Musk says there aren’t any aliens

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: 1point92AU
A few years ago we were so resolute in making statements that there were "100 billion galaxies in the Universe". Low and behold because our technology has advanced that number was revised to "200 billion galaxies in the Universe". Now it seems due to further advancements in our technology we estimate the number of galaxies in the Universe to number in the trillions. The trillions.

Yeah, but you know that doesn't mean anything when you're dealing with a small sample.

I'm not sure what you are arguing for but you literally just proved my point.

I'm not a Neil Degrasse Tyson fan but he has an exceptional analogy. He says sometimes making an argument requires greater samples. He uses the following argument where a person claims there are no whales in the ocean. The person walks to the ocean and scoops up a glass of water and proclaims, "You see...there are no whales in the ocean." Degrasse says, "clearly we need a much larger sample".

Case in point. For Elon to make his asinine claim is the equivalent of the glass of water as a sample of the ocean.

originally posted by: 1point92AU

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: 1point92AU
A few years ago we were so resolute in making statements that there were "100 billion galaxies in the Universe". Low and behold because our technology has advanced that number was revised to "200 billion galaxies in the Universe". Now it seems due to further advancements in our technology we estimate the number of galaxies in the Universe to number in the trillions. The trillions.

Yeah, but you know that doesn't mean anything when you're dealing with a small sample.

I'm not sure what you are arguing for but you literally just proved my point.

I'm not a Neil Degrasse Tyson fan but he has an exceptional analogy. He says sometimes making an argument requires greater samples. He uses the following argument where a person claims there are no whales in the ocean. The person walks to the ocean and scoops up a glass of water and proclaims, "You see...there are no whales in the ocean." Degrasse says, "clearly we need a much larger sample".

Case in point. For Elon to make his asinine claim is the equivalent of the glass of water as a sample of the ocean.

This is the wrong analogy.

Nobody is saying there are no 'aliens' in the Universe. They're saying that claims that they are coming here and flying around in ships being secretive have no evidence.

There may indeed be some kind of 'life' in the Universe. I'd guess that there is microscopic life in the Solar System. But it's not coming here and probing people.

I do not understand why people keep conflating this. It makes no difference if there are 10 sentient alien species on the other side of the Universe. They're likely to be planet-bound, extinct by the time anyone could get there even if FTL drives were possible, and because of their scarcity we are essentially 'alone' for whatever that matters.

Bear in mind that we are limited to the Local Group as far as travel. The expansion of space-time is such that it's moving away from us (like the surface of an expanding balloon), faster than light with the speed increasing. So the state of 'beings' in the Universe is moot. We can only ever relate to those in the gravitationally bound Local Group.

HTH. People are just not using their heads on this topic.

a reply to: EnigmaChaser

Musk says we are almost certainly living in a simulated reality.
We shouldn't take his opinions too seriously.

I find it ironic how on our own planet we've only explored less than 5% of our oceans and yet we are able to make a claim "we would have already found evidence" based on our observations of the observable Universe.

We are struggling to prove life could or has or might even now exist on Mars, or moons around our own planets, and yet people suggest we should be fully aware of life outside of our solar system. As far as detecting signatures of life, we are looking for only that which we are aware of. The signatures may well be technology we have no way of even detecting, be it communications, propulsion, or whatever. And unlike us, perhaps they were wise enough to -not- broadcast their existence to the rest of their celestial neighbors, once they realized that could be a threat to their existence.

originally posted by: 1point92AU
Case in point. For Elon to make his asinine claim is the equivalent of the glass of water as a sample of the ocean.

Actually, as long as it was ordinary water and not distilled, if you had a glass of water you could easily find living things in it and figure out the temperature range at which water remains a liquid environment. From there, you could extrapolate at least a little as to what you might find in a larger sample. And if the glass was filled with actual sea water (as we are looking at an actual piece of space in our own planetary vicinity), it would likely be even more representative of the ocean, teeming with all kinds of life. And it would point in a direction for further study.

But what have we learned from our close sample of space and nearby star systems? Space is brutal and huge and soaked in deadly radiation. There are other suns and planets out there, made of the basic same stuff as our planet, but nothing jumps out immediately as a marker of life on any of them. We've seen (or heard) nothing that would even suggest there is life out there.

So how big a sample do you need? I mean, at least for a little while until humanity gets bored with it, we'll keep looking out into space to see what we can see. But even though our knowledge of space has increased exponentially over the past several decades, it has yet to turn up any hint of other life out there. And you'll probably go to your grave long before that ever happens. If it ever does.