Area 51

Kilgore

TimmyO said:

The physics of our universe seem to make stars inevitable (there are billions of them) but there is no evidence yet that a collection of molecules that constitutes life is inevitable, so using the size of the universe to support its likelihood is wanting it to be so. 

Whatever particular occurrence of physics, circumstances and coincidence that created life in our solar system could well be unique, the same as the exact shape of a snowflake is 

This is the reason we spend so much time, effort and money investigating our own solar system. If we can find evidence of life, no matter how rudimentary, elsewhere in our solar system, then it's highly likely that the universe is teeming with life.

Sassafras

So far aliens have only managed to probe Uranus.

Sassafras

Life exists only on Earth because God deemed it so.
We're his chosen people.

ICBM

There are no aliens. A story by a Walter Mitty character doesn’t make it true.

Complex life is so vanishingly rare that we are almost certainly the only example. The reason is the sheer odds against the creation of DNA or an equivalent self-replicating molecule, and then the similarly unlikely event of the evolution of multicellular organisms - we know it has only happened once in four billion years on Earth because all lifeforms we’ve ever found are descended from a single common ancestor. And that’s on a planet exceptionally well-suited to it...

Four billion years is also almost a third of the entire age of the universe, and probably almost the whole of the period where enough heavy elements have been formed in high enough concentrations to make the creation of complex life possible. Even if we may not always be alone, we are most likely the first. That isn’t a cause for arrogance - quite the opposite... we need to be aware of how astonishingly lucky, unique and precious our place in the universe is, and not fuck it up.

Wazmeister

Watch ‘Unacknowledged’ on Netflix.

When ex US Presidents, ex CIA FBI, Russian leaders, etc etc start saying on record that there are Alien forms and vehicles, its time to start listening...

VimFuego

one of the things I loved about BSG was how empty their universe is, I realise this was probably done mostly for money reasons (it's a lot cheaper not to have to invent alien cultures) and for dramatic reasons (to highlight the lightboat in the middle of the ocean vibe) but it really jarred, in a good way. Most sci fi franchises have galaxies that are teeming with life, which doesn't quite sit right. 

RaymondLin

tony99 said:

Has anyone here been probed?

Only between the sheets with the ex, you want pictures? 

barry2tone

Sassafras said:

So far aliens have only managed to probe Uranus.

But was it length 17 x width 3?

equalsql

tony99 said:

Has anyone here been probed?

One can only wish 

Sassafras

Wazmeister said:

Watch ‘Unacknowledged’ on Netflix.

When ex US Presidents, ex CIA FBI, Russian leaders, etc etc start saying on record that there are Alien forms and vehicles, its time to start listening...

The fact that they're retired would suggest at least some of them are senile.
Anyway, they couldn't be trusted when they were in power, why should we trust them now?
They've probably got book deals in the pipeline.
Some people lap up all this conspiracy crap and will buy into anything that feeds their delusions.

equalsql

Our own galaxy is so big that it would take over 100,000 years at the speed of light to traverse just the visible diameter of it. I've read there are more stars in our galaxy than the total number of grains of sands on the beaches of Earth. Given that it seems, from recent observations, that most stars seem to have orbital planets and astronomers are now stating that there are trillions of galaxies then it seems that the odds that we are the only life in the universe is statistically improbable to say the least.
Additionally the recent discovery of large complex organic molecules floating around in interstellar space by the Hubble telescope further adds credence to the concept of panspermia.

I believe there definitely is intelligent life spread widely across the universe but given the distances and time involved to travel that it is unlikely that we have ever been visited.

Sassafras

Jeeze, you've got to feel sorry for the poor bastard who had to count all the grains of sand on Earth.

viz

Sassafras said:

So far aliens have only managed to probe Uranus.

Yes uranus and m’ars

Sassafras

There could be extraterrestrial life but not life as we know it.

thecolourbox

Sassafras said:

There could be extraterrestrial life but not life as we know it.

I'm not very clever about this sort of thing but I have often thought that if we are looking for life as we understand it here, there's a chance we will miss other forms or definitions of life elsewhere. 

Just because our flukes of biology led to us, how do we know that other flukes of biology haven't led to other life forms?

ICBM

There could be complex extraterrestrial life if we can find even one single example on Earth - currently living or fossil, at any level - that is not related to all the rest, proving that it arose spontaneously more than once. If that can be found, then the chance that it also arose elsewhere goes from a probability vanishingly close to zero, to a certainty. That's also why finding even fossil evidence of life on Mars would matter so much too.

Sassafras

ICBM said:

There could be complex extraterrestrial life if we can find even one single example on Earth - currently living or fossil, at any level - that is not related to all the rest, proving that it arose spontaneously more than once. If that can be found, then the chance that it also arose elsewhere goes from a probability vanishingly close to zero, to a certainty. That's also why finding even fossil evidence of life on Mars would matter so much too.

But the conditions didn't exist or weren't  necessary for an alternative lifeform here.
Who knows what chemical compositions exist in the far flung galaxies? 
Aren't  we assuming a lot by basing everything on our present limited knowledge?
Not that I think there are other life forms in the known universe.

VimFuego

all I can say is that God has been very busy, creating this vast great universe and all that's in it. 

not_the_dj

VimFuego said:

all I can say is that God has been very busy, creating this vast great universe and all that's in it. 

Didn't he knock it all out in one really busy week?

thecolourbox

not_the_dj said:

VimFuego said:

all I can say is that God has been very busy, creating this vast great universe and all that's in it. 

Didn't he knock it all out in one really busy week?

Symbolically, I think.

What if the "God" that people persist in, and his symbolic creation story, are in fact the aliens? And yes, I've been watching X Files