Poll: You believe in life beyond Earth?

[Wierdguy]

So I asked some of my friends this and turns out a lot more of them than I expected didnt believe in any life beyond our planet at all. Thus Im curious to see the more broader oppinion on this.

Let me clarify; With life I dont nessecarely mean an alien race, a civilization besides humans. When I say life it can be anything from bacterias and single-cell organisms to a "second earth" complete with blooming forests and oceans of life.

The question is broad enough to include all of the universe, but as far as the poll goes I only mean out galaxy the Milky Way. I for one, defenetly believe there is life. I dont believe in another civilization (atleast not in our galaxy), but that there are plant and animal life on other planets out there? Defenetly!

Just imagine this: In our galaxy there are hundreds of billions of stars, and a countless more planets. The only problem at the moment is that seeing planets is hard since they dont give of any light so next to their star theyre nearly impossible to find. But despite this scientists have observed a near 200.000 planets they think might hold atleast the nessecary ingredients for life. So, 200.000 planets with potential for life that we've found so far out of the billions upon billions of planets in our galaxy, is it unreasonable to think theres life on some of them?

Edit: woulnt it be nice if people read the whole post before replying? A lot of you seem to assume I DONT believe in life beyond the earth.

 

[bdcjacko]

I don't even believe in life on this planet. Kill then all, let the robot uprising begin.

No but seriously. It would be neat to find complex life on other planets.

 

[AnkaraTheFallen]

I'd say of course there are other civilisations out there, with the sheer number of stars and planets out there, there must have life on some of them. The problem is finding them, currently it would take several generations to reach the next star to us.

A book I read recently said that experiments have been carried out fairly recently that suggest that the 'dust' in space between stars is in fact dead bacteria. Bringing up many theories that life stared in space... but that's all speculation and goes into way too much detail for me to put here.

 

[TheFederation]

hate to say it, but we've already discovered microspopic organisms on mars... but i don't know how long untill we find intelligent life

 

[ryai458]

With how huge our universe is of course there is life out there how complex is another question, and how luck based it would be to find it.

 

[Naheal]

Sometimes, I think that the largest bit of proof that there is intelligent life in the universe is that none of it has contacted us.

 

[FalloutJack]

They're out there, but it's bloody unlikely they're within our ability to find.

 

[Typical Cats]

Why not?

 

[Jedamethis]

Sure. We'll find them eventually, don't you worry!

 

[Condor219]

I think it's inconceivable to think that sentient life doesn't exist somewhere in this universe. What are the odds? Well, considering the ridiculously vast amount of chances out there , I'd say it'd be pretty good that there would not only be bacteria, but at least some sort of other evolved species. In an analogy, the chances of winning the lottery are basically nothing, but if you buy EVERY LOTTERY TICKET IN EXISTENCE you're bound to have a winner.

 

[Talon_Skywarp]

Infinite Universe, Infinite chances for life.

Simple

 

[Wintermoot]

it,s kinda arrogant to believe we are alone in this (infinite?) universe of ours.
but let,s hope the others are like ET and not the combine.

 

[philosophicalbastard]

It's statistically impossible that life doesn't exist outside your our little blue marble. Being able to REACH it is another mater entirely.

Do you mean this Reach?

Spoiler

OT:There is probably some life out there, maybe a civilization or two, but they would be completely different from our own.

 

[Kanaan Brood]

It is almost a statistical certainty that we are not alone. Too many stars, too many planets. However the probability of us actually noticing them is really low with our current level of technology. SETI's funding was just recently pulled too with an estimated 2000 planets on the books to be looked at. Space exploration is not a priority for any current government.

 

[Redingold]

I want to say that we'll find them eventually, but I don't want to say that it'll only take a few decades.

 

[Thaluikhain]

The odds of there being one planet in our galaxy on which life has developed, and only that one planet, seem rather small.

Though, as a quibble, the odds that plants/animals/bacteria or any other form of life as fits into Earth categories existing out there is also, IMHO, remote. When/if any is discovered, I predict our ideas about biology will have to be adapted quite dramatically.

 

[AnkaraTheFallen]

I think it's inconceivable to think that sentient life doesn't exist somewhere in this universe. What are the odds? Well, considering the ridiculously vast amount of chances out there , I'd say it'd be pretty good that there would not only be bacteria, but at least some sort of other evolved species. In an analogy, the chances of winning the lottery are basically nothing, but if you buy EVERY LOTTERY TICKET IN EXISTENCE you're bound to have a winner.

Haha, that's a brilliant analogy, I'll need to remember that for future use. ^.^

 

[renegade7]

The universe is far too big a place for life only to exist on one specific planet. Think about it-why would life ONLY exist here?

When you think about it, all you really need for life (as we know it of course) is water, the right amount of heat and light, oxygen, and the right minerals in the right quantities. It's a bit of a long shot, but if it's possible here it's possible elsewhere.

BTW that doesnt even count life as we DON'T know it. As I said before, the universe is quite a large place and I would bet there's some pretty weird stuff out there.

 

[Brandon237]

I believe that:

There is complex life, possibly more so than we are out there.
We will not find afore-mentioned life as it is very rare.

There is a LOT of simple life out there, we may find this, not likely too soon though.

We may also never find any other life. But it is still out there.

I am almost certain that we are not alone, but we will likely remain lonely despite this.