll only take them about 15 seconds to decide to stay the fuck away. take a look around you at the appalling shit that humans all over the world are doing to each other on a daily basis, often as a matter of course. you think any intelligent form of life is gonna WANT to make contact with THIS fucking species? think again. if they're smart enough to travel between stars, they're smart enough to ensure that we don't.

I agree that based on statistical/probable speculation, it is more likely than not that there are other sentient beings on other planets and elsewhere. i only hope that some of them have enough decency to wipe humankind off the earth before we find any other planets to ruin.

 

[jeremyA]

I was at an interesting meeting about this the other day and basically they were saying that the only thing you can say with certainly about any aliens is that they will be alien..... they will think differently and they will have different values and philosophies and everything, but the one thing they will have in common is they will have discovered the same mathematical ideas because they exist entirely independantly of any other language or philosophy wether they count in base 17 and have three heads they will still understand prime numbers.If you think about our planet we havent made any attempts to contact other planets but we have still been sending radio signals out into space for the past 100 years or so .
It maybe that they are so entirely alien to us that they have some society which has no concept of numbers or whatever but its difficult to imagine them being able to come up with the idea of soap operas and pay-per-view porn channels without numbers.

 

[dong20]

I agree that based on statistical/probable speculation, it is more likely than not that there are other sentient beings on other planets and elsewhere. i only hope that some of them have enough decency to wipe humankind off the earth before we find any other planets to ruin.

That would be akin to you or I getting on a plain, flying to some remote spot in the middle of nowhere to stamp on an ants nest. Waste of effort, yet if those ants were in our way we wouldn't hesitate.

We consider ants to be social and intelligent creatures with complex social structures much like we consider ourselves to be. Yet we are very likely the ants in the cosmic scale.

But I agree with your first sentence.:smile:

 

[Dr Rock]

That would be akin to you or I getting on a plain, flying to some remote spot in the middle of nowhere to stamp on an ants nest.

not really - the problem from an alien perspective would be the possibility that humans could escape their own planet and infest others.

living in england, i suppose a more relevant comparison would be the contamination of british trees with dutch elm disease in the later part of the last century. if i was an interstellar culture, i'd be looking out for the health of my metaphorical elm trees before the disease could gain a foothold on my shores.

 

[medic007]

Dance Monkeys Dance

I shall instead compliment your media, as you abhor comments on your looks!



Delishus!

 

[D_Humper E Bogart]

Anyway, who said the aliens are more advanced? Heck, with an infinate number of possible combinations it's everything from senient rocks to "living gasses" and weirdness in between. The only thing guarunteed is that they'll have some way to reproduce and preserve their "genetic" identity (although not through DNA).

There are many, many ways to observe oneself, heck, many animals know where the moon is subconsciously, or can see in the realms of spectra we cannot see or detect without instrumentation, or even "hear" things way off our charts, what about chemical signals or even gravity based realisation, or pressure?

It's more arrogant to me, to assume that we're automatically at the bottom of the food chain.

 

[Gillette]

I think you would have to be very conceited to call us intelligent beings.

I think Monty Python put it best...
" And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
because there's bugger all down here on Earth "

 

[Dr Rock]

It's more arrogant to me, to assume that we're automatically at the bottom of the food chain.

not what i said - i merely pointed out that it would be difficult to imagine a sentient race as worthless and loathsome as humankind.

 

[thk8plus4u]

i imagine another planet, in another galaxy,
where there are only beautiful, muscular men
with HUGE dicks.

we are not alone.

 

[zaphod]

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes.