Alien, I mean really Alien.

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
...and what do you base this on? Your own pessimistic view?

Nah, I'm hoping that one of the Mars rovers will accidently stumble upon some microfossils to spite you.

All in good humour of course.

I would love to be proved wrong CK, but I won't be. I have spent a life dreaming about other planets and such and over the course of it, I have gained a new appreciation for our world and how rare and unique it really is. Doing essays on it, and researching the probability of life on other worlds and how life began here has lead me to my "own pessimistic view" of things. I am not alone, and more and more people are coming to understand just how rare our little blue planet is.

I am not trying to be negative CK, I am simply stating the fact that there is no life like us out there. If life exsists it will be ooze and geew.

[Renegade 13]

I basically agree with you Atrocities. I think that IF life is found on other planets:

1. I will be long gone.
2. It will at the most be plant life, or something similar, not sentient life.

[QuarianRex]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
CK I have to tell you that our being here is an accident of epic proportions. The simple fact that life evolved on Earth is such a rare event that chances of it occuring twice or more in the universe is so great that if you took the number 1 and put 0 behind it to the point that it could circle the universe a centrillion times to the billionth power you might be within 1% of the chance.

This planet is so rare that it equals 1 10th of a grain of sand compared to the entire galaxy. And we are wasting it away.

No CK, life does not exsist "out there" it only exsists here.

Holy bitterness Batman! You might want to rethink that whole uniqueness aspect though. Just look at our own solar system. Just in this one tiny corner of the universe there were three potential candidates. Earth seems to have won out (yeah us!), but Mars seems to have had a good start (plenty of water, just needed a little more gravity/sunlight), and even the hellhole that is Venus seems to have had some promise (before its greenhouse effect went all coo-koo).

Think about that. Three possible candidates all around one little star that is distressingly mundane. Chances were pretty good for life to develop in this system. The odds may not be so bleak for others.

[Captain Kwok]

Don't forget about Europa! There could be a nice big sea under that icy exterior. And you know what they say about water...

[Tanus]

Atrocities:

While I believe you are correct in that we may never meet another sentient species, I find that I cannot agree that it does not exist.

It is generally accepted that there are approximately 200 Billion stars in the Milky way galaxy. Furthermore, most scientists agree there are approximately 100 Billion galaxies (some suggest upwards of 125 billion). Seeing as our milky way is of average size, a pessimistic view holds that there are 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars . While the chance of life springing up in any one star system is remote, there are a huge, huge number of stars.

If you wish to believe that no life exists elsewhere, well, not much I can do to change that. You're entitled to your opinions, as am I

[Wardad]

Hmmm... FYRON only posted once.
Strange... very, very strange...

[President_Elect_Shang]

Weak argument: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992283
Good info: http://www.astro-tom.com/technical_data/alien_life.htm

As for me I feel certain that we are not alone in the universe, furthermore I am confident that there is indeed other intelligent life. We are often quick to point out the hems and haws of why we “must be alone”. I appreciate your work and papers and research Atrocities, so please do not take my next comment wrong, it is not directed at you or any other person who has undertaken such a daunting task as this one.

We are a young and technologically inferior species! We do not have the ability or the mind set to truly discover what is out there. Sure we have plenty of radio telescopes, but that is the best we can do? Yes we have projects like SETI, how much funding did they get Last fiscal year?

I feel the short fall is in the average human mindset, this is a big statement since no poll has been taken to tell one way or another. If we do not see an immediate benefit from something we usually don’t buy into it. Where is the immediate benefit in spending the needed money and time to communicate with the slug beasts of Alpha Omega? NONE! The payoff comes in the long run, the very long run.

What about our movies of aliens? Independence Day, Alien. Other than Close Encounters and ET how many “good” contact movies can you think of? How many negative? Why? Are we mostly xenophobic, I think so?

Ok, someone else can have the soap box now.