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First Contact. A Question.

Space Bandito

Space Bandito

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I'ml preface this by saying I've had three 11% beers and no lunch.

Someone mentioned the Star Trek film, First Contact (the best one, btw) and it made me think this:

Do you think we'll be around to see extraterrestrial life? Do you think it will be significant? I know there are some anti-science people here, but let's please try to keep this to civil discussion. I'm genuinely curious about this stuff. I would love to know what's out there, but at the same time, I'm a bit scared as to how humanity would react to it if it were to ever happen. I'm also afraid that I may never know the answer to the age old question - and that's rather depressing.

What say you?
 
Out of the seemingly endless number of planets, there is no way we are the most advanced form of life. We’ve only been able to sustain controlled flight since 1903. And only been able to “look” into space using radio telescopes since the late 1920’s. On a cosmic scale, humans are infants.
 
YukonLiving said:
Out of the seemingly endless number of planets, there is no way we are the most advanced form of life. We’ve only been able to sustain controlled flight since 1903. And only been able to “look” into space using radio telescopes since the late 1920’s. On a cosmic scale, humans are infants.
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So no hope to see anything "out of this world" in our lifetime?
 
we're too early into shelter-in-place for this discussion...we still have light hearted topics such as Tiger King and celebs without make-up in IG to discuss before we fall into this rabbit hole :LOL:
 
chile said:
we're too early into shelter-in-place for this discussion...we still have light hearted topics such as Tiger King and celebs without make-up in IG to discuss before we fall into this rabbit hole :LOL:
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Dude, I fell into the last 3 bottles of Dragon's Milk from New Holland I had in my fridge whilst on a video call with my parents. I'm past the point of no return here.
 
Space Bandito said:
Dude, I fell into the last 3 bottles of Dragon's Milk from New Holland I had in my fridge whilst on a video call with my parents. I'm past the point of no return here.
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:LOL::LOL::LOL: well then, I say no we won't...not in our lifetimes, at least...and when we do, it'll probably be some microscopic, primordial ooze type organism that while spectacular, will also be underwhelming. no ET's, no Predators...just Plankton

 
Will we see aliens in the next 30 years, no.
Will we be in flying cars in the next 30 years, yes.
Does our planet become Star Wars in the next 100 years, yes.
 
Their already here.....
 
Not in our lifetime AND I got 3 words for you:

Wrath of Khan
 
I mean all those suspicious sightings from the ISS and video feed cutting out, absolutely we'll get some evidence eventually!
 
The discovery of life somewhere other than this planet will be the single biggest event in human history.
 
YukonLiving said:
Out of the seemingly endless number of planets, there is no way we are the most advanced form of life. We’ve only been able to sustain controlled flight since 1903. And only been able to “look” into space using radio telescopes since the late 1920’s. On a cosmic scale, humans are infants.
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Yes. To assume we are the most intelligent form of life in the universe is absurd.

There is in all likelihood extraterrestrial life. However, we have no way of determining what form that life is. And we can’t assume it would look anything like we think it would. What is the chance that life on any other planet in this galaxy or any other galaxy would have evolved in a fashion similar to here on Earth. I don’t think we will ever find out. Other planets, even those in the Milky Way Galaxy are simply too far away.
 
The universe is at least 14 million light years across... the point we can see...

There are around 18 quadrillion planets out there... that’s a lot lot lot of planets.

It’s arrogant to think we are the only intelligent life in the universe.

It seems the government is almost chomping at the bit to let humanity know ufo’s are out there... maybe we see aliens in our lifetime... probably sooner than those flying cars mentioned.
 
Is there Alien life of some form out there? Any opinion besides yes is silly. Some less advanced and many way more advanced then ours. Life we don’t even understand or comprehend most likely as well.

I highly doubt I will see any aliens visit earth in my lifetime like first contact. However, I do feel that we will find out extraterrestrial life exists outside our solar system in my lifetime.
 
Space Bandito said:
So no hope to see anything "out of this world" in our lifetime?
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I mean, people win the lottery right? So I suppose it could happen. Who knows, maybe “they” are already here, or been and gone after seeing what earth had to offer!
 
Do you not watch ancient aliens or declassified ufo files on the history channel lol? I completely believe they’ve been here and will return. I kinda think for the most part, as fast as technology has advanced its hard not to believe that we didn’t get that from somewhere. When, who knows? Maybe we are getting closer as the government declassified some ufo files. At least they aren’t denying it anymore.
 
Bernoulli said:
There is in all likelihood extraterrestrial life. However, we have no way of determining what form that life is. And we can’t assume it would look anything like we think it would. What is the chance that life on any other planet in this galaxy or any other galaxy would have evolved in a fashion similar to here on Earth.
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Understated comment.

We have no way of knowing what life can look like, unless we’re only saying that the life must resemble something similar to the varieties found on earth. That said, so much is left up to chance. The right conditions, the right time etc...

Roll a dice, see if you can roll a 1. Now roll the same number 10 times in a row.

Spoiler
0.0000016538% chance of rolling a 1, 10 times in a row.
 
Kmench said:
Do you not watch ancient aliens or declassified ufo files on the history channel lol? I completely believe they’ve been here and will return. I kinda think for the most part, as fast as technology has advanced its hard not to believe that we didn’t get that from somewhere. When, who knows? Maybe we are getting closer as the government declassified some ufo files. At least they aren’t denying it anymore.
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I loved the original mini-series Ancient Aliens. When they turned it into a series, it just became a lot of recycled information to fit the rhetoric.
 
YukonLiving said:
Understated comment.

We have no way of knowing what life can look like, unless we’re only saying that the life must resemble something similar to the varieties found on earth. That said, so much is left up to chance. The right conditions, the right time
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True. It’s highly unlikely that life on any other planet would have evolved in a similar manner given that evolution on earth is the result of many different occurrences: mass extinctions, meteoric activity, climactic changes, volcanic activity etc.
 
The odds say that there is life elsewhere in the universe. See Drake's equation. However, the timescale of the universe mean that the odds of us meeting intelligent life are slim to none.

Simply put, it has taken billions of years to reach the last few thousand years of genuinely intelligent (arguable of course) life on earth, and I doubt we are going to be around in another couple of thousand years. Statistically, the likelihood of another intelligent life species occurring during this same time period, and developing advanced technology to facilitate travel across such vast distances, is, well, astronomical.
 
I absolutely believe in intelligent life out there somewhere in the infinite vastness of space.

My brain just cannot conceive of us being the only life bearing planet to birth intelligent life.

Will we see it? Nah. 2222 is my best guess.

But only because I like the number 2.
 
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