[Patfig]

No Future, on 04 May 2012 - 02:36 PM, said:

Did you know there's no rings round uranus?

I might have known this had I been a contortionist

edit speeeling

This post has been edited by Patfig: 04 May 2012 - 04:36 PM

[Nationalist]

It's extremely unlikely that they are NOT here.

Think about the numbers. According to Keppler data from NASA there could be two billion Earth-like planets inn our galaxy alone. On Earth life started within 500 million years of the planet cooling; probably seeded from space anyway.

The mammals gained ascendancy on the Earth when the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor 65 million years ago; imagine if that meteor had been 0.0001% faster and arrived 66 million years ago! We would be 1 million years more advanced than we are. We would be all over the galaxy, either in person, by robotic proxy.

On other Earth-like planets intelligent life could have started as much as 1 billion years ago. They must already be here. In fact they must have been here before we were here. They've probably been here since before the dinosaurs! (Perhaps they still have some pet T-Rexes!)

The human race may be an alien creation. More likely is, than not. Hi-tech aliens would already have been around when we got started. They could have stopped us evolving if they wanted to; so we're here at least with permission and more likely, by design.

There are probably groups of human who are in fairly close contact with aliens and are more knowledgeable on this subject.

['Bart']

Nationalist, on 04 May 2012 - 03:59 PM, said:

It's extremely unlikely that they are NOT here.

Think about the numbers. According to Keppler data from NASA there could be two billion Earth-like planets inn our galaxy alone.

A playing with mathematical equations. No amount of statistical guesswork can arrive at an estimation for the number of alien beings that are out there.

How many of those worlds would be inhabited? And by intelligent life? And for how long?

How many of those intelligences developed at the same time we did. As Carl Sagan pointed out, if the history of the universe were compressed into one day, our species only arrived at 10:30 p.m on December 31st.

In such a calendar, the Renaissance and everything since occurred at one second to midnight on December 31st.

Human civilization has only been around for the merest blink of an eye and could easily wipe itself out over the next few hundred years. Other intelligences may be equally as foolish.

How easy would it be for civilizations on different planets to rise and fall, billions of years apart.

Also, species located on the other side of the galaxy would face a journey of 100,000 light years. The light we see from those stars began on its journey at the same time that the modern form of Homo sapiens first appeared.

[Nuggets Mahoney]

Personally, I'm rarely impressed by hypotheses that skip over all the boring facty stuff and call upon large numbers and complete guesses about probabilities to deliver their result

The late Michael Creighton had this to say on the subject..

Quote

Drake organizes the first SETI conference, and came up with the now-famous Drake equation:

N=N*fp ne fl fi fc fL

Where N is the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy; fp is the fraction with planets; ne is the number of planets per star capable of supporting life; fl is the fraction of planets where life evolves; fi is the fraction where intelligent life evolves; and fc is the fraction that communicates; and fL is the fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations live.

This serious-looking equation gave SETI a serious footing as a legitimate intellectual inquiry. The problem, of course, is that none of the terms can be known, and most cannot even be estimated. The only way to work the equation is to fill in with guesses. And guesses -- just so we're clear -- are merely expressions of prejudice. Nor can there be "informed guesses." If you need to state how many planets with life choose to communicate, there is simply no way to make an informed guess. It's simply prejudice.

The Drake equation can have any value from "billions and billions" to zero. An expression that can mean anything means nothing. Speaking precisely, the Drake equation is literally meaningless, and has nothing to do with science. I take the hard view that science involves the creation of testable hypotheses. The Drake equation cannot be tested and therefore SETI is not science. SETI is unquestionably a religion.

This post has been edited by Nuggets Mahoney: 04 May 2012 - 06:03 PM

[unfunded_liability]

Given the fact that a majority of the electorate have just given Liebor a massive vote of confidence at the polls, I suggest that it is we that are the aliens walking amongst the zombies.

[SHERWICK]

'Bart, on 04 May 2012 - 04:38 PM, said:

if the history of the universe were compressed into one day year, our species only arrived at 10:30 p.m on December 31st.

Corrected

[Grrrr I'm a tiger]

unfunded_liability, on 04 May 2012 - 06:13 PM, said:

Given the fact that a majority of the electorate have just given Liebor a massive vote of confidence at the polls, I suggest that it is we that are the aliens walking amongst the zombies.

Hmm. Think I've found one...

[happy_renting]

I was about to vote No, even though it is almost inconceiveable that there is not alien life elsewhere, 99.999999% of which is probably just single-cell green slime.

But as I went to vote, I had a flash of insight. The aliens probably live within us. Complex hydrocarbons, including animo acids, have been detected in space. Chemistry that combines these into something like DNA is plausible, and from that, perhaps a simple virus, and so on.

The mitochondria in our own cells is beleived to be a degenerate form of some sort of parasite that lived in the cells of our oldest ancestors, which lived in a symbiotic relationship with our ancestor's cells. Perhaps there are traces of alien life within our own cells. Some scientists (notably Fred Hoyle) believe that life on earth (may have) started from simple lifeforms arriving from space.

And so, to those who argue that aliens will come to Earth to steal our oil and other hydrocarbon fuels... perhaps the aliens are already here, and are the hydrocarbon fuels...

['Bart']

I knew I'd seen that bug-eyed stare somewhere before.