Alien life thread

[LordDiscord 289]

I do believe in life on other planets, so yes.  With the billions of solar systems out there, there's bound to be life at least somewhere.  However, I don't believe in that science fiction stuff, such as UFOs, or aliens visiting Earth and the like.  That's just mumbo-jumbo.  

Why exactly would you believe that aliens visiting earth is mumbo-jumbo? I mean you believe in some form of life, beyond our solar system, so why is it so far-fetched that there may be intelligent life as well that may be wondering the same thing we are.

[ReverseFaller 2,483]

I do, yes. I'm curious about the truth. How many species are there that our governments know of? Are they working with the aliens? Are the aliens malicious, or friendly? I believe they are watching us, and always have been. 

 

This is an interesting topic, by the way.

[GuerrierCosmique 146]

Yes, to me they certainly exist. With so many planets, moons, star systems, galaxies along universes, dimensions, realities and other sorts of "habitats" and "space-time continuums" it becomes more and more likely. I believe we were not created alone.

[Onylex 2,837]

I almost feel like I have to.. I mean come on if our universe really is infinite and continues to grow with every year. Along with trillions of other planets out there, we cant be the only one with life on it. Even if the life is primitive, its still something that exist outside of being crated on earth. 

[MichaelxXxTrixie 433]

I believe in Aliens just not the ones that visit us.

 

Far away it is almost certain that there are lifeforms on par to our intelligence level and maybe even more than one intelligent lifeforms living together.

 

It sucks though because there so far away.

[Hawk Moth 390]

There is no believing. Aliens are a statistical certainty. It's like asking if you believe in gravity.

 

I remain purely "agnostic" on this issue. I used to think that with the amount of planets there have to be out there, and the amount that we have already discovered that are Earth-like, that it was inevitable that we aren't alone. But when I stopped and really thought about it, that's not true at all. We know nothing of how life started, and what conditions spawned it. It could be (and likely is) an incredibly rare event to happen on even a planet like ours. Which means that the chances of life existing on other planets is impossible to calculate. We just don't know.

 

Actually, we do know how life started. Stars create elements through thermonuclear fusion, sending said elements flying through space. The first life on Earth originated from simple, prokaryotic cells composed of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon - the building block of matter and what all living things that we know of are based on. All elemental matter in the universe originated from stars, and all you'd need for life on another planet is an atmosphere that could support basic simple cellular organisms. Since life can exist in even the most inhospitable of conditions i.e. extremophiles, it's only logical to assume there is simple, cellular life on many planets. Don't forget that the Earth was originally inhospitable for anything close to sentient life. There are undoubtedly many planets like Earth that do not YET have hospitable atmospheres but will eventually normalize into an environment that could sustain more complex life.

 

As for intelligent life, I defer to the law of large numbers. There are billions of observable galaxies. Each galaxy can have hundreds of millions of stars, and each of those stars could have any number of orbiting planets. In all of that, it seems strange to believe that there ISN'T intelligent life. I don't remember the figures off hand, but I think there's a significant percentage that a planet picked at random could sustain life.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Hawk Moth

[SCS 7,537]

I most certainly do believe in the existence of extraterrestrial beings. My main reasons for doing so are not only the seemingly unending amounts of circumstantial evidence of extraterrestrial activity on this planet throughout human history, but the sheer size of reality. We are only aware of a tiny portion of a single universe. Right where you are right now, there are billions upon billions of aspects of reality - such as atoms - that most certainly exist, despite the fact that they exist beyond the realm of our standard perception. For all we know, that could only be the tip of the iceberg - who knows what else is right here, right now, that we are unable to perceive due to its nature? And that's only in the space that you are in right now. When you consider the observable universe, it seems to me that it is virtually impossible that we are the only intelligent beings in existence. But, then, take into consideration that the observable universe is only that part of it which we can presently observe from earth - it could very well be an infinitesimal aspect of the actual entire universe. And then you bring in ideas involving parallel universes, higher dimensions, and such. In my opinion, due to the fact that there is so much out there to such an extent that is currently unimaginable by us, extraterrestrial beings most certainly exist. 

 

It is fascinating to attempt to imagine what an extraterrestrial being would be like. Would they look similar to us? Would they look like aliens in the Star Wars cantina scene? Or would they be so vastly different from us that we would be currently unable to perceive their existence at all, even by technological means? My guess is that the answer to all three of those questions is yes. When life is so vast - and possibly even infinite - there is plenty of opportunity for the existence of all sorts of beings.

[DubWolf 17,263]

Of course I believe in aliens. This universe is way too bucking big for us to be the only life forms to exist. Although we must remember that life is a coincidence of many factors, such as...

 

1.) The age of the star that a planet revolves around. If the star is too massive, it will burn out much faster, unabling life to get any chance to evolve to a superior species that we can communicate with.

2.) ...I forget, just use Drake's Equation!

 

Maybe these aliens could be an equestrian society of ponies that live in harmony together!...in a galaxy far far away (or in the Milky Way lol).

[Huntress 94]

Considering the universe is always expanding, I think there is possiblilty for new life to be made in a different area, but I don't think it would be unlike our own. It would have to depend on the conditions in which they were made, etc. But I believe that the Stargate program is real and that we have already made contact with new life. And at the same time some how keeping it all a secret which would be really cool!

[John 793]

Aliens exist. There's not question about that. The universe is too large it is impossible for us to be the only ones here.

 

The REAL question is have aliens visited Earth before. I honestly don't think so.

 

Ehh..  Not too sure about that.

 

We we're discussing this in a College Physics class.  Even with all of the billions upon billions of stars and planets out there, there is a very slim chance that life has occurred anywhere else.  Why?  Factor in the extraordinarily and unexplained rare occurrence that a single celled organism forms out of a primordial soup.  (This is so rare that it has never been able to be recreated in a lab to this date) http://www.unmaskingevolution.com/30-protein.htm

Combine this statistic with the fact that only a very VERY small percentage of planets have the right materials in the right places to form the proteins required for amino-acids, with the right pressure, temperature, gasses, liquids, ect.

Now after considering what the cell has to go through to form, in a perfect perfect circumstance, Consider that the cell has to be programmed in the right way to not Kill itself through faulty genetic coding, and to be programmed to attempt to reproduce.

Now consider that the life has to actually survive and reproduce to create more complex organisms, even with the imaginably inclement weather conditions, solar radiation, ect.  This is very difficult for a very evolutionary young cell to do.

And then to evolve into a multi-celled organism?  The amount of time this takes is insane, and there is a good chance that life would die off in this phase.

 

Yet life on our planet has lived on, with a drive to survive, a life-force, and an iron-will to try and violate the second law of thermodynamics in its own way.

 

Don't be fooled by large numbers of stars people.  Scientists theorize that there are about 10^24 stars. (10 septillion stars!)  This equates to only 1.66 moles of stars  (The mole is the amount of atoms in a 12g sample of carbon-12.)  That looks like this:

Yeah, not so much from our perspective.  (But it's a hell of a lot of atoms!)  So we can say that there are probably around as many atoms in a sample 1.6 times the mass of the sample above as there are stars in the Universe.  Damn, this makes me appreciate the size of the atom haha.

 

That is a bit off topic though.  The point is, where you have pretty much impossible odds, it doesn't matter how many stars and planets there are.  According to something I had read a while back, you have more of a chance of your hand slipping through your desk due to quantum behavior

 

 

Life in this stage is impossibly rare and amazing.  And who knows, maybe there is more to it then we are able to see.  ^.^

Edited August 13, 2013 by John

[Envy 6,168]

There is no believing. Aliens are a statistical certainty. It's like asking if you believe in gravity.

 

 

Actually, we do know how life started. Stars create elements through thermonuclear fusion, sending said elements flying through space. The first life on Earth originated from simple, prokaryotic cells composed of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon - the building block of matter and what all living things that we know of are based on. All elemental matter in the universe originated from stars, and all you'd need for life on another planet is an atmosphere that could support basic simple cellular organisms. Since life can exist in even the most inhospitable of conditions i.e. extremophiles, it's only logical to assume there is simple, cellular life on many planets. Don't forget that the Earth was originally inhospitable for anything close to sentient life. There are undoubtedly many planets like Earth that do not YET have hospitable atmospheres but will eventually normalize into an environment that could sustain more complex life.

 

None of that is news to me. You don't seem to understand that we're missing knowledge on a key ingredient or mechanism on beginning life. Life can not be sparked solely by the right ingredients and atmosphere. We do not know what is required beyond that for life to form, so it's not logical to conclude anything regarding the likelihood of life on other planets at this point. Because it could be a super rare ingredient/mechanism that can only happen on a very few of the planets that we have seen as being suitable for life. We simply don't know.

[Flying Space Badger 84]

While it is nice to think Earth is a special snowflake, when you look up on a dark, cloudless night, we are a single speck amidst a blizzard which is itself a fleck in it's own blizzard. It is almost arrogant to think we are the only intelligent life to evolve in the universe.

 

The Drake Equation was mentioned a couple of times (not nearly enough, mind you) and it pretty much states the impossibility of no other civilizations existing beyond Earth. Here is a link to the wiki, which is pretty much 100% accurate for your reading curiosity.

 

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

[YALL ARE FUCKING GAY 505]

i believe that there may well be life on other planets but the chances are SLIM 

 

even the slightest little flaw in the ingredients to create life and boom nothing 

[Stoney Pony 100]

Of course, you would have to be a fool to think we are the only things in this vast universe. If there visiting earth or not is a different story. I have never seen a UFO personally. but many people have and many of those people are doctors, Police, Military, Lawyers very credible people with reputations to uphold. So i dont really know.

[Hawk Moth 390]

None of that is news to me. You don't seem to understand that we're missing knowledge on a key ingredient or mechanism on beginning life. Life can not be sparked solely by the right ingredients and atmosphere. We do not know what is required beyond that for life to form, so it's not logical to conclude anything regarding the likelihood of life on other planets at this point. Because it could be a super rare ingredient/mechanism that can only happen on a very few of the planets that we have seen as being suitable for life. We simply don't know.

Only scientists have created life, and as I've said before, the size of the universe guarantees the existence of life. There is no special divine spark, and life is not that special. Scientists know exactly what makes up prokaryotes; this isn't the middle ages. And there are multitudes of sources explaining what is necessary for life to begin. Out of the untold trillions of galaxies, it is crazy to think that not one holds a single planet that could support at least the most basic singe-celled organisms. That is the entire point of statistics: to make an educated guess when not all information is present.

[Taviscratch 453]

As I've said in a different thread about whether I believe aliens have visited our planet, yes I believe that there are aliens out there but I do not think they have visited Earth.

 

Prof. Andrew Watson stated that, on an Earth-like planet there is a 0.01% chance of intelligent life emerging every 4 billion years. This means that one would need 100,000 Earth-like planets for a statistical certainty of intelligent life. There are about 300 billion stars in the Milky Way and (in the observable universe) there are 176 billion galaxies. Therefore there are maybe 52.8 trillion star systems in the observable universe. This means only 1 system in every 528 million needs to have an Earth-like planet for a statistical surety of intelligent alien life in the observable universe. Based on findings from the Keplar mission, it is estimated that between 1.4% and 2.7% of sun-like stars have an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of their system. This means there are perhaps two billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way alone. If intelligent life emerges every 100,000 Earth-like planets then there are perhaps 20,000 different forms of intelligent life in our galaxy.

[Smarts 1,622]

I believe that aliens exist. I mean, the universe is huge and continues to expand. The possibility of aliens existing somewhere out there is totally plausible. Humans can't be the only intelligent life in the universe, that would be silly. The planet Earth is just a very tiny speck in the vast emptiness of space. There are millions and billions of specks that could possibly house some form of alien life. So, I do believe aliens exist somewhere.

[Icicle the Ice Pony 14]

Well, I highly doubt there are Martians and stuff, but Extra Terrestrial life in OTHER galaxies? For sure! Actually, a few years ago, they found microscopic shrimp on a meteorite, which is technnically E.T life.

[Rory 150]

i do believe in other spices that may exist on other planets but not your stereotypical martian that's bs  but as in could there be other life yes i do think that it is a possibility there are trillions of other planets if we are the only ones than that's actually kinda creepy that its only use out of all the other livable planets.

[Mzukiller 233]

You'd have to be in some serious denial to think that aliens don't exist. That throughout this entire, infinite universe, we're the only planet with life. Plus, all those unexplained UFO sightings that have been dating back for thousands of years.

[Dsanders 5,747]

Lots of interesting opinions and perspectives I see here. May some of these responses, just shows how intelligent we bronies can be. I generally love these kinds of topic as I am pretty much a nerd who loves to think of such possible scenarios, situations, and unique possibilities.

 

So do I believe in aliens?

 

Like many have already said, it seems seemingly impossible, nonsensical, and ridiculous to deny the possibility of life out there in the far reaches of our galaxy, our observable universe, and the universe beyond. No one even knows how vast and expansive our whole universe can be. We can make up all the theories and speculations humanly possible but there is no certain way of knowing. There will be no certain way of knowing for awhile...a long while, until light-speed and intergalactic travel becomes efficient enough.(I'm not even so sure that day will come either...)

 

So this is just to put to point my viewpoint on the matter as realistically as I possibly can.

 

Scientists have already discovered a handful of planets resembling Earth over the past recent years, which do seem to lie within the habitable zone of their own star systems. And I think I saw someone on here mention something about the Drake Equation and how due to the numerous amounts of stars and galaxies that this universe encompasses, there is a more than likely possibility of other lifeforms being out there. That was a good point to bring up whoever you were.

 

Heck, aliens, lifeforms, even civilizations could exist in some far away galaxy, beyond the observable universe. The universe is still expanding and creating new celestial bodies on top of that.

 

I also saw some good points regarding the complexities that go into the creation of life. It's understandable that with one minor flaw, life cannot exist or adapt right to conditions not of Earth. Just one minor, microscopic flaw. But look at the universe, it's seemingly infinite! My sense of logic would tell me that due to the universe's infinite property, it can encompass an infinite array of possibilities. Once you put that into place, probability and the number applications start to lose sense.

 

It's the nature of infinity, which in turn can set up the possibilities which initially started the popular Multiverse Theory in the first place, but that's whole other story for another topic. 

 

This is just pretty much my perspective and opinion on the matter nonetheless.

 

Overall, I do believe in the possibility of life out there. But I doubt they would be the stereotypical "little green man" kind of aliens. lol

 

I blame the 60s-80s era pop culture for that.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Sanderspie

[verycreativeusername 1,800]

So yeah, the title says all. Do you believe in extraterrestrial life?

 

In my opinion, the universe is a vast place. I believe there are other planets that support life far, far away, but they are too far away for us to meet any time soon.

Edited October 17, 2013 by Franklin Clinton

[Scootalove 10,689]

I do believe that there is other life on other planets in this huge universe that we live in. So, there are many possibilities of other species or extraterrestrial life on other planets.

[Sleipnir Rising 115]

I've never really gave that much thought. There is a possbility. But, we will never know until we have actual contact with them, or until we have found solid evidence.

[Thrashy 2,800]

With the countless number of galaxies hosting trillions upon trillions of stars each, the total number of planets in the universe, although currently unknown, is undoubtedly a number not to be sneezed at. Statistically speaking, it's highly unlikely that there isn't at least one other planet (or moon) out there with the ingredients to allow life to flourish. Hell, there's even evidence that Jupiter's moon Europa has a subterranean ocean; perhaps there exists alien aquatic life beneath Europa's icy surface.

 

While I can't say that I 100% believe there is alien life out there, I can definitely say I believe it's more than likely. What I don't think is so likely, however, is the existence of other intelligent life out there. At least, none whose cognitive abilities would compare to or surpass those of humans. But even if there is an alien race out there as intelligent as humans, I doubt we'll ever meet them, given that they're most likely billions, even trillions of light years away. Unless we (or they) invent technology that can open up wormholes, our chances of ever meeting them would be infinitesimally small.