Do you believe in extraterrestrials?

[Ifreann]

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?

Everything you've just said is nonsense.

[Khadgar]

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?

Everything you've just said is nonsense.

Devolving is extra special nonsense.

[Ifreann]

Everything you've just said is nonsense.

Devolving is extra special nonsense.

Yes, I'm a fan of that.

[Divair]

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?

Everything you've just said is nonsense.

I think my brain just broke.

[Atlaniegan Union]

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?

I think my IQ just decreased.

[Ifreann]

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?

I think my IQ just decreased.

Maybe you're devolving. Have you been in a traffic collision recently?

[Divair]

I think my IQ just decreased.

Maybe you're devolving. Have you been in a traffic collision recently?

Maybe he was abducted three times and turned into a hybrid.

[Grave_n_idle]

Given the vastness of the universe, it's absurdly unlikely that there isn't other life out there.

Well, yes and no.

There could be billions of worlds just like ours in practically every respect... and still not support life.

We just don't have the data to support calculations about life. Not really. Because we have no basis for comparison.

[The XinTaFax Imperium]

Given the number of stars, the number of planets and how long the galaxy has existed, I would say that extraterrestrial and extrasolar life is almost certain, however I disagree that it will be limited to microbes - there will be complex multicellular life, and more than likely planets upon which sentient and sapient entities have evolved, just as Earth.

I don't see why they'd have to be more primitive than Earth, however, except of course for the innate Human arrogance. It is more than likely that there will be many civilisations and species younger than we are, and therefore less developed - in certain aspects at any rate - but there are likely to be just as many species and civilisations at a comparable level of development, and also many more advanced than we are.

That said, it is highly unlikely that we will be visited, or visit them ourselves. The distances are too vast, it takes years, decades, even centuries to travel between the stars travelling near or below the speed of light, and relativistic effects alone would preclude the formation of any true form of interstellar civilisation, each star system would likely be entirely independent of each other, even if they were colonised at some point by a single species, likely through the use of solar-sails, ramscoops and generational ships.

In all likelihood, the galaxy would be teeming with life and the evidence of life, from the bacterial level to primitive civilisations, to far-flung interstellar diasporas, and the ruins and fossilised remains of such. But given the distances involved, unless we find ourselves in an especially crowded part of the Milky Way, I doubt Humanity will ever encounter them, not until we ourselves venture out into the void, and even then it would take centuries, millennia perhaps, before any scion of Earth found itself meeting another intelligent life-form.

[Pultridus]

I think my IQ just decreased.

Maybe you're devolving. Have you been in a traffic collision recently?

More importantly,were you in a flying disk powered with nuclear energy that could alter genes recently?

[Shaggai]

I believe that extraterrestrial life is very similar to what the OP said, with a single difference:

Sentient life will most likely be more advanced than humanity. We're a relatively young species, only thiry thousand years old. It would be relatively easy for dinosaurs to have evolved sentience, probably some sort of raptor, which would be a civilization 65 million years or so older than ours. And plenty of planets are older than ours, and would have developed life much sooner.

[Helionite]

Well, if there is proof that there are such galaxies with planets supporting life such as Earth (or probably micro-organisms), then can we assume that there are foreign lifeforms. Or if something is capable of producing -COOH, -NH2 based amino acid from monomers......

[Grave_n_idle]

I don't see why they'd have to be more primitive than Earth, however, except of course for the innate Human arrogance.

Simple math. For most of the history of this planet, WE were more primitive than we are.

[Shaggai]

I don't see why they'd have to be more primitive than Earth, however, except of course for the innate Human arrogance.

Simple math. For most of the history of this planet, WE were more primitive than we are.

Of course, for most of the history of the planet, we didn't exist. And anyway, selection bias much? The universe is old. There are plenty of older planets. And we're young. If sentient dinosaurs had evolved and hadn't been wiped out, here's a calculation: Humanity took 1 or 2 million years to evolve into our current form. A further 25000 years went by before we developed writing. In the next 5000 years look at our progress.

Assume that sentient raptors took double the time for all of these things and started at the time of the extinction event that happened in reality. 65 million -4 million to evolve = 61 million. Subtract 60000 from that and you have around 60 million years. You could make the raptors take 10 times longer for everything and they would still be much more advanced than us.

[Khadgar]

Simple math. For most of the history of this planet, WE were more primitive than we are.

Of course, for most of the history of the planet, we didn't exist. And anyway, selection bias much? The universe is old. There are plenty of older planets. And we're young. If sentient dinosaurs had evolved and hadn't been wiped out, here's a calculation: Humanity took 1 or 2 million years to evolve into our current form. A further 25000 years went by before we developed writing. In the next 5000 years look at our progress.

Assume that sentient raptors took double the time for all of these things and started at the time of the extinction event that happened in reality. 65 million -4 million to evolve = 61 million. Subtract 60000 from that and you have around 60 million years. You could make the raptors take 10 times longer for everything and they would still be much more advanced than us.

Absolutely, and were a race 65 million years older than us when they developed space travel to even our level, they could have launched Von Nuemann probes to every star in the galaxy. We'd have a probe of theirs orbiting the Sun and we'd known they existed.

[Central and Eastern Visayas]

Frankly, it's safe to presume that we are not alone in this universe.

Meeting sapient extraterrestrial life, on the other hand, is something I'm sure would never happen within our lifetimes.

[Phocidaea]

Any extraterrestrials that could visit Earth (which I do not believe they have done) would obviously be more advanced than humans and Earth life. In terms of life in the universe as a whole, though, most of it would probably be either bacteria and shit or primitive things, with maybe a few sapient organisms, with even fewer ones with Earthlike or greater technology.

[Ifreann]

I believe that extraterrestrial life is very similar to what the OP said, with a single difference:

Sentient life will most likely be more advanced than humanity. We're a relatively young species, only thiry thousand years old. It would be relatively easy for dinosaurs to have evolved sentience, probably some sort of raptor, which would be a civilization 65 million years or so older than ours. And plenty of planets are older than ours, and would have developed life much sooner.

That doesn't necessarily mean they'll be more advanced than us, whatever that means.

[Khadgar]

I believe that extraterrestrial life is very similar to what the OP said, with a single difference:

Sentient life will most likely be more advanced than humanity. We're a relatively young species, only thiry thousand years old. It would be relatively easy for dinosaurs to have evolved sentience, probably some sort of raptor, which would be a civilization 65 million years or so older than ours. And plenty of planets are older than ours, and would have developed life much sooner.

That doesn't necessarily mean they'll be more advanced than us, whatever that means.

Unfortunately we only have ourselves to look at, but humans haven't ever had any really long term technological stasis.

[Grave_n_idle]

Simple math. For most of the history of this planet, WE were more primitive than we are.

Of course, for most of the history of the planet, we didn't exist. And anyway, selection bias much? The universe is old. There are plenty of older planets. And we're young. If sentient dinosaurs had evolved and hadn't been wiped out, here's a calculation: Humanity took 1 or 2 million years to evolve into our current form. A further 25000 years went by before we developed writing. In the next 5000 years look at our progress.

Assume that sentient raptors took double the time for all of these things and started at the time of the extinction event that happened in reality. 65 million -4 million to evolve = 61 million. Subtract 60000 from that and you have around 60 million years. You could make the raptors take 10 times longer for everything and they would still be much more advanced than us.

We have no evidence of races 60 million years more advanced than us.

If there is more-advanced life out there, it's either so far away we'll never find it, deliberately avoiding us, or it's been and gone... probably millions of years ago.

And since there's no evidence at all of more-advanced aliens, the most logical assumption is that any life that IS out there (if any), is less advanced than us. (After all, it's statistically VERY unlikely it would be within thousands of years of our level).

[Ifreann]

That doesn't necessarily mean they'll be more advanced than us, whatever that means.

Unfortunately we only have ourselves to look at, but humans haven't ever had any really long term technological stasis.

So things sufficiently like us, but around for longer, would probably have more advanced technology than us. That follows. We don't really have any scope for figuring how likely it is that alien life that could have technology at all will be like us or not, though.

[Thafoo]

Maybe you're devolving. Have you been in a traffic collision recently?

Maybe he was abducted three times and turned into a hybrid.

Like... a Prius?

[Khadgar]

Unfortunately we only have ourselves to look at, but humans haven't ever had any really long term technological stasis.

So things sufficiently like us, but around for longer, would probably have more advanced technology than us. That follows. We don't really have any scope for figuring how likely it is that alien life that could have technology at all will be like us or not, though.

Tool using intelligence is pretty damn rare. Only happens in a handful of species on Earth, and of those only humans have taken it to the extreme. We're a product of runaway sexual selection for intelligence.

[Ifreann]

So things sufficiently like us, but around for longer, would probably have more advanced technology than us. That follows. We don't really have any scope for figuring how likely it is that alien life that could have technology at all will be like us or not, though.

Tool using intelligence is pretty damn rare. Only happens in a handful of species on Earth, and of those only humans have taken it to the extreme. We're a product of runaway sexual selection for intelligence.

Smart is sexy *nods*

[Camelza]

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?