[Doc HM]

I was whiling away and idle moment discussing Aliens with Mrs DHM (as you do). She was of the opinion that there is no such thing. She also said that the idea of intelligent life, she found scary. If we detected a signal from outer space that was conclusively alien, even if it was light years distant, this would scare the cack out of her. Which seems a little extreme. And that's before we get to the whole V/ID4 mothership scenario.

Personally I can't wait for signs of life to be detected on another planet. Intelligent life? I'm not actually sure we would even recognise it as such. We seem to have enough trouble with Whale and Dolphin intelligence.

What does anyone else think?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Doc HM 

She also said that the idea of intelligent life, she found scary.

I agree.

I'm glad that so far, there is no sign of intelligent life on earth.

Dodged that bullet.

-t

[SpaceMonkey]

Fear of the unknown is scary. Most representations of alien life in fiction are anthropomorphic. But as you noted, its possible that we will be entirely unable to recognize/communicate with an alien intelligence, or they will be entirely unable to recognize/communicate with us, which is reason to scare the crap out of you. It's issue that has also been raised in literature. Insert reference to Solaris or Sphere or other derivative works.

[Jawbone54]

Little green men with over-sized heads and saucer eyes, never.

Some type of life, by definition? Sure, why not?

Intelligent life is something I'd find overwhelmingly unlikely.

n/a

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by screamingFit 

Do you have any notion of just how big the universe is? It's quite silly to think that us pathetic carbon life forms are the pinnacle of intelligent life in the universe.

Huh ? Where did he say that there was intelligent life at all ?
He surely didn't explicitly claim that for planet earth.

-t

[ort888]

I doubt we'll find aything in our short lifetimes, but there has to be something out there somewhere. The question is will we kill ourselves off before we find them or they find us. My guess is yes.

[Buckaroo]

I have no doubt there is life on other planets. I don't know what stages of intelligence that life might get too. It is possible that a planet may only develop plant life. Dinosaurs lived for millions of years and would have continued if it wasn't for the event that killed them off.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by screamingFit 

Do you have any notion of just how big the universe is? It's quite silly to think that us pathetic carbon life forms are the pinnacle of intelligent life in the universe.

Does religion play a part in your statement?

No...religion doesn't play a part in it (although I'm a very religious person).

Even from a strictly evolutionist point of view the very fact that the unbelievable (*cough*) sequence of events that eventually resulted in intelligent life is almost impossible when considering everything that was involved in developing the human race.

Actually, when considering the process of evolution, intelligent life existing outside our solar system is actually more likely from an Intelligent Design standpoint than an evolutionary one.

The universe is bigger than any of us could possibly imagine, but the probability of intelligent life existing beyond Earth is skewed in the minds of the millions geeks by a lifetime of absorbing Star Wars and Star Trek.

[Big Mac]

[Doofy]

The Goa'uld are real. Fact.

[Jawbone54]

[osiris]

I believe. Or at the very least hope that there's intelligent life out there.
And I hope that they're nothing like humans.

[Jawbone54]

Oh, I WISH there was intelligent life outside of Earth. You could even say I hope there is...

Buuuuut...

[Shaddim]

There's intelligent life out there. Some of it is very similar to humanity, most of it isn't. I can say with a good degree of certainty, however, that our race will never see any of it.

[Doc HM]

I'm always looking for depictions of what I would consider plausible alien life in fiction. I guess authors need to depict aliens as fairly human in though or deed in order to engage the reader. Good depictions of truly alien aliens are pretty rare.

I would be so pleased to turn on the TV news (etc) to find out that scientists had picked up some kind of a signal. Sadly my wife would then take to living under the bed.

[BlueSky]

Aliens exist, and they look exactly like us except their foreheads are ****ed up.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

No...religion doesn't play a part in it (although I'm a very religious person).

Even from a strictly evolutionist point of view the very fact that the unbelievable (*cough*) sequence of events that eventually resulted in intelligent life is almost impossible when considering everything that was involved in developing the human race.

Actually, when considering the process of evolution, intelligent life existing outside our solar system is actually more likely from an Intelligent Design standpoint than an evolutionary one.

The universe is bigger than any of us could possibly imagine, but the probability of intelligent life existing beyond Earth is skewed in the minds of the millions geeks by a lifetime of absorbing Star Wars and Star Trek.

It all comes down to what values you assume for the Drake equation.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

I'm open to believing that Aliens are the whole reason humans sprang out of nowhere in no time to begin with.
Why haven't crocodiles what have been here 500 million years evolve to be smarter by now?

Skip any answers involving a religious belieFs.

[Big Mac]

And based on that line of thought, how did those aliens originate? And please don't tell me they came from even older aliens.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

And based on that line of thought, how did those aliens originate? And please don't tell me they came from even older aliens.

No, those aliens are the crocodiles that left earth 200,000 years ago.

-t

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Skip any answers involving a religious believe.

Religious types need not apply?

[The Final Dakar]

Religious based beliefs need not apply.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

I'm open to believing that Aliens are the whole reason humans sprang out of nowhere in no time to begin with.

Humans didn't spring out of nowhere, they're millions of years in the making. Also, there were many competing species similar to human beings, some of them believed to perhaps have been more intelligent than humans.

New evidence (including DNA evidence) is lending to the idea that there was inter-species breeding, and that modern humans are in part a mixture of several different earlier primate species.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

I agree.

I'm glad that so far, there is no sign of intelligent life on earth.

The dolphins are doing fairly well.

[msuper69]

The chances of ever finding other life forms are slim when you consider the vast distances involved. Without some kind of time-space warping, I don't see how humanity will ever move out of the immediate galactic neighborhood.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

The dolphins are doing fairly well.

Apparently the tuna nets are even smarter, though.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

Humans didn't spring out of nowhere, they're millions of years in the making.

True but even 3-5 million years is just a blink in history in relation to the 6 billion years of interesting stuff that proceeded it.

We simply evolved to damn quick, even for our own good.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

The dolphins are doing fairly well.

Pretty much everything was doin' just fine till humans showed up. We made no positive contribution to this planet at all. Earth would be 100% better off without a single one of us.

The only thing I could see us doing good is stopping an asteroid from hitting earth in the future. Sad part is there might not be much left worth saving by then.

[TheoCryst]

I don't see any reason for other intelligent life not to exist elsewhere in the universe. Now, in the observable universe? Since that's a relatively small portion of the universe itself, that's tougher to say, but I'll still lean towards yes. Of course, assuming that faster-than-light communication/travel is impossible, then the observable universe is all that matters.

Then again, the only life we would probably care about is life in our own little corner of the galaxy. To be completely honest, the odds of finding Pandora a mere 4-5 light years away is incredibly unlikely, but still not impossible.

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

I'm open to believing that Aliens are the whole reason humans sprang out of nowhere in no time to begin with.
Why haven't crocodiles what have been here 500 million years evolve to be smarter by now?

Evolution is not a linear path, with bacteria on one end, and "intelligent life" on the other. It's all about one trait helping you out-survive your competitors. Crocodiles simply have no need to be any more intelligent than they are now: they're incredibly tough and thrive in their environment, so evolutionary pressures are fairly low. Thus, they've barely changed over the past few hundred million years.

[TheoCryst]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Pretty much everything was doin' just fine till humans showed up. We made no positive contribution to this planet at all. Earth would be 100% better off without a single one of us.

Can't argue with that sentiment. Don't worry, either we'll learn to coexist with the planet, or nature will correct itself eventually!

[Doc HM]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

The only thing I could see us doing good is stopping an asteroid from hitting earth in the future.

and even that is probably counter productive since mass extinctions are not harmful to evolution but rather spur the survivors onwards as huge ecological niches are left vacant. Stopping every dino killer asteroid in the future would actually end up stifling evolution.

Bad humans, bad.

[Eriamjh]

Would you believe that there is a planet out there with life on it and the life on that planet is so arrogant as to think that there is no life anywhere else in the universe as smart as them?

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by TheoCryst 

Can't argue with that sentiment. Don't worry, either we'll learn to coexist with the planet, or nature will correct itself eventually!

You're right, I'm pretty much sure that nature will try to purge us destructive humans soon enough with some awful virus that hopefully knocks us back by 5 Billion. Or better yet just make a ton of woman become infertile and babies more rare.

[LegendaryPinkOx]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Or better yet just make a ton of woman become infertile and babies more rare.