Poll: Do you believe in aliens?

[AgentNein]

Yes I belive in aliens but I don't think we have made first contact yet.

I agree with this, although I disagree with all of the people who say that we will never meet aliens. Just because we can't do interstellar space travel at this point in time, doesn't mean that it is not possible. That being said I doubt that we have met aliens yet.

I don't think that most people are absolute on this, just that the odds are heavily, heavily stacked against us meeting these aliens at some point.

So if planets are like grains of sand on a giant (and probably infinite) beach, then the chances of another planet harboring life are pretty good. Although compared to the total amount of grains of sand, it's still probably an extremely rare occurrence.

And then expecting two of these random (and extremely rare) grains of sand to discover each other and somehow meet? Preeeeetty slim in my understanding of it.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Yes I believe in alien life. Bacterial forms yes, because we've discovered them, and sentient life yes. It's just very likely that life can grow and develop on other planets under different conditions (or the same conditions as Earth)

I doubt Earth is the only planet to have achieved the one in a google chance of being the only planet to support sentient life in the universe, i'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of planets that can support sentients, even us if we moved there.

I don't think any alien life would be embarrassingly more advanced than us though, I mean they may be quite a lot more advanced relatively, cultural and technologically speaking of course. I don't think many aliens have achieved a hyperdrive for instance. I don't believe any of them have discovered a way to jump to lightspeed. And I think it's unlikely that they will make contact with us in this life time. But Earth is a noisy planet, we send signals off all over the place, maybe another planet will pick it up? They may want to investigate, if they are that way inclined.

Either way, aliens would have grown up culturally and physically on a different planet, that makes them unpredictable, and we have no hope of understanding them on first contact. Simply saying 'hey there' may be the most offensive insult in their language. Or a declaration of war Just an example.

 

[Faust VIII]

Well altough i find it too be very likely that aliens exist, or at some point will exist/have already existed(and i do think this to be the case). I would like to point out that there is still a mathematical chance that there are non/have never been/will never be however small that chance might be. What amazes me the most from the comments i've read so far is that most seem to think that if aliens exist already that it would be in the form of bacteria at best, but why? chances are just as high that we are one of the latest species to
come into existance. Thats the whole point of the (seemingly) infinity of the universe and time, that we have no idea where we stand and almost everything is possible. Aliens could possibly visit tommorow, but also in a thousend years or milenia or never. Thats's just it we don't know anything(or hardly anything) and that's the only thing we can be certain of.

 

[Twilight.falls]

As everyone and their grandmother has said, I think the universe it far too large for us to be the only life in it.

I think that we'll meet with another civilization at some point in the Earth's lifetime.

Just imagine, somewhere out there, some citizens of another planet are wondering "Do you think there's other life out there?"

 

[artanis_neravar]

Yes I belive in aliens but I don't think we have made first contact yet.

I agree with this, although I disagree with all of the people who say that we will never meet aliens. Just because we can't do interstellar space travel at this point in time, doesn't mean that it is not possible. That being said I doubt that we have met aliens yet.

I don't think that most people are absolute on this, just that the odds are heavily, heavily stacked against us meeting these aliens at some point.

So if planets are like grains of sand on a giant (and probably infinite) beach, then the chances of another planet harboring life are pretty good. Although compared to the total amount of grains of sand, it's still probably an extremely rare occurrence.

And then expecting two of these random (and extremely rare) grains of sand to discover each other and somehow meet? Preeeeetty slim in my understanding of it.

We are already working on determining which planets can support life, whose to say that aliens aren't doing a better job at it then we are? I think there is a good chance that alien life will encounter us when they are looking to colonize other planets. And if there is alien life advanced enough for space travel, they will colonize other planets because it is the only way to ensure that their entire species will survive anything short of a galactic catastrophe

 

[AgentNein]

*snippers*

Good points, but to discover planets with potential to harbor life and interstellar travel to said planet are two very different things. I must confess, I'm fairly cynical on the feasibility of interstellar travel even in the far flung future.

 

[artanis_neravar]

*snippers*

Good points, but to discover planets with potential to harbor life and interstellar travel to said planet are two very different things. I must confess, I'm fairly cynical on the feasibility of interstellar travel even in the far flung future.

At the rate we are going, I agree that for us it might not happen, but all it takes is one discovery or invention to change it all.

 

[Zeraki]

I am of the belief that the universe is far too big for us to be the only sentient lifeforms out there. I don't believe the have, or do visit our planet though. But if I ever do get the chance to meet an alien(we likely never will meet another race similar to us), I would hope it would be aliens like this.

Spoiler

I would like to avoid aliens like this though.

Spoiler

 

[ArchAngelKira]

If aliens exist they should stay on their planet, becuase with games like halo, gears of war , and resistince they can call racism on games similar to these

 

[Johnny Impact]

Mathematically, it's quite unlikely that we are the only intelligent life - let alone the only life - in this universe. So I can say that yes, I am convinced that "we are not alone".
Our galaxy, the milky way, alone has up to 300 billion stars. That's 300,000,000,000. Now if only every tenth star has planets, that's still 30,000,000,000 (30 billion). Now if one in every thousand solar systems would have life, that would still be 30,000,000 (30 million) systems. Now if one of every thousand systems with a planet with life sports intelligent life, that would still be 30,000 (30 thousand) systems and thus civilizations.

And that's in our galaxy alone. At the moment 50 billion (50,000,000,000) galaxies are observable from earth, each with several billions of stars in them...
Heck, even if only every millionth galaxy had one single planet bearing intelligent life, it would still amount to 50 thousand civilizations.

On the other hand, I don't believe in the "grays" visiting us and cover up conspirations. As any life form would have to adhere to the same physics as we do, it's just not feasable that they would travel here, or even have remote contact.

Bingo.

There is also the issue of time. All of human civilization has happened in less than eyeblink and there's nothing to suggest it has any potential for longevity. Untold numbers of alien civilizations could have already risen, then fallen into extinction. Or they could arise long after we're gone.

 

[AgentNein]

The incredible improbability of life on Earth dwarfs the number of stars in the universe.

I'd assume that such a wildly unlikely event has not happened again.

Then you might want to recheck your numbers. Current cosmological view of the universe says that it's most likely to be infinite in size.

 

[MadCapMunchkin]

I believe, but the Sparks disagree...

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Of course they do! How pointless would the Universe be with only ONE species?

Pro-tip: Pretty pointless.

To be fair, I don't see how life on other planets makes the universe any more pointed than it is.

......"Touche" says the fellow Cynic.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

If it's to be believed that the universe is infinite or the theory of multiple universes is accurate, it's basically inevitable that we aren't the only intelligent life in this existence.

 

[Brandon237]

I'm almost dead sure that there is life out there, and pretty sure that there is intelligent life SOMEWHERE out there. I highly doubt we will ever meet it though.

 

[Flaming Narwhal]

I believe that the possibility of alien life is astronomically (pun) large.

I don't think we'll ever encounter them though.
Simply too far away.

Same as this guy.

 

[Deonysus]

Well, since our universe is so freaking large, I find it quite hard to believe that we are the only life forms around, especial now that we even have found other planets that both have water and a supposedly stable atmosphere.
I would also like to point out that, even if we spend a 1 000 years exploring, it's not certain that we will find other beings that have reached an similar level of intelligence as we humans. Thou when we finally find some one else out there, I guess they might have spent an equal amount of time looking for other intelligent beings. Leading to an hopefully peaceful encounter.
Regarding how they may look can be just about bloody anything. It all comes down to what kind of trials they may encounter on their very home planet. And that can be everything from a complete ocean planet to something similar to Dune. Gravity will have an effect, how far away the sun is and what sort of chemical compositions exist on the planet, hell, its oceans may very well be made out of burning acid.

 

[mikespoff]

The incredible improbability of life on Earth dwarfs the number of stars in the universe.

I'd assume that such a wildly unlikely event has not happened again.

Then you might want to recheck your numbers. Current cosmological view of the universe says that it's most likely to be infinite in size.

No, really, current cosmological view (in the professional astrophysics community) definitely does not say that the universe is mathematically infinite.

(If you want to consider it infinite in the sense of "all-encompassing", that's fine, but it's mathematically finite and dimensionally bounded).

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Mathematically, it's quite unlikely that we are the only intelligent life - let alone the only life - in this universe. So I can say that yes, I am convinced that "we are not alone".
Our galaxy, the milky way, alone has up to 300 billion stars. That's 300,000,000,000. Now if only every tenth star has planets, that's still 30,000,000,000 (30 billion). Now if one in every thousand solar systems would have life, that would still be 30,000,000 (30 million) systems. Now if one of every thousand systems with a planet with life sports intelligent life, that would still be 30,000 (30 thousand) systems and thus civilizations.

And that's in our galaxy alone. At the moment 50 billion (50,000,000,000) galaxies are observable from earth, each with several billions of stars in them...
Heck, even if only every millionth galaxy had one single planet bearing intelligent life, it would still amount to 50 thousand civilizations.

On the other hand, I don't believe in the "grays" visiting us and cover up conspirations. As any life form would have to adhere to the same physics as we do, it's just not feasable that they would travel here, or even have remote contact.

i have always agreed with the mathematical viewpoint of this, however you never know on us having contact, look how much science has gone forward (as far as mankind goes) in the past 200 years? look at 400 years from now, which is very relatively young, hell the United States isn't even that old, look how far science might go/be, I seriously doubt we won't have found a way around space travel/light travel

 

[AgentNein]

The incredible improbability of life on Earth dwarfs the number of stars in the universe.

I'd assume that such a wildly unlikely event has not happened again.

Then you might want to recheck your numbers. Current cosmological view of the universe says that it's most likely to be infinite in size.

No, really, current cosmological view (in the professional astrophysics community) definitely does not say that the universe is mathematically infinite.

(If you want to consider it infinite in the sense of "all-encompassing", that's fine, but it's mathematically finite and dimensionally bounded).

"Recent measurements (c. 2001) by a number of ground-based and balloon-based experiments, including MAT/TOCO, Boomerang, Maxima, and DASI, have shown that the brightest spots are about 1 degree across. Thus the universe was known to be flat to within about 15% accuracy prior to the WMAP results. WMAP has confirmed this result with very high accuracy and precision. We now know that the universe is flat with only a 0.5% margin of error. This suggests that the Universe is infinite in extent; however, since the Universe has a finite age, we can only observe a finite volume of the Universe. All we can truly conclude is that the Universe is much larger than the volume we can directly observe."

NASA.

probably flat universe=probably infinite universe.