Poll: You believe in life beyond Earth?

[Life_Is_A_Mess]

We definatly aren't alone, but the most probable outcome is that no alien will come to us. After seeing what we did to our planet, I think extra-terrestrials will steer clear of us.

 

[disfunkybob]

You're working under the assumption that the life MUST be on Earthlike planets. For all we know,evolution could have created a race of intelligent beings that either don't need water,or can produce their own naturally. It's impossible to truly know until we actually find more life,intelligent or otherwise.

Actually scientists are very sure water is the number one requirement for life. There is a dessert here on earth (the name eludes me at the moment but something in style with atachama) where it litteraly NEVER rains. There is NO water there whatsoever. Yet researchers hasnt found even a trace of the most primitive forms of life.
There is life in the most unfathomable places here on earth, but the one place that doesnt have a single drop of water fails to sustain even the most basic forms. If there could be life without water they would atleast find traces of it in that dessert but there is none.

I get what youre saying that we cant be 100% sure, but Id say scientists are atleast 99% in agreement that life requires water.

I'm very wary about your 99% statistic.

Some theories about RNA hypothesize that life can develop as strongly as our mostly DNA life here on Earth. The catch is that you would need a world with a thick atmosphere (higher radiation can break it down) and be practically devoid of water (water can also break it down).

We have two terrestrial bodies in our solar system that could have that may have thick enough atmosphere. And that's discounting the possibility that life can't develop on gas giants, which it might very well be able to.

We don't have enough statistical evidence to say life has to have water. It could use ammonia, methane or ethane.

 

[uc.asc]

In order to believe that there is no other life in the universe, it is necessary to believe that the earth is special.

You might want to ask your friends if they also think the sun revolves around the earth. It could be good for a laugh.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

If there is advanced life then it is more likely to find us than we are to find it.

 

[Jonluw]

I don't see why I should need to make up any belief as of yet.
My belief is this: There might be life outside of earth. With the vastness of the universe, it seems likely, I still won't claim to believe there is life on other planets though.

 

[v3n0mat3]

Under the grounds of something I like to call "probability", it's improbable that there isn't life on other planets. Billions upon billions of stars and planets and you are telling me we are the only sentient life? I really don't buy it. It's not how things work, to my understanding.

((This is a general statement, not directed at the OP, who states that he believes in life on other planets))

 

[DesertMummy]

Probably. I mean even without the whole us already finding microscopic alien life on Mars or whatever happened, the universe is HUGE! I mean, its bigger than big, but that also works against us. I believe that there are aliens, they just don't care about Earth, a tiny spot on the universal map.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

You're working under the assumption that the life MUST be on Earthlike planets. For all we know,evolution could have created a race of intelligent beings that either don't need water,or can produce their own naturally. It's impossible to truly know until we actually find more life,intelligent or otherwise.

Actually scientists are very sure water is the number one requirement for life. There is a dessert here on earth (the name eludes me at the moment but something in style with atachama) where it litteraly NEVER rains. There is NO water there whatsoever. Yet researchers hasnt found even a trace of the most primitive forms of life.
There is life in the most unfathomable places here on earth, but the one place that doesnt have a single drop of water fails to sustain even the most basic forms. If there could be life without water they would atleast find traces of it in that dessert but there is none.

I get what youre saying that we cant be 100% sure, but Id say scientists are atleast 99% in agreement that life requires water.

Perhaps no life on Earth has ever adapted to a waterless environment simply because they already evolved far enough to rely on water. Or, they could use another chemical to fill that same role, but there is also a lack of any similar molecules in the desert.
Life has been shown to exist in extremes of temperature, pressure, acidiity, radioactivity, humidity... I can easily see life devoloping somewhere else with no need for water.
Even if water truly is an absolute requirement for life, its not like Earth is the only place where water exists.

I said; 'no, but we'll probably never find it.'

Perhaps we'll stumble on a few microbes. But the odds of any kind of advanced (by advanced I mean more than a couple of cells in complexity) lifeforms being found anywhere near earth are rather small.

 

[rutger5000]

You do realize our entire existince as the human race is a once in a trillion chance right? If some predator murdered the first homo sapians (apes) We wouldn't have survived all these years.

That is a matter of opinion. I never agreed with the notion that the odds in evolution are truly so small. Yes the chance that we would exactly evolve the way we did are quiet small. But I think that the chance that some primate would eventually evolve in an intelligent lifeform is 2 in 3 at least. And otherwise some bird species might have evolved.
The chance of a sever mutation is small, the chance that that sever mutation is benifitual is also small, the chance that the mutation is brought over to the future generations is between a certainty and a small chance. Indeed evolution according to this senario can only happen once in a trillion tries.
But every lifeform adaps to its environment, and evolution can happen graduatly. I see evolution as something natrual, something that is always going on. It just takes a long time to see a drastic change.

 

[Agayek]

-snip-

Anyone who truly, honestly believes that there is no life anywhere else in the infinite cosmos needs to be shot for gross stupidity and lack of reasoning ability.

There are trillions upon trillions of other stars, planets and galaxies out there somewhere. I guarantee you there is life on at least one of them.

Actually, there are requirements for life. Water is the most important, no water; no life. Second of all the planet cant be too close to the sun or all life will burn up and all water will evaporate. But it cant bee too far away either since life requires LIQUID water, frozen water is as useless as no water.
There is a "comfort" zone around most stars where scientists believe life can exist, and Titan and pluto is not within ours.

You are assuming that all life must be like life on Earth, and that is an inherently flawed assumption. To put it simply, we cannot assume that all life in the universe must follow the laws of evolution on Earth.

As an example, scientists just recently discovered a strain of bacteria that uses arsenic in the same manner most Earth-life uses water. What's to say a species like that couldn't spawn on Mercury and eventually evolve into sentient beings?

The fact of the matter is, applying the rules imposed by terrestrial evolution to extraterrestrial species is more than a bit absurd. We don't know enough to know what we don't know (and yes, I realize that sounds rather weird, but it's true), so we cannot make any blanket assumptions.

 

[Daverson]

Yes. The universe is (as far as our minds can comprehend at the current time) infinite. You'd have to be a fool to assume that in an infinite amount of space with an infinite amount of time, only one planet would develop life.

Also, there's evidence that there is (or at least, was) life on Mars. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article6934078.ece]

 

[Spade Lead]

It's quite possible for life to exist on Titan or Pluto. Just because it isn't Earth-like doesn't mean it can't sustain life;evolution works like that!

Actually, there are requirements for life. Water is the most important, no water; no life. Second of all the planet cant be too close to the sun or all life will burn up and all water will evaporate. But it cant bee too far away either since life requires LIQUID water, frozen water is as useless as no water.
There is a "comfort" zone around most stars where scientists believe life can exist, and Titan and pluto is not within ours.

Actually, Ethyl-Alcohol is just one possible replacement for water. (There are two, but I left my Astronomy book at the house, since I am hanging at my girlfriend's waiting her to finish her shower.) Life is entirely possible in forms we don't recognize.

 

[Spade Lead]

I don't have any fermi beliefs about extraterrestrial life.
Zing!
Extremely forced, didn't-really-make-sense Zing.

But.. I think that there's a strong possibility. I wouldn't say I believe in it, because belief is not really a good thing in the absence of evidence. But it's certainly very likely to exist. Likely enough for me to want to become an astrobiologist, mayhaps..

Cool. I am thinking of Astrophysicist or something definitely Astronomy based...

 

[Vykrel]

of course there is life out there... but we will probably never see it during our lifetimes. other than microscopic organisms

 

[Innegativeion]

I wouldn't say decades, more like a couple of centuries, but I voted the 5th option for simplicity

 

[drisky]

There is another civilization out there, but we won't find more than microscopic organisms in our life time, and well will be lucky to get that.

 

[___________________]

The last option was funny....but I might be high on bromazepam....mmmmh. Anyway, sure there is, even if it's like a bug or a microbe going about its life and all that. Of course if it was something exciting like Ásgarðr or some thing like that it would be more entertaining to imagine. The point is, we're not alone whether you want to or not so put a sock in it.

 

[Fifty-One]

I doubt we'd actually want to meet another advanced civilization right about now. They'd probably take one look at how we treat our planet and each other and decide Earth is long overdue for a "Spring Cleaning".

 

[Falconsgyre]

i believe there's life out there as to whether its "advanced or not i don't know but given the vastness of space i find in REALLY unlikely that were the only living things cling to a ball of rock and mud, so enter the drake equation

N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL

N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible;
and
R* = the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
f§¤ = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space

as long as there's any number there larger than zero there's a possibility of life (whether we find it or not is another story)

I see your Drake equation, and raise you Xkcd. [http://xkcd.com/384/] We don't know shit about the universe. Any speculation on the last 5 constants may be completely unwarranted. What if they're on the order of 10[sup]-80[/sup] or so?

sigh, somehow i saw this coming,yes you are correct our knowledge is definitely not complete, but the drake equation is our best guess with what we have and as we learn more we add or subtract to the equation. it was never intended as a be all end all on the existence of alien life but its a step in the right direction.

Fair enough, but there are times when it's most appropriate to simply say "We don't know." We really just don't have enough information to make any kind of reasonable guess.

 

[Urgh76]

Without a doubt, I mean it's almost certain with our universe the size that it is