Going to see Professor Brian Cox tonight...

[javacontour]

As old and large as the Universe is, I highly doubt that Earth is the only planet with "intelligent life" on it. I'd like to hear the reason why any scientist or anyone else would think Earth is the only rock out of millions in the Universe that has intelligent evolving life.

But it might be the only one RIGHT NOW. That's part of the issue. Life on Earth is a millions of years thing on a body that is 4+ billion years old. And it took those millions of years for it to become what we are now.

How long does our run go?

Ditto for any other planets where life developed. Did it remain safe long enough to advance. Or did it's star or some other cosmic event take them out.

The time variable is very important in this question. Does our existence overlap in time with the existence of other life?
Even if we or they started now, could either of us get to one another before life no longer exists in one or both places?

 

[Wolf359]

Who said it was the answer? It's a possibility, and just because a smoking gun hasn't been found doesn't mean the answer to not finding hard evidence yet is because everyone is "mentally ill" like you've seem to have concluded. If that's the answer to every unknown to mankind, then I guess every person on Earth is "mentally ill". You're tying to come to some conclusion to the mystery (it's all due to "mental illness" - sure, LoL), which is no more valid than anyone else's theories on the subject at this point.

Just using Occam's razor, but it's just a theory not a conclusion. Why jump to least likely when there are many more more likely explanations. Why do you keep focusing on the answer? Didn't I mention earlier that the answer is unknown? There are many possibilities. But some probabilities are more likely than others.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Just using Occam's razor, but it's just a theory not a conclusion. Why jump to least likely when there are many more more likely explanations. Why do you keep focusing on the answer? Didn't I mention earlier that the answer is unknown? There are many possibilities. But some probabilities are more likely than others.

Re-read what I said. Who said it was the "answer", and exactly an answer to what? I said it was a possibility, nothing else. It's a theory based on viewpoints, just like you have theories. Seems the focus of this discussion is off into the weeds.

Do you really think that Earth is the only planet in the entire Universe that has life, had life or might someday have life on it ... including intelligent life?

 

[ZeeOSix]

But it might be the only one RIGHT NOW. That's part of the issue. Life on Earth is a millions of years thing on a body that is 4+ billion years old. And it took those millions of years for it to become what we are now.

How long does our run go?

Ditto for any other planets where life developed. Did it remain safe long enough to advance. Or did it's star or some other cosmic event take them out.

The time variable is very important in this question. Does our existence overlap in time with the existence of other life?
Even if we or they started now, could either of us get to one another before life no longer exists in one or both places?

You really think that Earth is the first place in the entire Universe and the only one right now to have intelligent life? That seems more of a wild theory than mine that there's life and quite possibly intelligent life beside just here, lol.

If you look into it, modern man has only been here around 250K-300K years ... not millions of years. Obviously, there was other non-intelligent life here way before modern man showed up. Monkeys touching the monolith perhaps? ... had to throw that in there.

Our sun is estimated to make life here inhabitable many millions of years from now. I wouldn't worry about the sun taking it or mankind out over many other possible things. The way it's going ... mankind might take himself out before any natural disaster will.

 

[Wolf359]

Re-read what I said. Who said it was the "answer", and exactly an answer to what? I said it was a possibility, nothing else. It's a theory based on viewpoints, just like you have theories. Seems the focus of this discussion is off into the weeds.

Do you really think that Earth is the only planet in the entire Universe that has life, had life or might someday have life on it ... including intelligent life?

Your theories just seem weak based on the evidence presented so far. Yes there are probabilities, but don't confuse possibilities with probabilities. Normally the best theory is the one that fits all the pieces of the puzzle the best. Aliens are just a big cop out seeing as how we as yet have never actually found one, only theorized.

As for Earth being the only planet, well didn't I answer that before? Why would I go as far to say it's the only planet? Right now it seems like it's the only planet, but out of 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe, probably not but it's still possible that it's the only one in this time frame. The closest galaxy to ours is Andromeda and that's 2.5 million light years away. So what if there's intelligent life somewhere else? What do you think that really means? The main problem seems to be is that it takes way too long to get here from there. Also due to dark energy, the universe is expanding and if you're far enough away, you can't even get here even at the speed of light because the universe is expanding between two distant points at greater than the speed of light. Eventually as the universe expands away, it will become dimmer here as all you will have left is just the light from the local galaxies.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Your theories just seem weak based on the evidence presented so far. Yes there are probabilities, but don't confuse possibilities with probabilities. Normally the best theory is the one that fits all the pieces of the puzzle the best. Aliens are just a big cop out seeing as how we as yet have never actually found one, only theorized.

My theories are theories, just like you have theories. I've never claimed to have proof, but simply say it's possible, and you don't have any real proof that aliens or life (intelligent or not) doesn't exists on other planets. Your theories don't stand just because you think mine don't - it's easier to say something doesn't exist because there is no proof, than it is to say something exists without proof - Occam's razor again, which sometimes is basically just a weak excuse. The problem is, there aren't many pieces of the puzzle that have been found, because it may take more searching for the right pieces of the puzzle. And of course, people will always say "Well, is that piece of the puzzle actually real or not"? It's easy for people to automatically go down the "Occam's razor" path and conclude something isn't real because nobody has shown solid proof, or claim it must all be due to some other phenomena or people are just mentally ill and hallucinating about stuff all the time. Same could apply if we were talking about ghosts or bigfoot.

As for Earth being the only planet, well didn't I answer that before? Why would I go as far to say it's the only planet? Right now it seems like it's the only planet, but out of 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe, probably not but it's still possible that it's the only one in this time frame.

It "seems" like the only planet? ... because you don't have any "smoking gun" that says otherwise ... so therefore "Occam's razor". The only one in this time frame - why? Do you think there can only be one planet at a time that can have some kind life going on? Two trillion galaxies with millions of suns with planets. Yet how could there never be the possibility of life starting up and evolving on some of them like it has here?

The closest galaxy to ours is Andromeda and that's 2.5 million light years away. So what if there's intelligent life somewhere else? What do you think that really means?

Who said the planets would have to be in another Galaxy? Even if they are in this Galaxy the distances to be traveled would be immense per what we know right now ... but again, people are locked into what we know about current technology and space travel right now. So what if there's intelligent life elsewhere? - what does it mean? It means that there is most likely a common denominator to how life is created and evolves. Wouldn't that be something valuable to discover and understand? I would hope that continued discovery and understanding would make the world a better place, and mankind more connected to reality.

The main problem seems to be is that it takes way too long to get here from there. Also due to dark energy, the universe is expanding and if you're far enough away, you can't even get here even at the speed of light because the universe is expanding between two distant points at greater than the speed of light. Eventually as the universe expands away, it will become dimmer here as all you will have left is just the light from the local galaxies.

You seem confident that mankind has already found every technological secret in the Universe. Don't you have any faith in man to find some new ground breaking technology in the next 25, 50, 100 or 500+ years? If mankind is still here in 500-1000 years from now, and man's technology discoveries and knowledge growth doesn't completely stop, do you think he will still be trying to figure out what grade of oil to use in his UFO?

 

[JeffKeryk]

The closest galaxy to ours is Andromeda and that's 2.5 million light years away.

Given the distance, the light from Andromeda entering my eyes was emmited before the dawn of man on earth. Yup.

 

[Wolf359]

My theories are theories, just like you have theories. I've never claimed to have proof, but simply say it's possible, and you don't have any real proof that aliens or life (intelligent or not) doesn't exists on other planets. Your theories don't stand just because you think mine don't - it's easier to say something doesn't exist because there is no proof, than it is to say something exists without proof - Occam's razor again, which sometimes is basically just a weak excuse. The problem is, there aren't many pieces of the puzzle that have been found, because it may take more searching for the right pieces of the puzzle. And of course, people will always say "Well, is that piece of the puzzle actually real or not"? It's easy for people to automatically go down the "Occam's razor" path and conclude something isn't real because nobody has shown solid proof, or claim it must all be due to some other phenomena or people are just mentally ill and hallucinating about stuff all the time. Same could apply if we were talking about ghosts or bigfoot.


It "seems" like the only planet? ... because you don't have any "smoking gun" that says otherwise ... so therefore "Occam's razor". The only one in this time frame - why? Do you think there can only be one planet at a time that can have some kind life going on? Two trillion galaxies with millions of suns with planets. Yet how could there never be the possibility of life starting up and evolving on some of them like it has here?


Who said the planets would have to be in another Galaxy? Even if they are in this Galaxy the distances to be traveled would be immense per what we know right now ... but again, people are locked into what we know about current technology and space travel right now. So what if there's intelligent life elsewhere? - what does it mean? It means that there is most likely a common denominator to how life is created and evolves. Wouldn't that be something valuable to discover and understand? I would hope that continued discovery and understanding would make the world a better place, and mankind more connected to reality.


You seem confident that mankind has already found every technological secret in the Universe. Don't you have any faith in man to find some new ground breaking technology in the next 25, 50, 100 or 500+ years? If mankind is still here in 500-1000 years from now, and man's technology discoveries and knowledge growth doesn't completely stop, do you think he will still be trying to figure out what grade of oil to use in his UFO?

You're not giving proper weight to the theories. Yes, you have your theories and I have mine but which one is more probable? You've got a lot of wishful thinking in your theories. Mine are more grounded in facts and reality. They don't have the same equal weight. Santa clause is a possibility too, but should we take that seriously?

"It's easier to say something doesn't exist because there is no proof, than it is to say something exists without proof."

Yes that's the whole point, I can easily make a claim that says you did something that you didn't do but what does that mean without any proof? You need to be careful with your claims otherwise you lose all credibility.

Also I'm not saying we know everything, there's lots of things we don't know, still lots of mysteries out there and we keep looking. Yes we might find them one day, but so far there's been no signs of anything but it's a big universe. Schools of thoughts are that it goes both ways, some people say we should hide and some want to advertise our existence. Some say we don't have a good track record when a high tech civilization meets a lower tech one.

Also don't confuse theory with engineering. The theory for fusion has been there, the engineering just seems to encounter new problems as they try to get there.

 

[M56959]

Veered into UFO debate which falls outside BITOG purview