We are alone in the galaxy

originally posted by: ufoorbhunter


Ufos are real. There is something out there, what it is seems to be completely over our heads in understanding. They are out there for sure, we have incredibly limited senses and they are around us all the time, we just can't see them.

UFO's are real
Flying saucers yet to be determined

originally posted by: ufoorbhunter

Ufos are real.

Yeah, but I do not think it is space aliens.

originally posted by: Xtrozero
What makes me think we are very alone is the lack of machines. It seems that machines would take over at some point during a civilization advancement. Once they become smart and self replicating they could be though the universe in mass numbers within a billion years, not changing as they grow in numbers, replicating over and over. No need to worry about time, distance, evolution etc.

Yes, von Nuemann probes would also be where I would expect to first encounter any extra-solar visitors.

These astronomers and scientists know that if they declare their is evidence, rather than just deny all the evidence, their bank accounts will shrink, their government funding will end, and their credibility will be quashed forever.

Careers at NASA have been ended just because some people in the early 70's began looking for the source of transient lunar events. Old news, but still current policy.

It isn't smart to declare we are not alone. Doing so costs mucho dinero, and anything else of value to those who cross that line,.

I have seen non human technology, so I have my answer. Who cares what others believe? Not me.. Going either way doesn't make or break me.. But it sure makes and breaks other folks, depending on what they choose publicly.

This guy in the OP is smart!

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
Yes, von Nuemann probes would also be where I would expect to first encounter any extra-solar visitors.

The one constellation is machines might be so advance we can not recognize them as machines, so they could be here and we are not advance enough yet.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Swills
13.2 billion years old and I think it would be presumptuous to say we're it, we're alone.

Why? We had billions of years of evolution here and intelligent life arose only one time. If it was not for the K-T extinction we might not have ever showed up.

I have to point out that this is not a proven fact, we do not KNOW how many times intelligent life has arisen on the earth, even fossil record (more like a jigsaw puzzle with 99.999 percent of it's peices missing) does not go back with any reliability even as far as the cambrien explosion and that is just 650 million years ago, we also do not really know what the climate of the earth was like prior to the suspected snowball earth period (a period of long and extreme ice ages in part due to minimal solar activity and a younger cooler sun that is theorized to have began about 2.25 billion years ago and ended or entered a warmer period about 750 million years ago - there may also have been several warm periods during this epoch that may have lasted hundred's of millions of years but it is theorized that at time's the earth looked more like Hoth with the sea's frozen to the equator).

How do we know that we are the only intelligence to have evolved and is it intelligent to pollute our planet and kill off our eco system?, what if they were more intelligent and simply left?.

Archeologist's and paleontologists often disagree and both of these pseudo sciences often disagree with geologists whom are intimitely more tied into cannon science then they are, they are also not above bending the fact's when it suit's them.


Even geology and chemical analysis of rock sample's believe to have been exposed to the atmosphere at that period is not fool proof as the earth is an active planet and global errosion, resurfacing and other factors all come to play to foul up any proof that the sample is not flawed or otherwise compromised over that period.

originally posted by: LABTECH767

I have to point out that this is not a proven fact, we do not KNOW how many times intelligent life has arisen on the earth...

...

How do we know that we are the only intelligence to have evolved and is it intelligent to pollute our planet and kill off our eco system?, what if they were more intelligent and simply left?

There is zero credible evidence to support any such claim. The only people who believe that are either H.P. Lovecraft or are lying to themselves about the 'evidence'.

Some would say there is proof of contact and it has happened long ago possibly either beginning again or has been on going. Many deny the evidence for whatever reason, and the whole arena of related topics has been so muddied up that it is beyond anyone's ability to actually decipher the truth. Many believe we are a people waking with amnesia about who we are and where we come from. At the core of all of us this is " The Question" , I only wish the answer was as simple as 42...

a reply to: SpookyM

Agreed. EXTREMELY narcissistic at best. Possibly even agenda driven.

Absolute tripe. Never a straight answer? No, that was a straight answer alright. It was just insulting to my intelligence and yours as well.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Swills
Exactly, the Earth is about 4 billion years old and here we are. So to think we're it is quite an assumption.

But I do think we are alone, I do not think intelligent life is ubiquitous. I think we are a fluke of evolution that may not play out across the universe and if it did it is very, very rare.

Well, intelligent life is certainly around most places on Earth, and if things evolve, where's the fluke?
monkeys that use tools like sticks to get at ants, with a plus that the ants obligingly walk up a stick when they see one right into the monkeys gub..pass it on! that's three strikes for the monkeys if you include they knew where the ants were in the first place. Ruminants that will eat animals if needs be, more lateral thinking from the numb nuts....pass it on. Birds that normally eat insects, nuts and seeds may eat mammals...pass it on..but wait, these short lived birdies have been observed through several generations, doing the same, if the needs be, it is thought. It seems then that a genetic memory of invention is what has been passed on here. I see no reason, then that the monkeys can't pass their tricks on genetically, or for that matter the numb nuts.

Then there is William Borucki, who made the statement that Kepler's mission was not to look for life, that's tricky, all depending on what he said, (actually in Feb this year) which was, "That the whole enterprise is about discovering whether human beings are alone in the universe. That's a bit like the half-pint analogy that another poster has already mentioned, and rightly so.
There's more, back in 2010 there was a bit of a kerfuffle when NASA agreed to this,
"Kepler be allowed to censor 400 "objects of interest" — presumably good planet candidates — until February 2011, giving the mission team more time to firm up discoveries, rule out false positives and publish. If enacted, the new policy would represent a selective editing of data on the basis of its science content, rather than its quality — unprecedented for such NASA missions."

More here from Nature,
www.nature.com...

There's plenty to er, ruminate in this thread, William Borucki is a much celebrated man, and some of his work in the past actually includes prebiotics in lightning, but given this recent baldy statement that, "we are alone in the Galaxy, because we have not heard anything", makes a nonsense of prebiotics does it not? Weird or what?

Well, someone had to be first.

You guys are just alarmed that we could be it. For good reason. Most science fantasy that deals with the subject has a wise, kind progenitor race. To think that is US is sort of...depressing.

I can't blame anyone for not wanting to believe it.

originally posted by: gortex
Not my opinion but that of former NASA scientist William Borucki , his opinion echoes that of English physicist and all round smart bloke Professor Brian Cox who made similar statements in 2014.
(...)

They may live to regret it (or not). Nobody knows yet.

Fermi's Paradox is what this is all about:
en.wikipedia.org - Fermi paradox...

The Fermi paradox (or Fermi's paradox) is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, such as in the Drake equation, and the lack of evidence for such civilizations.[1] The basic points of the argument, made by physicists Enrico Fermi and Michael H. Hart, are:

1. The Sun is a typical star, and there are billions of stars in the galaxy that are billions of years older.[2][3]
   
2. With high probability, some of these stars will have Earth-like planets,[4][5] and if the earth is typical, some might develop intelligent life.
   
3. Some of these civilizations might develop interstellar travel, a step the Earth is investigating now.
   
4. Even at the slow pace of currently envisioned interstellar travel, the Milky Way galaxy could be completely traversed in about a million years.

Here's an ATS thread which puts things into perspective:
"Denying Ignorance About SETI: It's Not Just About Radio Anymore"
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Fact is, if the aliens aren't actively seeking us out to communicate and haven't made the galaxy their backyard, it'd not be hard for us to miss their presence. We shouldn't assume it'd be abundantly obvious YET.

Her'es another interesting piece of evidence, regarding detecting their presence in the other galaxies:
www.astrobio.net - Advanced Alien Civilizations Rare or Absent in the Local Universe...

So depending on who you ask, we might be alone in our local universe or it might be teeming with more cunning, subtle activity. By this I mean they're either not stage 3 civilizations or they're stage 3 but have figured out how to produce those levels of energies without the waste heat expected. It's still possible there're indeed stage 3 civilzations out there which're producing the right amounts of waste, but we just haven't spotted htem YET--even though they could be lurking in the data waiting to be found. What can be stated however is they're likely not numerous.

Why do the majority of people assume that life on a different world is intelligent, advanced as us, and has the same tech?

What if the tech of a different species across the galaxy doesn't use radio signals, and they don't know what a radio signal even is? What if we were the first ones to get to were we are now, and all other intelligent life still has yet to get to where we are?

What if there is life out there, but not as intelligent as us?

What if there isn't life except for us in this galaxy, but there is life somewhere else out there in the universe.

I don't know why people can be so close minded and forgot to look at other factors and possibility.

a reply to: Kuroodo

What if we were the first ones to get to were we are now, and all other intelligent life still has yet to get to where we are?

Been covered. Here:
www.amazon.com...

a reply to: Bedlam

It just seems like an extremely premature assumption, considering mankind has only had the necessary communication technology for a few decades and the galaxy is about 180,000 light years across.

It's possible that there is another civilization out there claiming the exact same thing for the same reasons, and I wouldn't blame them either.

a reply to: Phage

Not quite.

That story suggested a very advanced someone or something that keeps any other civ either contained within their system, or keeps them from being able to colonize other systems.

I believe Kuroodo was asking what if we humans were the most advanced in our galaxy so far.

That was a good short story though. I remember reading it right after graduating HS.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Yeah. I read it a long time ago too.
How about; among a very few advanced civilizations which had broken free?

It just doesn't make any sense that we would be the only intelligent life in the galaxy. People who think that way have this feeling that our planet is special, that we are the center of the universe. There could be a lot of reasons why we haven't been contacted, or maybe we have been contacted.

a reply to: Phage

That might work!

In any case, for me, I'd hate to think of us coming into contact with anyone advanced enough to "contain" entire solar systems will tech like that.......

We certainly would be ants to them.....or yeast cells.......