Are We Alone In The Universe?

[HigHurtenflurst]

enditall727 said:

HigHurtenflurst said:

enditall727 said:

But what exactly do we have to know what the "distance" would be? You pretty much need 2 points to have distance. All we have is earth. It's not like we know where an Alien hive is =P

We are special because we have the intelligence that we have. The real question is.. are we the "only" forms of intelligent life.

You need two points to form a straight line... there are other ways to calculate a distance. And the not knowing what direction intelligent life may be in is part of my point... I think it unlikely there is an equivalently intelligent form of life to us in our galaxy, and even if there is then the distances involved just to travel within our galaxy are so ridiculously huge that it means visiting them is highly improbable.

1. Is there life outside of Earth: Almost definitely
2. Is there intelligent life outside of Earth: Very probably
3. Is there intelligent life (beside us) that we will be able to communicate with within our galaxy: Doubtful
4. Is there intelligent life within reach of humankind: Maybe, maybe not... there are so many factors involved it is too hard to say, for all we know there could be a massive gamma ray burst that wipes us out before we have a chance to leave our solar system, or if not wipe us out could make leaving our atmosphere deadly.... Given enough time I believe humans will be able to colonise extra-solar worlds, but i'm thinking tens of thousands of years from now.

Why exactly are you doubtful that there is intelligent life equivalent to us and ever communicating with them? Is there a specific reason or explanation to why you are doubtful about it?

Well I got started on a little bit of it, but a lot of it comes down to time constraints... As I (and some others) have mentioned, life on this planet has spent more time in unicellular form alone than not, and the good conditions for complex life such as ourselves will degrade in another billion(ish) years. (more simple life can probably last another 2-3 billion before the effects of the dying Sun render this planet uninhabitable)

So on Earth simple life has so far been around ~4 billion years, and could last another 3 billion. Complex life has existed for less than a billion years, and probably doesn't have much more than a billion years left (though some forms may be able to continue existence in deep oceans).

Sol isn't a particularly special star, stars with more mass than the Sun go through life quicker and would allow even less time for life to evolve past the simplest stages... and stars with significantly more mass might even be too violent to form a decent planetary system in the first place.

There are so many factors to take into account to allow for life (at least life as we know it)... for life in general lots of planets will go through stages of being adequate for simple life to form, but the universe is ever changing, and the time most planets will spend in even an "adequate" (rather than ideal) stage is limited.

More complex life needs more time and more ideal circumstances than most planets will be able to give.