The great Martin Rees. Called Martin so he must be awesome. 

He makes a good point, that we don't understand what  caused the transition between complex chemistry and the first replicating metabolising entity we call alive. We don't know if its common or  rare, a fluke that might not have happened elsewhere. Still an open question. Same for intelligence, may have been a rare fluke. We simply don't know at this point. 

 

 

Edited July 28, 20223 yr by martin-w

 

Dave

Not acording to this guy who filled a foo fighter full of lead and the tracers entered the object and vanished.

 

 

Are we alone in the Universe?

Highly unlikely.

Have we/are we being visited by other intelligent life forms?

Highly unlikely too.

16 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

Have we/are we being visited by other intelligent life forms?

Highly unlikely too.

Very probably, IMO.

But are they open to communicate with us? Highly unlikely...

20 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

Are we alone in the Universe?

Highly unlikely.

Have we/are we being visited by other intelligent life forms?

Highly unlikely too.

 

I prefer to think in terms of the galaxy rather than the universe. Simply because geometrically the universe seems to be flat thus infinite, so if infinite, atoms can only arrange themselves in a finite number of ways, so must repeat. Thus, there would indeed be other lifeforms, in fact another planet identical to this and replete with beings identical to us. 

As for it being highly unlikely that there's an absence of life in this galaxy, we cant really say that. As Martin Rees said, we don't know what caused the transition between complex chemistry and the first replicating metabolising entity, therefore we can't say if life is easy and common or a fluke and very rare, or indeed non-existent in the galaxy. 

I agree that its very unlikely we have been visited. We have to consider the Fermi Paradox and the fact that it took billions of years to go from the first life on this planet, to advanced technological life, which might suggest its hard and rare. But what we can say is that there's a non-zero possibility of us being visited by aliens. 

 

15 minutes ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Very probably, IMO.

But are they open to communicate with us? Highly unlikely...

 

Why do you believe "very probably"? 

It is tempting to think that way given some of the UFO reports that seem to be made by credible witnesses. 

Edited July 29, 20223 yr by martin-w

I believe they have been here, but just spying on us, without establishing communication with us. These witnesses have just seen them. Just my uninformed opinion 😉 

Edited July 29, 20223 yr by Luis Hernandez

3 hours ago, martin-w said:

As Martin Rees said, we don't know what caused the transition between complex chemistry and the first replicating metabolising entity, therefore we can't say if life is easy and common or a fluke and very rare, or indeed non-existent in the galaxy. 

You're assuming that complex life just developed on its own over billions of years via a chance combination of elements, then molecules, then complex proteins, then simple life forms, then complex life forms.

Life was designed and created, and I believe that other intelligent beings like us were also created elsewhere in the universe.

Dave

10 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

Life was designed and created, and I believe that other intelligent beings like us were also created elsewhere in the universe.

Do you think there will be updates and bug fixes planned?  There are a few bugs that I would like to be fixed, and i have some cool suggestions for new features. Do you think this is abandon-ware? I wish the designer had left contact info.  

 

 

 

Look up at the sky at night with the naked eye.  What you see is less than a trillionth of what's out there.  It's ludicrous to think we are the only intelligent beings in a universe that is limitless and filled with all kinds of stuff... and a little bit of stuff like us.

I believe that intelligent humanoid life that looks pretty much like we do is out there in various stages of development.  Some still primitive, some at about our level of development, and some quite a bit more advanced than we are.  And they will all develop technology use up their resources and destroy their environments just as we are doing and will never exist long enough to reach the stars.

But there are a very few out there that did reach the stars, and will reach the stars, and they are the Johnny Appleseeds that roam the universe and plant their DNA into primitive apelike creatures they find on habitable planets that will develope into intelligent humanoids that will, and have, developed technologies that will not save them.  And most will suffer the same greed and selfishnes and political inertia that we do.  But one out of a trillion will succeed in planting humanoid life through the expanding universe ad infinitum.

Noel

33 minutes ago, SlowFlyer said:

Do you think this is abandon-ware?

We're not abandon-ware.  We're just being quietly watched to see what choices we make when we think we're alone.

1 hour ago, sightseer said:

We're just being quietly watched to see what choices we make when we think we're alone.

Same as any teen agers.

Noel

Edited July 29, 20223 yr by birdguy

2 hours ago, dave2013 said:

Life was designed and created

 

You cant state that as a fact. It's something we cant prove either way, but what we can do is consider if there's evidence and plausibility and probability. And there is no evidence and the probability is extremely low. Physics shows us that a magical deity isn't required. Reality is wonderous enough on its own without requiring human beings to invent a magical deity. But this is something we aren't allowed to debate on the forum, so its another one of those occasions that would require you to PM me.