Do you believe in the existence of extra-terrestrials?

[sunny1980]

We don't need to go to space and believe in ETs. We living with them, ask African Sangomas and Nyangas what they see and we call it a spiritual life, that's ET. What do you expect, one eyed thing?

 

[zippy]

No idea if they exist or not. Open minded about it.

I don't believe we will meet any et's, not for many centuries at least. Distances are just too large. If we do, marvellous.

I'm pretty sure some sort of life exists out there.

 

[Solarion]

Not sure about other intelligent life out there, but some types of life forms hell yeah I reckon so. Out of so many trillions upon trillions of planets it's not hard to imagine at least a few of them can support life. I'll crack open a cold one the day we do find something, anything, it would be a great day!

 

[ShaunSA]

Not sure about ET but plenty of Thread Necro on MyBB

 

[waynegohl]

A friend is working on a documentary called Good Planets Are Hard To Find and it deals with the environment and alien contact and has music by The Parlotones and a narrative by Elizabeth Klarer. The Facebook Page is awesome.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Good-planets-are-hard-to-find/174098625968181

 

[dualmeister]

I still believe that we are in a glass bottle on a giants mantelpiece (kinda like an ant farm)

 

[Bizkit87]

I think the discovery of other life forms [i don't like the word 'aliens'] is [as Mr. Smith puts it] inevitable.

The fact that our planet supports life, has to indicate that conditions suited for life exists in our universe, thus it indicates that out there, somewhere, even if its a 1 in a billion chance, that there will be another planet with conditions similar to what we have here, and thus - support life.

I think it is the top point of naive "ness" is someone believes we are alone, I only believe we are alone, according to our own perceptions. I once heard a saying that fits the occasion here "The hardest thing for people to believe, is the truth "

I personally cannot wait for the day that unquestionable proof is given of life forms on other planets, it will be the day remembered in history !!!

 

[ponder]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

It's a thumb suck at best but when one considers the scale of the universe I would say there is life out there, whether it's 'intelligent' who knows.

 

[Jings]

I don't think there's extraterrestrial life out there at present, although I imagine the possibly that humankind may one day "contaminate" other planets with earthly DNA, thus new life created beyond earth's boundaries.

 

[mercurial]

I don't think there's extraterrestrial life out there at present, although I imagine the possibly that humankind may one day "contaminate" other planets with earthly DNA, thus new life created beyond earth's boundaries.

:erm: You do know that the building blocks of life have crashed into Earth before, right? :erm: The stuff that made us is scattered throughout the universe. It's therefore very plausible that there are lifeforms out there.

 

[Jings]

:erm: You do know that the building blocks of life have crashed into Earth before, right? :erm: The stuff that made us is scattered throughout the universe. It's therefore very plausible that there are lifeforms out there.

Earth is a comparatively new planet relative to the rest of the universe so if there is life out there I would assume they are substantially more advanced, so why have they not explored yet? Not even as much as a radio wave beep.

 

[AlphaJohn]

Well seeing that the thread is now officially revived I will just leave my fav quote on the subject:

“Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” Arthur C. Clarke

 

[mercurial]

Earth is a comparatively new planet relative to the rest of the universe so if there is life out there I would assume they are substantially more advanced, so why have they not explored yet? Not even as much as a radio wave beep.

How do you know they haven't? And PS: don't think you can rely on SETI. They are hopeless. GIYF.

 

[RiaX]

Belief is the wrong word for a science question. I dont believe anything, I doubt or I know.

I think its foolish to say ETs dont exists considering the size of the universe. I think I posted it somewhere else, but by the time the light reaches us from far away places we might be seeing so far back that life hasnt had the chance to evolve or the system's conditions havent calmed down and we looking how it was and think "hey no way life can be here" likewise any species looking at earth from a couple 100 million light years away wouldnt pick up any signals of intelligent life either.

Assuming two things, our technology is similar as it would be guided by mathematics and all intelligent life is dependent on the information carried by photons and thus limited to the speed of light, its possible the universe is flooded with intelligent life but because the distances between stars its also possible that they will self extinct before they get the chance to become masters of the cosmos.

So yes I "believe" there is life out there through sheer size of the universe. I also believe due to biology that space travel for such vast distances (if einstein is correct about the speed of light being the maxium speed) that it would be impossible then for these species to interact with each other. The reason is a complex biological machine is extremely specific to its place of origin, humans for example will not survive extended periods in microgravity the blood system will collapse by the time you are able to reach another star system.

 

[Jings]

Belief is the wrong word for a science question. I dont believe anything, I doubt or I know.

I think its foolish to say ETs dont exists considering the size of the universe. I think I posted it somewhere else, but by the time the light reaches us from far away places we might be seeing so far back that life hasnt had the chance to evolve or the system's conditions havent calmed down and we looking how it was and think "hey no way life can be here" likewise any species looking at earth from a couple 100 million light years away wouldnt pick up any signals of intelligent life either.

Assuming two things, our technology is similar as it would be guided by mathematics and all intelligent life is dependent on the information carried by photons and thus limited to the speed of light, its possible the universe is flooded with intelligent life but because the distances between stars its also possible that they will self extinct before they get the chance to become masters of the cosmos.

So yes I "believe" there is life out there through sheer size of the universe. I also believe due to biology that space travel for such vast distances (if einstein is correct about the speed of light being the maxium speed) that it would be impossible then for these species to interact with each other. The reason is a complex biological machine is extremely specific to its place of origin, humans for example will not survive extended periods in microgravity the blood system will collapse by the time you are able to reach another star system.

Abzo had mentioned that travel is not limited to thread that speed of light. And physicists have already pointed out that it's theoretically possible to time travel. If there are advanced intelligence life with billions of years advantage over us why would have not figured it out ahead of our civilisation?

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/441527-Some-questions-about-the-speed-of-light/page3

 

[waynegohl]

Why always assume that ET is far advanced then us why can't we be billions of years more advanced then some ET's?

 

[Niner]

We might be more advanced than some ET, but we won't know because we can't travel there. Hence, our best chance of meeting ET would be someone that is much more advanced than us and have found some way passed the limitations of time/space travel that is currently preventing us from exploring the universe.

 

[Jings]

Why always assume that ET is far advanced then us why can't we be billions of years more advanced then some ET's?

How many billions are we talking about? Earth is estimate 4.5 billion years and universe estimate is about 14 billion. Is earth one of the oldest living planets?

 

[AlphaJohn]

Why always assume that ET is far advanced then us why can't we be billions of years more advanced then some ET's?

We found those they are boring and called bacteria.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/06/meteorites-life-idUSN0627219120110306

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - A NASA scientist reports detecting tiny fossilized bacteria on three meteorites, and maintains these microscopic life forms are not native to Earth.

If confirmed, this research would suggest life in the universe is widespread and life on Earth may have come from elsewhere in the solar system, riding to our planet on space rocks like comets, moons and other astral bodies.

The study, published online late Friday in The Journal of Cosmology, is considered so controversial it is accompanied by a statement from the journal's editor seeking other scientific comment, which is to be published starting on Monday.

The central claim of the study by astrobiologist Richard Hoover is that there is evidence of microfossils similar to cyanobacteria -- blue-green algae, also known as pond scum -- on the freshly fractured inner surfaces of three meteorites.

These microscopic structures had lots of carbon, a marker for Earth-type life, and almost no nitrogen, Hoover said in a telephone interview on Sunday.

Nitrogen can also be a sign of Earthly life, but the lack of it only means that whatever nitrogen was in these structures has decomposed out into a gaseous form long ago, Hoover said.

"We have known for a long time that there were very interesting biomarkers in carbonaceous meteorites and the detection of structures that are very similar ... to known terrestrial cyanobacteria is interesting in that it indicates that life is not restricted to the planet Earth," Hoover said.

Hoover, based at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, has specialized in the study of microscopic lifeforms that survive extreme environments such as glaciers, permafrost and geysers.

He is not the first to claim discovery of microscopic life from other worlds.

In 1996, NASA scientists presented research indicating a 4-billion-year-old meteorite found in Antarctica carried evidence of fossilized microbial life from Mars.

The initial discovery of the so-called Mars meteorite was greeted with acclaim and the rock unveiled at a standing room-only briefing at NASA headquarters in Washington.

Since then, however, criticism has surrounded that discovery and conclusive proof has been elusive.

Hoover's research may well meet the same fate. In a statement published with the online paper, the Journal of Cosmology's editor in chief, Rudy Schild, said in a statement:

"Dr. Richard Hoover is a highly respected scientist and astrobiologist with a prestigious record of accomplishment at NASA. Given the controversial nature of his discovery, we have invited 100 experts and have issued a general invitation to over 5,000 scientists from the scientific community to review the paper and to offer their critical analysis." (Editing by Todd Eastham)

 

[waynegohl]

We are far more advanced then the people living in the Amazon rain forest so I am sure there must be a planet out there that is either far behind us on the evolutionary scale or one that has been destroyed by technology and has to start again from scratch.