Extraterrestrial Life

Some non-political questions:

1. Does extraterrestrial life exist?

2. Does intelligent extraterrestrial life exist?

3. Is there intelligent extraterrestrial life in our galactic neighborhood?

4. Are we one of the younger intelligent species in the universe or one of the oldest?

5. Will we ever make contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence?

Possibly.

mathematically life is certain to exist elsewhere. There are billions (trillions?) of other planets. If the same chemicals exist pretty much everywhere in the universe then for earth to be the only planet with life would be bucking some very strong odds. Intelligent life less often since it takes time to evolve more complicated species - here on earth anyway. Perhaps evolution takes a faster path on other planets, or slower on others. Will we ever communicate with or meet these other beings or even have positive proof of them? The vast distances are perhaps the insurmountable problem.

Yes. There is a good chance that something might exist within our own solar system. Europa is a good candidate.

Yes. The odds that we humans out of the entire universe of an estimated 2 trillion universes edit: galaxies, , perhaps there are 2 trillion universes but for now we'll stick with galaxies, are the only intelligent life form that can ask this question are so small as to practically be zero. Trillions of stars and trillions upon trillions of planets around those stars. Earth can not be the only one to have intelligent life. There must be intelligent life out there.

Yes. No. Maybe. We need more data and better telescopes. Space is dangerous. All the ways we on Earth could be wiped out by astronomical events such as asteroid strikes, Super Nova, Gamma Ray Bursts, and so on. We are rather lucky if you think about it that we seem to be relatively far enough way from anything to dangerous in our part of the Milky Way Galaxy. But even still we could be wiped out if an asteroid hits us. Or a solar flare. Or we kill ourselves.

Until we make contact this question can not be answered.

Unknown. Though I believe if somehow there is a technology that can enable us to FTL I think the odds of finding something somewhere go up. It's just a matter of time.

The truth is out there.

Either we are or we aren't. Either prospect is terrifying.

1) Almost certainly yes.

2) Possibly but in my opinion probably extremely rare.

3) See above, most certainly not.

4) Probably one of the only. Classify that however you will.

5) Probably will, but I believe that intelligent extraterrestrial intelligence is probably so rare that we'll spend thousands of years (even if we have FTL) exploring hundreds of thousands of other solar systems, cataloguing countless amounts of mold, aquatics living near black smokers, and exotic life living on the surface of neutron stars before we ever make contact.

We're the rednecks of the galaxy.

Most definitely.

Yes, mathematically it's almost a certainty.

Define "galactic neighborhood"? Even something 100 LY away may as well be on the far side of the universe as far as we're concerned now.

Hard to say. I'd lean towards one of the younger, based on the apparent age of our star and planet.

Perhaps not. Interstellar/intergalactic distances are IMMENSE and unless some technology is found to traverse them, it's unlikely.

Although not conclusively established, the answer has to be yes.

Given the sheer number of places life could arise in the universe, there would be many intelligent species if it was only a 1-in-a-trilluon possibility for each place life arose. So, I'm confident the answer is yes.

It's looking unlikely. We aren't detecting signs of any technological civilization.

The time frame from unintelligent mammal to technological man was around 50 million years. The universe has had stars and (presumably) planets for much longer, so it seems unlikely we're the first.

Detect? Yes. If there's anyone nearby, we should find them in the next 100 years.

Converse with? No, or, at least, not for many centuries. Intelligent, technoligical aliens--if they're not really commonplace--are likely to he hundreds or thousands of light years away.

I think it is going to be very rare.

Yes
Yes
Maybe
Impossible to say.
Yes, unless we're hit by a lethal burst of cosmic rays first.

Yes.

Yes, but most of it's stone age, because that phase lasts tens of thousands of years.
Most civilized intelligent life is stuck in medieval Catholic style religious suppression.
Most civilizations like ours die of nuclear or biological war, and there's a teeny finger pinch full, and you get one per galaxy, and only in big galaxies.
There's one space faring race, and it's space Nazis like the Empire from Star Wars, but Borg collective sized, and we should cower from it in horror, and pray their sensors never lock on to our transmissions.

See above.
Thankfully, no.

We're zygotes.

See 2, you'd better pray not.

Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Youngest
Yes.

6. Would you fuck an alien if it were even vaguely feminine?

Yes. Yes, I would.

mathematical probabilities are not actual evidence, believing in extraterrestrial life is purely a matter of faith.

Answers to all except 4: I really hope so.
Answer to 4: No way of knowing.

Of the heart.
Goin' where your heart may take you.
You can reach.
Any star.
You've got faith.
Faith of the heart.

1. Does extraterrestrial life exist?
- certainly.

2. Does intelligent extraterrestrial life exist?
- universe would be a big waste of space if we were the only such accident. See below.

3. Is there intelligent extraterrestrial life in our galactic neighborhood?
- probably. See below.

4. Are we one of the younger intelligent species in the universe or one of the oldest?
- See below! But I doubt it very much.

5. Will we ever make contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence?
- Probably not. Because... below:

Take Sagan's timeline. The age of the universe is one year. Meaning that we turned up in the last 15 minutes or so, from chimps on trees to smartphone zombies. We have had the ability to communicate outside our own planet for what, maybe a second on that timescale.

So for me the question is not if there is/was intelligent life in the universe. Of course it's extremely unlikely that we are/were/will be the only ones ever. However, 'finding' them is a question of time. Because: how many seconds are there in a year? How many quarter hours? I mean, could be there was a huge galactic empire just before our 15 minutes started. In the time it took us to come out of the caves, it could have crumbled into dust with no trace left for us find should we ever make it out there.

It's the temporal probability of somebody sharing the exact same amount of time to develop to a point where we can make contact that's impossible. If they are 500 years ahead of us, they'd be magic to us and we might not even recognize their transmissions as such. If they're 500 years behind they will be riding eight legged horses and think their planet is the flat center of the universe.

500 years on a cosmic scale is absolutely nothing. Not even millions of years are. It's something we keep forgetting because SciFi tells us that everybody is basically on the same level of development.

Really? Believing that tens of thousands of species from different ecosystems/climates traveled thousands of miles to the desert to board a boat with one tiny window for ventilation, survived weeks/months at sea, then finally hit dry ground just to eventually travel back to their countries of origin takes faith.
Looking into space and seeing millions/billions of stars with orbiting planets (and factoring that since our planet has life it is obviously possible) is purely a matter of common sense & basic logic.

Probably.

Quite possibly.

Possibly.

Depends on how far removed we are from the origin of the universe compared to any others that might be out there.

Maybe. Maybe we already have and don't realize it yet.

But does it swallow? It's important!

HA! I forgot about Astronaut Jones...loved that theme song too. Anyway I would not bang an alien chick if she smokes or wears a nose ring.

Almost certainly. With so many trillions of places it could form and what we know of biology I think that if the universe is dead apart from us it would be one of the strongest proofs imaginable for a creator.

Yes, again purely on the numbers. I do suspect however that on planets which develop multicellular life intelligent life capable of forming human level civilisations is rare.

Within a few dozen light years? Very much doubt it.

Right now one of the youngest, however the universe overall is still young and I think the majority of intelligent species that will ever come into being have not yet.

I hope so, but while I think programs such as SETI are worthwhile I don't expect them to succeed. If we do ever encounter extra-terrestrial intelligence it will probably be thousands of years from now (I don't think we will ever get FTL and encountering other civilisations relies on generation ships being a viable prospect).

Well, the wow signal still hasn't been explained.

I have grown increasingly skeptical on this subject. I think that single-celled life is rare enough, involving a large number of contingencies.
However, the series of events and circumstances that led to our existence are so enormously fortunate that they are very unlikely ever to have been repeated elsewhere. Thus I suggest that if other intelligent life exists at all, it is not within our galaxy or perhaps not even within the observable universe.

Appeals to large numbers are common, but large numbers are whittled down very quickly by some of the requirements. For instance, the collision which formed earths moon billions of years ago led to us having a very large metallic core and thus a large magnetic field. It also led to our having plate tectonics, a stablilising influence on the movement of our planet and tidal forces - all of which were vital for life. This event cannot be easily quantified in terms of something that happens in 1 out of X star systems. The odds that it would happen and happen just right must be in the trillions. And that's just one in a long line of similar events.

Intelligence isn't really a fortunate circumstance, it's (or it was) advantageous. I don't think there's any reason why natural selection shouldn't be universal. If the best adaptation to the environment is intelligence, it's going to happen at least somewhere else. After all, we know it happened once.

I could swear that has been debunked.