Are We or Aren't We Alone the Universe?

[Infected Mushroom]

I would like to think we are Alone. This would greatly increase my self-esteem as a member of the human race (which I firmly believe is the master race).

However, I am not sure.

[Jazz Commies and Sexy Astrophysicists]

I think it's foolish to assume that we're the only life in the Universe, but there are two main obstacles that we face when talking about such things.

For one, the distance is absolutely absurd in space, and there is not short-term means of traversing it. Let me say it like this: 65 million light years isn't a terribly long distance in space (space itself is infinite, probably, but you get the idea). But, let's say there's a super advanced alien civilization that exists 65 million light years away who builds a telescope that can somehow peer through that kind of distance. If they looked through it right now, they'd see the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous Era. Likewise, such distances mean that even if there were thousands of sapient civilizations in our galaxy, the spacing would mean that it would be next to impossible for them to communicate.

Two, I feel as though most sci-fi has far too narrow a definition of what life can be. Most media assumes that humans and aliens will be able to eat each other's food and have at least somewhat similar biology. Who's to say that life on other worlds (or even on a star) is so different that we couldn't even recognize it, or vice versa? There are far too many variables at play to assume that little green men are as weird as it gets.

TL;DR: Alien life probably exists, but unless we somehow achieve FTL travel, it's unlikely to ever really be pertinent.

[San Lumen]

I would like to think we are Alone. This would greatly increase my self-esteem as a member of the human race (which I firmly believe is the master race).

However, I am not sure.

What makes you think we are alone? And master race are your serious? Sounds like something a certain person in 1930s Germany said.

[UIJ]

I would like to think we are Alone. This would greatly increase my self-esteem as a member of the human race (which I firmly believe is the master race).

However, I am not sure.

What makes you think we are alone? And master race are your serious? Sounds like something a certain person in 1930s Germany said.

Well, who's better then humans? I hate humans, but I have to admit, they are the "master race" on earth.

[Constantinopolis]

It depends what you mean by "alone". Is there other life out there? Probably yes. Are there other technological civilizations out there? Probably no.

[Chessmistress]

Being someone who have extremely detailed nightmares about being raped by a 5 meters long absolutely weird and unheard-of acquatic alien lifeform, on average two times per week, I'm pretty sure we are not alone. And since at the end she even kill me, I'm even pretty sure they're hopelessly hostile.

[AiliailiA]

The chance we're alone in the Universe are so slight, you'd have to resort to religion to believe that!

[AiliailiA]

Being someone who have extremely detailed nightmares about being raped by a 5 meters long absolutely weird and unheard-of acquatic alien lifeform, on average two times per week, I'm pretty sure we are not alone. And since at the end she even kill me, I'm even pretty sure they're hopelessly hostile.

Dreams are the worst evidence for the existence of anything ... cool story tho.

[UIJ]

Being someone who have extremely detailed nightmares about being raped by a 5 meters long absolutely weird and unheard-of acquatic alien lifeform, on average two times per week, I'm pretty sure we are not alone. And since at the end she even kill me, I'm even pretty sure they're hopelessly hostile.

[Shamhnan Insir]

When you consider the impossible scale of it all then no, we are not alone.
We still don't really understand many of the mechanisms at work in 'life' on our own planet let alone elsewhere, especially in places where our concepts of physics are skewed. Eg, it's possible for planets to support life in the opposite way to our relationship with the sun - hot space, cold solar heart - thanks to the laws of thermodynamics.

[Outer Sparta]

We aren't. The universe is huge, there's many potential clones of Earth, there just has to be, right?

[Shamhnan Insir]

What makes you think we are alone? And master race are your serious? Sounds like something a certain person in 1930s Germany said.

Well, who's better then humans? I hate humans, but I have to admit, they are the "master race" on earth.

We're good but we are not the 'masters of Earth'. Such arrogance is an example of why we are not.

[Salus Maior]

Who knows.

[San Lumen]

It depends what you mean by "alone". Is there other life out there? Probably yes. Are there other technological civilizations out there? Probably no.

How do you know their aren't other technological civilizations out there? What's to say their couldn't be?

[Wallenburg]

Well, who's better then humans? I hate humans, but I have to admit, they are the "master race" on earth.

We're good but we are not the 'masters of Earth'. Such arrogance is an example of why we are not.

*Looks around*

I guess we aren't the masters of Earth. After all, we apparently can't keep ourselves from catalyzing its process of destroying us.

[Outer Sparta]

Look at Europa. It has water, and life started deep in water. If the sun were to turn into a red giant, perhaps Titan can be habitable.

[Xanixi]

Personally, I don't believe we are the only intelligent species in the Universe. Grasping the full size of the Observable Universe, never mind what lies beyond the particle horizon, makes it, from my point of my, ridiculously unlikely that at least one of those stars has a planet that harbors intelligent life.

However, I don't think we've ever been visited and I don't think we ever will be. As of now, we're unsure if intelligent life is even the norm or the goal -- dinosaurs, for example, ruled the Earth for over a hundred million years without ever requiring human-level Intelligence. The Drake equation is a good show of this. The Drake equation is a probabilistic equation that attempts to estimate the total number of intelligent and communicative extraterrestrial life forms within the Milky Way. I remember reading that some optimistic numbers placed this number at approximately 100 civilizations in the Milky Way. In a galaxy 100,000 light years across, it's ridiculously improbable that any species would be able to contact any other. This is double for actually traveling to those far away systems.

[Pandeeria]

I think the better question is, what is life?

[Northwest Slobovia]

TL;DR: Alien life probably exists, but unless we somehow achieve FTL travel, it's unlikely to ever really be pertinent.

I disagree: conclusive proof of other technological civilizations is likely to permanently alter our persective, even if we can't do more than watch them from afar or study their ruins. Also note that somebody more patient than we seem to be could come to say hi in a sub-light starship. Even "just" a robot capable of making that journey would impress the hell of out us.

[Anywhere Else But Here]

It depends what you mean by "alone". Is there other life out there? Probably yes. Are there other technological civilizations out there? Probably no.

Have you seen how big the Universe is? It's big. Like really, really big. There are almost certainly other "technological civilisations" out there. I don't actually know exactly what you mean by that phrase, but I don't need to. Whatever kind of civilisation you have in mind almost certainly exists somewhere in the Universe.

[Giovenith]

It's almost a statistical impossibility that we are alone, but that doesn't mean aliens are visiting us or that we'll ever meet them.

[Salus Maior]

I think the better question is, what is life?

Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.

[Giovenith]

Edit: double post

[Saiwania]

To the denialists' credit, their belief is rooted in current reality. All the believers in extraterrestrial life don't have any proof of complex life out in space and won't for quite some time, if at all. Maybe I'll believe it when I see it but not until then.

[Constantinopolis]

It depends what you mean by "alone". Is there other life out there? Probably yes. Are there other technological civilizations out there? Probably no.

Have you seen how big the Universe is? It's big. Like really, really big. There are almost certainly other "technological civilisations" out there. I don't actually know exactly what you mean by that phrase, but I don't need to. Whatever kind of civilisation you have in mind almost certainly exists somewhere in the Universe.

Nonsense. Just because the universe is big, that doesn't mean that you can just imagine something and claim that "oh, it's got to exist somewhere!"

I mean, do you think that a copy of Middle Earth exists somewhere? Or a planet covered in chocolate fudge?