Is there life out there?

[Sub Human]

Okay,
There may be life but there is definitely necroposting going on.

[Sue U]

Are you back from the dead?

[Sue U]

As to the subject of the thread, even if we Earth creatures may not be the only life in the universe, we are almost certainly the only life we will ever know. In a universe more than 12 billion years old -- and where our own planet, after more than 4 billion years, only yesterday got around to producing us -- any life form, let alone any that is even close to parity with our own, is most likely to have come and gone from existence hundreds of millions of years ago, at least, or will not arise until hundreds of millions of years in the future. And even then, the problems of inter-stellar -- let alone inter-galactic -- travel are likely insurmountable.

[Gob]

Good to see you again Subby!

[Sub Human]

Well I recall someone, Might have been Phil Plait, saying something regarding the Drake Equation. It was something like: "Life shows up in very short order after the Earth gets cool enough." 100 million years? In Geologic Spans that is pretty short. Of course it takes 400 million more to evolve to colonial entities, like comb jellies and such. But after that its like a rocket. Complex niche exploiters really start cutting the time scale of advances down. So why not elsewhere? We may never know. Its a long hard vacuum from Island Earth to any other likely spot in the Universal Archipelago. I hope we find something* alive elsewhere before I die. It'd be really cute if the thing has some other radical molecule for replication other than DNA. Then the debate on where it came from would probably be a lot shorter.

*a microbe would be fine, but a nematode would be scads more interesting.

[Sub Human]

Oh I'm not dead. But I will have a plate of brains if there are any left.

[Lord Jim]

As to the subject of the thread, even if we Earth creatures may not be the only life in the universe, we are almost certainly the only life we will ever know. In a universe more than 12 billion years old -- and where our own planet, after more than 4 billion years, only yesterday got around to producing us -- any life form, let alone any that is even close to parity with our own, is most likely to have come and gone from existence hundreds of millions of years ago, at least, or will not arise until hundreds of millions of years in the future. And even then, the problems of inter-stellar -- let alone inter-galactic -- travel are likely insurmountable.

I think that raises many excellent points...

If our own planet's experience is any guide, it suggests that "life"; on the most basic microbal level, may be fairly common throughout the universe...

But that life capable of an advanced technology, such that it even reached our level, let alone mastery of "real time" warp drive type interstellar flight is exceedingly rare....

To me this is one of the really interesting evolutions in our understanding of our planet and it's place in the galaxy...

When we first began to learn about our true position as a planet, not as "the center of the universe", but as a fairly unremarkable speck circling a middling star on the outer wing of a galaxy, we assumed that there had to be a lot of planets like ours, given the mathematical odds....

But the more we have learned about how our own planet came to be the way it is, and how seemingly rare this set of conditions is in other star systems (a lot of Jupiter type gas giants, very few rocky planets in "the Goldilocks Belt") the more our scientific knowledge brings us full circle....

To a belief that if our planet isn't "unique" it is at the very least, a very rare sort of place....

And the odds against us ever being able to communicate with one of these other "rare event planets" (or they communicating with, let alone 'visiting' us) in a meaningful temporal way are (no pun intended) astronomical....

[Lord Jim]

I love science fiction, but I recognize it for being what it is...

fiction....

When I watch these "Did Aliens Visit Earth?" shows, they really hand me a laugh....

Okay, let's see what is supposed to have happened here:

An alien race, which is sufficiently advanced to have mastered warp drive real time interstallar travel, came to earth for the purpose of teaching the earthlings how to stack one limestone block on top of another....

Would teaching them about, oh, I don't know, penicillin, have been maybe a little bit more useful?

[Crackpot]

No we were far more useful as one night stands.

[Joe Guy]

If the mathematical odds that life exists on a planet other than ours is one in a billion billion, and the universe is infinite, chances are very good that life exists elsewhere.

[Lord Jim]

It was a lot more logical to believe 50 or 60 years ago, before we knew that Mars was an arid wasteland with very little atmosphere, or that Venus was Global-Warming- Gone- Nuts hell hole, that there might be other intelligent life in the universe that we could communicate with....

But now that we have explored our own environment to the point that we know for an iron-clad fact that there is no other intelligent life in our solar system, (there may be some microbes living beneath the surface on Titan, or some other Jovian or Saturnian moon, but that's hardly as satisfying) it means that any Visitor would have to come from a very long ways indeed....

[thestoat]

With something like 400 billion stars in our galaxy, and hundreds of billions of galaxies in the known universe, why would any advanced civilisation want to visit us?

Looks like they are starting to discover many Goldilocks planets out there ...

[Timster]

Yes. Of course there is "Life" out there.

[Gob]

Is there any here though?

[Lord Jim]

I hope the remarks pointing out the likelihood of "life" existing on other planets are not directed at me....

Since I have specifically said that I think "life" at least on the most primitive level is likely to be relatively common throughout the cosmos....

I'm making a far narrower point...

That given our own planetary experience, and how long it took, and the convergence of events required to create a species even of our level of development, that even if there are millions of planets out there that have one celled organisms swimming around in their primordial soup, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if there were only a relative handful ( a thousand or less perhaps) that have developed science capable species equal to or surpassing our own....

And then if you cull that down further to only those who exist with us in real time, you come up with an even smaller number....

And then you try to imagine this tiny group of planets with these sorts of developed technologies trying to communicate with or even find each other over the vastness of space....

Not bloody likely....

The likelihood that there is life on other planets approaches 100%....

The likelihood that our planet has ever been visited by intelligent life forms from another planet approaches absolute zero....

[Joe Guy]

The likelihood that our planet has ever been visited by intelligent life forms from another planet approaches absolute zero....

Maybe, but the likelihood that some not-so-smart life forms have visited here from another planet is very likely.

The intelligent ones would avoid us and write us off as just another evolving planet, but the not-so-smart aliens would drop by and experiment with us.

For example, an alien with intergalactic travel abilities and a sense of humor might create a "President Reagan" android just to stir up our planet a bit to see how it affects lower life forms.

[Gob]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal_probing

[Lord Jim]

I've always had a little problem with that....

A civilization so advanced, that they had mastered the challenges of interstellar space travel....

Able to traverse the vast expanses of space....

Just so they could come here and shove stuff up the asses of a bunch of randomly selected drunken rednecks....

Seems hardly worth the trip.....

[Gob]

Don't knock it till you've tried it Jim

[loCAtek]

Okay,
There may be life but there is definitely necroposting going on.

Full lyrics:

Heya tom its bob
From the office down the hall
Its good to see you buddy, howve you been?
Things have been okay for me except that Im a zombie now.
I really wish youd let us in
I think I speak for all of us when I say I understand
Why you folks might hesitate to submit to our demands
But heres an FYI, youre all goanna die screaming!

CORUS:

All we want to do is eat your brains!
Were not unreasonable; I mean no-ones going to eat your eyes.
All we want to do is eat your brains!
Were at a impasse here, maybe we could compromise
If you open up the door, well all come inside and eat your brain!

I dont want to nitpick tom, but is this really your plan?
Spend your whole life locked inside a mall
Maybe thats okay for now, but someday youll be out of food and guns
And youll have to make the call
I'm not surprised to see you havent thought it through enough
You never had the head for all that bigger picture stuff
But tom thats what I do, and I plan on eating you slowly!

CORUS

Id like to help you tom, in anyway I can
I sure appreciate the way youre working with me
I'm not a monster tom,
Well technically I am
I guess I am

INSTRUMENTAL

Ive got another meeting tom, maybe we could wrap it up
I know well get to common grounds somehow
Meanwhile Ill report back to my colleagues who are chewing on the doors
I guess well table this for now
Im glad to see you take constructive criticism well
Thank you for your time, I know were all busy as hell
And well put this thing to bed when I bash your head open!

ENDING:

All we want to do is eat your brains!
Were not unreasonable; I mean no-ones going to eat your eyes.
(fade out) All we want to do is...