Odds of other life in the Universe (Page 2)

jay4567: Ok look of course there has to be other life out there, if there wasn’t…that mean’s life is nothing more then a random hick up, a mistake, and if so…it would make this whole planet and everything in it pointless?...making our whole lives and everything we do pointless… everything you believe in, that u feel is for nothing…there is more to this life then any of us will ever know. That includes other life on other worlds, to deny the possibility of it is to deny or very existence. Yes there is other life out there …we just haven’t found it yet

Nick_kciN: Our knowledge has currently imprisoned us in 3 dimensions (+time), we are currently finding clues and theories of other dimensions. Until we can perceive other dimensions as clearly as we perceive these ones we will remain trapped by distance and time.

I believe there are large numbers of life forms living in space, many evolving first on planets and then becoming space faring. That is if we don’t find the other dimensions soon.
As our technology is starting to give us the ability to sustain ourselves for long durations in space (The Biosphere projects in Arizona etc. and its descendants) It is safe to assume that we will be living in space and travelling to mars and beyond soon.
Other life will have done the same, innless they find the key to dimensional travel / interaction first.
I am presuming that other forms of life also found it easier to build self sustaining life systems before discoving FTL travel like we have.

I think it is more likely we find a better realization of what life and self is before any big leap in science.

A science fiction thought for the future..
To go and visit a different world, other sentient intelligent creatures and their world all we need to do is concentrate and our “perception” can travel to that place and be hosted in an inhabitant from that world. We could see through their eyes (if they have them !) etc… This could be possible through either advanced training as it is more like a skill or for those learning with bioelectronic interfaces to help you along..
Fantasy.. Fantasy but fun.

Serabi: Travelling an the speed of light is still very 'slow'. Has 'worm holes' been excluded yet? Black holes were just 'theories' till we discovered feasible photos from the Hubble telescope. On the Hubble telescope Gallery.

Just a question, this is a hobby, not a field of interest

alien32: well, i've met martians many times, but i dont sure if you call that a 'life', because they're half alive and half dead.

Goran: The definition is elegant in physical world. In electronic virtual world it certainly is not.

What if the purpose of intelligent organic life is to reach certain level at which it either gives birth to mechanical intelligent life which replaces the organic life entirely, or is merged with mechanical life in some sort of hybrid form. Either way, organic life is simply not built for interstellar adventures. For mechanical life, time would have very little significance.

Serabi, wormholes are theoretically possible if fabric of space/time is sufficiently warped. Yet there is no evidence that supports warped fabric to the extent that would make wormholes useful. Black holes should not be confused with wormholes but they could look the same.

oldm8: Hi just thought i might add a few thoughts,
* Someone was going on about not being able to travel far within the universe due to great distances & slow speeds. With defeatism like that we will never get anywhere, think of it this way; if man was to build a craft that was more a city than sports car. Then distance would not be a problem as we would have plenty of time to get there, as we could have generations of time to get there. ( if you can see what i'm getting at )
* Ok we live in a backwater and you can not understand why anyone/anything would come here, thats a pretty narrow minded view. Who says that the center of the universe is anything more than just that the middle & not the hub or origin of all life in the universe. Although, and it is most unlikely, we may actually be one of or the most highly inteligent lifeform that exists. lol.
* As most people believe we arn't the most inteligent beings alive & with that in mind have a serious thing about what humans are like. With neighbours that are agressive, distrusting, greedy, selfdistructive, religious zelots ( and that goes for most religions especially the average christian not just muslims ), authoritarian race of beings that if they captured you would most likely incasserate you with the idea of observation for sceintific study for the protection of themselves WOULD YOU WANT TO VISIT THEM!! I wouldn't. I'd steer well clear of them.

Goran: When I said backwater, I was referring to position of solar system in our galaxy. Outer regions of galaxies are actually more likely to support life because they are more stable. But travel distances are much greater.

Wireclub Admin: @Goran: Have you read any of Ray Kurzweil's books?

He discusses the whole biologic life evolving into artificial life thing in his books. His work is really quite interesting at least when he isn't going out on some weird tangent

Goran: Seems like an interesting guy. I haven't read it but I'll check it out. Thanks for the pointer.

Nick_kciN: Please consider this terrible ridicule.

Nick_kciN: Odds of us being the least developed life in the universe is more to the point !

With today’s technology to experience space we can use extensions to our senses and send technology (that does not need so much life support)

Self replicating probes that can find the raw materials to reproduce and repair, pre-programmed to only report back when finding something of interest. That is a logical way forward.

It makes sense for a life form that has evolved on a planet around a star to become space faring. (as the star will eventually destroy the system it holds)
To move location (or change direction) takes energy. Advanced civilizations I am presuming will be energy efficient (not wasteful) and would only take the place of robotic probes in cases where technology was inferior to biological capabilities, which lets face it might not happen with a more advanced species than ourselves.

spacechimp: in the vastness of space were not worth much in the big scheme of things whether or not life is abundant in this universe doesn't matter the distances involved in transversing the galaxy are far to big to even consider venturing out in to the stars to satisfy mans curisoity ,but we are a curious species and eventually will leave the nest .

unsub: i think its ignorant to think we're alone

PerpetualDreamer: Here's a thought on extraterrestrial life. Would we recognize it? Would it recognize us? Would it even care about us enough to contact us? And here is the big one. Where would we get a frame of reference to communicate? Mathematics is about the best option we're going to get. That would be one very odd conversation.

Migschwell: Personally, in what owns possibly the greatest scale of magnitude in the universe, the existence of non-human lifeforms else where in the universe has, like some have said, already been discovered - to a degree. Trace elements of h20 have been detected on MARS and we can only assume that within that ecology, a form of bacteria or ultra-microscopic lifeform exists, but that's at the very bottom of this scale.

At the other end of the scale, well, i like believe, that firstly -yes there is "something" at the other end of this scale and i'd like to imagine that humans (compared to these other "things" are much closer to the bacteria end of the scale. Perhaps these other beings don't , any longer, comprehend such things as peace and war, Civilization or Decimation. Perhaps they consider the fact that we still communicate with spoken word extremely primitive and the fact we still feel the need to wear clothes completely archaic and absurd. Maybe they ask themselves why are these beings still using nuclear energy and oil when "that brand new power source" the human race so desperately needs has been staring us in the face the whole time we've been here.
Ever considered that there is a bunch of other beings out there that see us - claiming planet Earth as our own - to be an abuse of privilege? A privilege that they may well, one day, be revoked.

All i know is that i hope they come. And soon.

Because whether they come in peace or as a threat or whether they come with an abundant supply of mangoes and leave again - when they do, the tragic, abominable, murderous behaviour of the upper echelons of the human race will be forced to cease. We will no longer have time or confidence to point our guns at each other over who's god is the best god. Capitalism will be shrunk to the size of gnat and hopefully we will be able to start thinking along the lines of Lennon when he wrote "Imagine". No Religion, No Countries. I think it would be nice to give history a well-needed rest. It would be nice to hear a world leader say "We, now, can have no differences. We are all human and we come from Earth."

PerpetualDreamer: I seriously doubt the discovery of, or interaction with, aliens will solve the world's problems. Perhaps a global threat would unite the world. Well, unit it long enough to deal with the threat. If we survived, the survivors would be battling over control once again. Humans are not historically peaceful people. Before their was religion, there was probably battle over territory, and more, depending on the rudimentary cultures. It would take a major equalizing force to unit the globe. I guess it would be an experience I would not wish upon my worst enemy.

urbanhermit: Let's just hope the're not as screwed up as us.

Kalla: In reality of this topic, life is more prevalent than what most people give it credit for. The odds of an 'intelligent' species, like Humans is remote - think bacteria, flora and fauna - they'd be what we would discover first, rather than invading civilisations or space-faring traders so often read about in comic books

PerpetualDreamer: The odds of sentience is actually higher then that. Each one of those stars we see (and don't see) has a potential star system with potential life sustaining planets. Even if sentient life was one in a million, there are a lot of stars out there. We are not alone. Its just a matter of finding our neighbors in the haystack of stars.

I personally believe it would not be there unless there was a reason for it. (Please no religious responses.) I am not arrogant enough to believe this wonderful universe is for humans alone.

I doubt Gene Roddenbury's vision of a space-faring future is an accurate one. Perhaps one day we will stop trying to kill one another planetside and reach for the stars. But widespread humanoid life is not likely IMHO. But then who knows. Life is stranger then fiction.

I would like to meet Michael Velentine Smith, if he were real.

dennygringo56: The only proof I need that there's intelligent life elsewhere in the universe or multiverse is that they avoid us. That's intelligent.😎

LiptonCambell: I know i'm 6 years too late for everyone on here, but I gotta say- Drakes Equation is terrible and not science. Fermi Paradox for the win!

MrNoone 0: odds are very good!

MrNoone 0: 30billion possible earths in milky way

MrNoone 0: and or a million wandering worlds

LiptonCambell: Aight, first off- Drakes equation has --made up-- variable. You realize this, right? Like, the chance a planet will have life? We don't know. It's unlikely we'll ever know. So the conclusion that 100 million planets have life? It could be completely right. The conclusion that we are the only planet in the entire universe with life? It is EQUALLY right. Because we don't even have a millionth of a fraction of 1% of data to make any kinds of educated guesses.

What we DO know is we've failed to find any evidence of life everywhere we look in the universe. Suggesting the Drakes equation is right because of math(containing made up variables) means we have to throw out 100% of our observations of the universe.

Secondly, the fermi paradox- judging from your assertions, you haven't heard of it. Basically, a mathematician and his friend asked the very basic question; If aliens exist, where are they? As a species, we've appeared fairly late into the existence of the universe- Our planet is a little past it's halfway point of life, and the universe has been around 3 times that length of time. Alien life couldve spouted numerous times before, and even taking into consideration an extremely slow expansion of, say, 1 new solar system every 10,000 years, the entire galaxy could be filled with intelligent life in less than 10% of the time we've had so far.

So where are they? If life is so numerous, and they had tons of time to get out there, even if they did it slowly, they should be visable all over the place....


and yet they aren't.