Are we alone in the universe?

[marharth]

This is probably the most necroed topic of all time.

[HeyYou]

I can't remember where, but I remember reading something comparing the present search for extraterrestrial life with Pascal's Wager on the existence of god. In the bet, Pascal stipulates that the existence of god cannot be proven by any rational means, so that any belief or disbelief in him is more akin to a gamble, a bet. He continues by stating that there is much profit to be made from betting on the existence of god (heaven) and much to lose by betting on his non-existence (hell), therefore, the rational person should always bet that there is a god, since he loses nothing and insulates himself against the worst possible outcome stemming from disbelief.

 

Translated to alien life, things like SETI could also be viewed in this way, if slightly modified. Discovering extraterrestrial life could be a huge boon for humanity (heaven) or it could be devastating (hell). If nothing knowable is lost from not searching for extraterrestrial life, we should leave SETI well alone and continue our lonely existence as a species. Even if there is a large chance that alien life would be benevolent toward humanity, there is an outside chance that it could result in human extinction or slavery. Thus, the rational bet is to insulate ourselves from the worst-case scenario, choosing the live our lives alone, free of great boons--but also independent and alive.

 

IMO, of course, it's a moot point as we've been sending radio and television waves into space for the last 60 years so we've most definitely betrayed our position if there's anyone out there. Let's just hope that they're friendly :ninja:

 

Yeah, but, how far have those radio waved traveled? 60 light years? I should think they would be drowned out by the background noise long before they reached that distance. Not to mention, there just aren't that many suns within that sphere, that would be capable of supporting lifeasweknowit.....

[Thor.]

Just think what Seti is doing with the kepler telescope looking for radio waves in Known solar system, witch there are a lot of them now. Its about 1000 so far, even complete solar systems in some accounts.

 

http://news.discover...net-120106.html

Edited March 8, 2012 by Thor.

[eltucu]

I find the idea behind the Fermi paradox very scary.

 

I mean, that no civilization could ever afford to expand through other solar systems, never mind through the galaxy is very, very scary. It would mean that there is a lot of things out there that we wont ever see.

 

The paradox implies that interstellar travel may be out of reach for living creatures.

 

Imagine like this. You live in a small town, in the middle of nowhere, with no internet. You cant leave because you cant afford it, and your only specialization is... say, being a good self taught graphic designer. The only way you could afford to get out of the town is working in the only store in town that specializes in graphic design. The thing is that you cant work there because they demand beforehand 5 years of experience of working in a notable graphic designer house, but the place you're trying to work on its the only graphic designer house in the town so you cant met the requirements!

 

So, its sort of like that for accomplishing interstellar travel, you'd need to already being interstellar-traveling around gathering the resources needed for doing so. Its crazy, and sadly, it could be possible.

 

It could happen that some day, in the future, the scientific community discovers every little secret of how the universe works,and notices at the same time that, for colonizing other places or making contact with other civilizations, we would need way more energy/resources/etc that what we could ever produce in our planet by our own means.

 

And there exists the other big possibility that we never even reach that kind of understanding of the universe and become an extinct species.

[SubjectProphet]

Here's a number for you: 42.

 

And that last line, thanks for insaulting some of my beliefs.

 

And considering the fact that there are thousands of planets that we haven't explored yet, probably yes, there is other life on other planets.

[Thor.]

Hey guess what you can Help out on the Kepler mission to find that radio single. Is there life out there, you be the judge.

 

http://setilive.org/

 

I told ya they have found How many solar systems as of yet, Who knows the exact number, but the number is increasing every 10 minutes :teehee: Who can keep up with that, not one person thats for sure.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Thor.

[hexorcist]

My view on it isn't new or unique, but here's my thoughts:

 

- It's hard to determine what conditions life can live in when you're only aware of one life form (water based), which is why we search for water more than anything else. The "habitable zone" is nonsense because of this. Some day, in the extremely distant future, we may find life forms that require radiation from a nearby star to survive much like we do with water, requiring them to be as close to the star as perhaps Venus or closer. We simply don't know.

 

- How do you define "life"? Just like the word "planet" before Pluto's demise, there are too many definitions for the word. Some say "life is being able to reproduce." Carl Sagan suggested that life should be defined as the ability to learn (paraphrased). Others say that "plants don't learn, but they are alive" so they may take a stance having to do with evolving or something. I've even seen one argument that planets themselves can be alive as they have active ("alive") and inactive ("dead") cycles, for example, someone might say Mars is dead because it no longer has a magnetic field, or an extremely small one. For me, the definition of life is a bit of "all of the above" with exception to the planets being alive - that's just absurd.

 

Given those two points it's already extremely difficult to determine whether or not we can be alone because we simply don't have solid definitions. Taking some information as given, lets say that all life -is- aquatic and the definition of life is "technologically advanced enough to send radio waves" -- just for the sake of argument. In this case my belief is that we're not alone, however, I do not think we've been visited. It's not impossible to be visited by other life forms, but it's extremely improbable given the information we currently know unless you hitch a ride on a neutrino apparently (joke). I think that life can be found all over the universe, but we have a long way to go before we can prove any of it.

[Roarian]

As I am Christian my answer is simple:

 

I believe in the bible, and if there were extraterrestrial life, god would've told us.

:)

No, really...

there would be no point in not telling us.

There are other reasons (biblical) but that's a lot to explain...(PM me for further

details)

 

I'm pretty sure that there are no aliens.

 

And I even take a step father: If there IS intelligent extraterrestrial life

my faith wouldn't be crushed...

But as there are none...

 

Well thats my opinion.

If anyone wants to start a flame-war or a religion-massacre... please with PM's...

 

And remember...it's my opinion..not the opinion of every christian

 

One thing springs to mind :

 

“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.” - R. Dawkins

 

Please be careful as we do not allow religious debates on these forums. Thanks!~Lisnpuppy

Edited March 27, 2012 by Lisnpuppy

[SubjectProphet]

As a Christian, I'll just flat out say this: science is a lie. Take simple stuff for that matter. Seems like they just needed an explanation and made one up.

 

Yes, I agree and KNOW there is life out there, yes I agree we shouldn't try and find out, no I don't believe anything about the Keplar thing.

[marharth]

As a Christian, I'll just flat out say this: science is a lie. Take simple stuff for that matter. Seems like they just needed an explanation and made one up.

 

Yes, I agree and KNOW there is life out there, yes I agree we shouldn't try and find out, no I don't believe anything about the Keplar thing.

I... What? Just wow.

 

Sadly religious debates are banned though.