Do you believe in extraterrestrials?

[Frisivisia]

Mathmatically, it's almost certain given the number of planets out there that at least another supports life.

[Kilobugya]

I tend to agree with the OP, because of two important facts often neglected :

1. The scope of cosmic timescale. The universe is ~15 billions years old, Earth ~5 billions. It is very, very unlikely to have the exact same speed of development of life on two different planets, even if their solar system were created at the same time. Assuming that life would develop merely 1% faster or slower on another planet (which is already a very thin difference), it means other life forms would be at least 50 millions of years more advanced than we are, or 50 millions of years late. 50 millions of years late make them squirrels (so "non-sentient primitive animals").

2. Absence of evidence is evidence of absence. We don't have the slightest sign of the existence of an hyper-advanced life form. And when looking how fast we went in just a mere 5000 years since we invented writing, can you imagine how far we'll go in 10 000 as much time (assuming we don't blow ourselves) ? Things like Dyson spheres and Von Neumann probes would be children toys for such a 50 millions of years more advanced than us civilization. And yet, in the billions of stars we watch with our telescopes, not a single one has a Dyson sphere. And there is Von Neumann probe in the solar system, as far as we can tell.

So the most plausible situation as that we are alone, as intelligent lifeform, in our corner of the universe. Life elsewhere in the galexy ? Probably, very likely. But not sentient, not able to figure out the laws of the universe and use them to reshape the world around them. And sure, there probably is intelligent lifeform somewhere else, very very far from us, millions of light years ahead, so far that the signal of their existence didn't yet reach us, limited it is as everything else by the speed of light.

[Tsuntion]

It's probable that there are other life forms out there somewhere. The universe is big. I do not believe that they have ever contacted us, though.

Also, I will not answer the poll. We've got no way of guessing what extraterrestrials are like, and there could be some (many) which are primitive and some (few) which are advanced.

[Platonuis]

I believe that other life is out there.

[Byeloruss]

They are waching us right now, but they wont contact us because they consider our technological capacities retarded.

[Gallade]

They are waching us right now, but they wont contact us because they consider our technological capacities retarded.

If we are to assume that there is intelligent life out there capable of travelling through large tracts of space quickly and safely (extremely unlikely), I'd wager that we wouldn't be of much interest to them. We'd probably be a little backwater to them.

[The Holy Therns]

They are waching us right now, but they wont contact us because they consider our technological capacities retarded.

If we are to assume that there is intelligent life out there capable of travelling through large tracts of space quickly and safely (extremely unlikely), I'd wager that we wouldn't be of much interest to them. We'd probably be a little backwater to them.

Unless they are the Psychlos, in which case they'll make a horribly implausible invasion.

[Gallade]

If we are to assume that there is intelligent life out there capable of travelling through large tracts of space quickly and safely (extremely unlikely), I'd wager that we wouldn't be of much interest to them. We'd probably be a little backwater to them.

Unless they are the Psychlos, in which case they'll make a horribly implausible invasion.

"See that planet with violent yet primitive fleshy things living on the planet with flagging resources?"
"Yeah?"
"Let's stage a costly invasion, for some reason."

Yayyyy!

[Byeloruss]

Unless they are the Psychlos, in which case they'll make a horribly implausible invasion.

"See that planet with violent yet primitive fleshy things living on the planet with flagging resources?"
"Yeah?"
"Let's stage a costly invasion, for some reason."

Yayyyy!

They propably watch us so they can invite us to the Galactical Confederation when we reach their level

[Gallade]

"See that planet with violent yet primitive fleshy things living on the planet with flagging resources?"
"Yeah?"
"Let's stage a costly invasion, for some reason."

Yayyyy!

They propably watch us so they can invite us to the Galactical Confederation when we reach their level

The perverts.

[Meridiani Planum]

I don't "believe" in the existence of extraterrestrials. I simply acknowledge the rational possibility that they exist.

However, since I have no reason (yet) to believe that they do exist, I don't believe in their existence.

[Forster Keys]

Yes. It's why we need Fascism.

[The Holy Therns]

Yes. It's why we need Fascism.

Walk me through this?

[Sungai Pusat]

I figure the ones we'd encounter or talk with in a linguistic sense, or at least in how it is supposed to be done, will happen to be quite technologically advanced, either akin to our level or higher. Most extraterrestrials, however, would be primitive life forms.

[Helito]

Mathematics and logic suggests that the only reasonable answer is the first,
"Yes, and I believe that many or even most of them would be just as advanced or more advanced than we are."

[Gideus]

The chances of them existing are quite high.

The chances of us ever meeting them are quite low, especially within most of our lifetimes.

[Risottia]

"See that planet with violent yet primitive fleshy things living on the planet with flagging resources?"
"Yeah?"
"Let's stage a costly invasion, for some reason."

Yayyyy!

"We poison our air and water to weed out the weak! We set off fission bombs in our only biosphere! We nailed our god to a stick!
Don't fuck with the human race!"

[Khadgar]

Alien life, absolutely. Intelligent alien life in this galaxy? No. The conditions for life to exist have been around as long as carbon, which is about twice as old as the Earth. Simply speaking if there was another intelligent species in our galaxy they'd likely be vastly older than us and there's only a couple reasons such beings wouldn't have sent probes to every star in the galaxy by now, hell a really early starter could have colonized the whole galaxy.

[Afalia]

Considering our incredibly limited knowledge of the universe, or multiverse, it seems silly to me to suggest there is no other life. Whilst it's more likely extraterrestrial life is more like bacteria and single-celled organisms, I think it'd also be silly to suggest that was the only possibility as well. Intelligent extraterrestrial life probably does exist out there somewhere-a very, very, very long way away, nowhere near our galaxy.

[Risottia]

Yes. It's why we need Fascism.

For the snazzy uniforms, or for the base on the Dark Side of the Moon?

[Atlaniegan Union]

The poll needs a 'don't know; not enough evidence' option.

There is no real evidence for it or against it. To say that it does exist would be stupid, likewise, to say it does not would be stupid also. We don't know, and as much as human beings are uncomfortable with the notion of not knowing, sometimes we have to live with it.

[Divair]

Given the vastness of the universe, it's absurdly unlikely that there isn't other life out there. Can we know for sure right now? No.

[Ifreann]

As ever, I'd be more surprised if there weren't extraterrestrial life somewhere in the Universe. You know, aside from the folks in the ISS.

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I'm assuming that there are other civilizations with a greater intelligence than ours.

The proof is that they never tried to contact us.

Don't drag the rest of us down with you.

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They are waching us right now, but they wont contact us because they consider our technological capacities retarded.

If we are to assume that there is intelligent life out there capable of travelling through large tracts of space quickly and safely (extremely unlikely), I'd wager that we wouldn't be of much interest to them. We'd probably be a little backwater to them.

And why would you wager that? Do you assume that intelligent life capable of interstellar/intergalactic life would necessarily be devoid of curiosity? Do you assume that they would have some standard of noteworthiness that we would fail to meet?

---

Unless they are the Psychlos, in which case they'll make a horribly implausible invasion.

"See that planet with violent yet primitive fleshy things living on the planet with flagging resources?"

Assumptions. Assumptions everywhere.

"Yeah?"
"Let's stage a costly invasion, for some reason."

Everywhere

[The Sivent Isles]

I do think that there is life elsewhere in the universe, but whether or not it is "intelligent" is another thing.

[Pultridus]

iv seen ufos for my entire life and have been abducted three times.My body is often the same as human-alien hybrids so i might be an alien myself.Also,what if humans are the aliens?What if this planet belonged to the greys and we came here.What if our ufo crashed and the crash devolved us into neanderthals?