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I have been wondering what are other people's views on extraterrestrial life are, here in the trenches of dakkadakka's OT forum. Mine is that there is life elsewhere in the universe but these beings are either too far away, not as space able as believers seem to think or simply do not care about us primitives enough to interact or abduct us.
The abductions people talk about are either sleep paralysis or in some cases just tall tales to fuel the debate of the "are we alone?" question.
Crop circles, people have come forward taking credit for some of the most famous crop circles. Some make crop circle art for a living now days in fact.
The laughable theory of aliens mating with ancient humans to create what we are now: First ROFL , Second if a human mated with a chimp, science tells us nothing would happen because the genetic key doesn't fit the genetic lock.
The alien's built the pyramids around the world: First it's plain insulting, second, ancient hieroglyphs Show how humans built them
Which brings me to the "there is a guy wearing a space suit in that hieroglyph!" or "that's a spacecraft the 'god' is riding on in that hieroglyph," you are looking at these hieroglyphs with the modern eye not with eyes from back then, space suit can be an aura around the head of the god, which is common even today in modern religions. The simple explanation is the best answer .
The geo-glyphs of Peru. Believers say how can we make huge pictures visible from the sky accurately and why? : Once again not giving enough credit to humans from back then. The why is simple, archeologists believe these geo-glyphs were a sacred pilgrimage following the route to commune with the gods. The how is simple planning, practical archeologists (the ones who test ancient ways to make things, to explain how they did it) have made several.
The "star child" skull: maternal DNA says its human

So did I wet your apatite for debate? If so go crazy and debate, discuss and enjoy!

I think there must be something out there, though whether it fits our idea of "life", or is a completely different entity, I wouldn't like to guess.
But aliens building the pyramids and stuff? That's daft.

And as for alien abduction, that's just a symptom of boredom, drunkenness, drug abuse, hallucination or just plain stupid, if you ask me
(Or lies, of course)

I believe in aliens, and I have proof they are real.

Source;

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090605/

Let me just put this here before someone else does



Now that that's outta the way...

Some theories and stories sound real convincing and can make you think, but IMO I don't believe they're coming to earth abducting people and all that stuff. If people really are being abducted and cows are being mutilated, it's other people doing it for their own nefarious reasons.

I do believe aliens exist, because if we exist, and there's a bajillion other planets, then anyone with a brain should be able to figure out that other things exist on other planets too. I just don't think they're coming here to visit us or kill off dinosaurs.

 chapgrimaldus wrote:

Which brings me to the "there is a guy wearing a space suit in that hieroglyph!" or "that's a spacecraft the 'god' is riding on in that hieroglyph," you are looking at these hieroglyphs with the modern eye not with eyes from back then, space suit can be an aura around the head of the god, which is common even today in modern religions.

I watched a documentary... it may have possibly been an episode of Ancient Aliens, no idea... BUT anyhow, there were a couple "archaeologists" who found those alien spacecraft hieroglyphs in an ancient egyptian tomb. But another couple of Archaeologists went in and using technology and whatnot determined that the tomb had had many owners, and some of the more recent ones were.... not as wealthy as the previous ones. The cheapskates had used plaster to cover previous markings, and then had their own made. Well, after 3k+ years, some of it has since chipped, leaving some odd shaped hieroglyphs.


As to the original question... As a whovian, I believe that the galaxy and universe are just too large and crazy to NOT have other life out there. There may indeed be some rather humanoid looking life out there, but I dont buy the Star Trek view on them. As we become more advanced, I would hope that we can officially answer that question. I'd just prefer that answer not be in the form of Daleks, or Angels

Do I believe there is other life out there? Yes.
Do I believe there is other intelligent life out there? Yes.
Do I believe we're ever going to see it in even the distant future or that it interacted with us in the past? No.

I look to the stars every night, watching & waiting to welcome our new interstellar overlords...

Seriously though, I believe alien life exists. I'd hope that it visits, but I doubt i'll live to see it.

-snaps fingers- a part of me was hoping some believer would come in so I can use logic and facts to ground his/her imaginary aliens to make my bread
Wait what am I saying? Use logic and facts against people who wear tin foil hats and claim have seen UFOs or been abducted? That's like me arguing with a color blind person about whether my shirt is green or not
Once again, I'm saying there is life out there but not ET coming here and screwing with us. Main reason for my rage is a debate that went on during my college classes in my major of archeology


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 chapgrimaldus wrote:

Which brings me to the "there is a guy wearing a space suit in that hieroglyph!" or "that's a spacecraft the 'god' is riding on in that hieroglyph," you are looking at these hieroglyphs with the modern eye not with eyes from back then, space suit can be an aura around the head of the god, which is common even today in modern religions.

I watched a documentary... it may have possibly been an episode of Ancient Aliens, no idea... BUT anyhow, there were a couple "archaeologists" who found those alien spacecraft hieroglyphs in an ancient egyptian tomb. But another couple of Archaeologists went in and using technology and whatnot determined that the tomb had had many owners, and some of the more recent ones were.... not as wealthy as the previous ones. The cheapskates had used plaster to cover previous markings, and then had their own made. Well, after 3k+ years, some of it has since chipped, leaving some odd shaped hieroglyphs.


As to the original question... As a whovian, I believe that the galaxy and universe are just too large and crazy to NOT have other life out there. There may indeed be some rather humanoid looking life out there, but I dont buy the Star Trek view on them. As we become more advanced, I would hope that we can officially answer that question. I'd just prefer that answer not be in the form of Daleks, or Angels

It may have been the show "Is it Real?" the history channels ancient aliens show is geared more towards the believers or historically illiterate

Sounds like a good episode of "GhostFacers"......and how many people caught the reference eh...

The way I see it, you have an unfathomably large number of planets in the universe, the probability of NONE of them having the conditions to support intelligent life is pretty small. However, any alien life is probably going to be spread pretty
thin as earth-like planets require very specific conditions and so are going to be rare. Plus if we find any of these planets with telescopes, we're probably not going to see any obvious signs of life (such as how city lights are visible from space)
because we'll likely be seeing the planet millions of years in the past due to the immense distance between us.

Just speculation on my part.

 curran12 wrote:
Do I believe there is other life out there? Yes.
Do I believe there is other intelligent life out there? Yes.
Do I believe we're ever going to see it in even the distant future or that it interacted with us in the past? No.

This is what I think as well, In a universe of nigh-infinite planets and stars, it just doesn't seem possible that we're alone.

But also, by that same token, they're so far away that we may de facto be, anyway.

I do believe that there are other forms of life out there, in some form or another, but I doubt we'll find them any time soon (but perhaps our ability to better predict planets that may already contain life will improve within the next century).

In regards to the Pyramids, I get a little angry when people suggest aliens were involved. I would very much prefer to believe that humans built the Pyramids and did it so well that modern humans can't even acknowledge the engineering as possible for the time.

As for abductions and such, I believe that just about all of it is confusion/misconception/propaganda/attention seeking liars. Obviously, I can't rule every thing out 100% of the time (as physics tells us we can't).

Edited for typo.

Of course we aren't out there.

I mean they, of course. What a silly mistake. Proves I am human and not some alien spy.

The Universe being big should have no bearing on proximity of alien life to us as it's all down to chance surely?

It really strikes me as more ridiculous to chime out the blanket statement that "we will never encounter alien life" than to say that "aliens had influence on early human civilisation".

A little interesting way to analyze theories of aliens or any other theory, like say the chupacabra or conspiracies to hide truth, is Occam's Razor which basically says that the theory with the fewest assumptions should be accepted until hard evidence says otherwise. Modern day people seem to ignore Occam's Razor, which is sad, I for one believe in it completely.

Considering the likelihood of any given celestial body having the right mixture of elements that both create and sustain life it is a wonder there is even one in our solar system. The size of the universe has to do with the likelihood of other life sustaining planets because the likelihood of finding another one is pretty small, and finding ones within close proximity to each other would be like winning the lottery jackpot several times in your lifetime.

I get that the more Solar Systems that we have, the more likely there will be other forms of life. What I don't understand is why that happening in close proximity is so wildly unlikely?

Surely it's the quantity, rather than proximity?

 Medium of Death wrote:
I get that the more Solar Systems that we have, the more likely there will be other forms of life. What I don't understand is why that happening in close proximity is so wildly unlikely?

Because the number of things that have to go just right over a sustained period of time is incredibly unlikely for it to even happen once, let alone more than once.

Isn't it things going right on a "Solar System" level though?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstellar_habitable_zone

When I say close i'm meaning within a few hundred lightyears, not terribly close for us but hopefully not out of the reaches of future generations.

I think we're at a failure to understand the numbers at hand. You're right of course to say that it is unlikely in the extreme, and that's from our current understanding of the process, which might be missing a piece of the puzzle to fully appraise.

But the number of solar systems in the galaxy alone is staggering. We might yet find something under the ice of Europa or Enceladus. If we do, we might have to go back to the drawing board for how many times it can happen in a given solar system.

Anyway, in the words of Carl Sagan, its perfectly reasonable to withhold your judgement until more facts come in. Or some such wise way of saying it.

So, the famed detective Sherlock Holmes and his biographer John Watson went on a camping trip. They hiked out into the woods, pitched a tent, had a campfire and made S'mores. Later, they went to bed. In the middle of the night, Holmes turned to Watson and said:

"Sorry to knock you up, my friend, but I was wondering, could you look up at the stars and tell me what you see?"

Watson looked up at the Stars.

"Well, there are untold billions of stars out there. Even assuming that only a small fraction of them are capable of supporting life, and that only a small subset of those actually do currently support life, then it is a fair assertion that we are not alone. Of course, we must assume that, due to the great distances involved, we may never encounter any sign that there are other intelligent lifefo-"

"WATSON YOU FOOL, SOMEONE HAS STOLEN OUR TENT!"



In short, I consider existence well within the realm of possibility, encounter significantly lower, and outdated English hilarious.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be antagonistic... I just want... to... believe...





If we discover any kind of life on a moon within our solar system, either around Jupiter or Saturn, it'd be amazing.

I agree with Calvin's assessment:


I would also think that, if we ever do come in contact with alien life, it will be along the lines of The Day the Earth Stood Still (original version). Where they basically tell us to play nice in the galaxy or they blow up our planet.

 Medium of Death wrote:
I get that the more Solar Systems that we have, the more likely there will be other forms of life. What I don't understand is why that happening in close proximity is so wildly unlikely?

Surely it's the quantity, rather than proximity?

Given that the observable universe is a 46 billion light year sphere around Earth, finding life in a star system in the Galaxy would classify as "close proximity" on the cosmic scale.

However, I am of the opinion that there definitely is (or has been) intelligent life in the universe, but considering the fact that the universe is near 14 billion years old and modern humans have only been around for about 200,000 years, the chances of two roughly equally matched intelligent species evolving independent of each other close enough to make meaningful contact is slim to none.

"Size of the universe". That's a bit of a understatement. The perception on its "size" is a unknown. Most everyone that think on it accidently confine themselves with just the "Milky Way" Galaxy.

 Ahtman wrote:
Of course we aren't out there.

I mean they, of course. What a silly mistake. Proves I am human and not some alien spy.

A likely story...

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
I agree with Calvin's assessment:

Spoiler:

I would also think that, if we ever do come in contact with alien life, it will be along the lines of The Day the Earth Stood Still (original version). Where they basically tell us to play nice in the galaxy or they blow up our planet.

That movie would be a best case scenario, imho. If alien life is anything like humans, we're in for a world of hurt if they come a-knockin'. Check out David Brin's (one and only speech repeated many times) on youtube.

You,re in Fort Worth? Heh, I never noticed that.

Is there real life somewhere in the universe, other than Earth? Statistically probable.

Is there intelligent life? Less likely, but still possible.

Have aliens visited Earth? I don't believe it for a second. Willful deceit or hopeful self-delusion, in every case.

I guess those $150 screw drivers and $300 crapper seats the USAF buys is really helping fund Xcom.........

 chapgrimaldus wrote:
-snaps fingers- a part of me was hoping some believer would come in so I can use logic and facts to ground his/her imaginary aliens to make my bread

Here ya go



N (and pretty much all the other values) will vary a lot depending on who you ask, and the original estimate by Drake (and the Order of the Dolphin, which Sagan was part of ) was between 1000 and 100,000,000. for the Milky Way.

On a similar note, Stephen H. Dole adapted the equation to estimate the number of currently humanly habitable planets in the Milky Way. The figure given was above 36 millions.