SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS!

EDIT: Second page...I wish I had posted something with more substance. Oh well.

I remember watching a documentary once on what would be the best way to explore the galaxy. The proposal that sounded best to me was self replicating probes. Basically you send a probe to a planet, it makes observations, transmits the data back and then find suitable natural resources to produce ten identical probes. Then each probe goes and finds another planet and makes ten more probes. And so on, and so on, until you have millions of probes exploring the galaxy for you.

The problem is, even in that unguided yet efficient way of exploring the galaxy it would still take a long time to explore even a tiny portion of the galaxy. Exploring the galaxy is a huge task in itself, let alone finding life (which may be common, yet maybe not). We would certainly need some guide if our goal was to find life.

Plus... god knows what kind of damage those probes could do if programmed wrong, or if they encounter some kind of life it doesn't recognize as life, but does recognize as probe making matierals.

I feel like i may have seen that same documentry too oddly.  Cause it sounds awful familiar.

Although not likely, it would be an amusing cosmic joke if alien life didn't exist.

Or if they evolved. If they can self replicate at a fairly swift pace, it's feasible that they could evolve out of our control.

For example if there is an error in the replication of the programme that allows for a probe to make eleven probes instead of ten (I'm assuming these probes will be capable of independant thought which will lead to occasionally adapting the programme, unlike present day computers), then the probe that makes eleven will replicate at a faster rate and become more dominant. Then the same happens for twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and so on. In millions of years, perhaps after humanity has long been gone, you'll have these resource hungry probes going to planets and using vast amounts of resources to build thousands of probes, which could be damaging to the life they find there.

I mean that's just a scenario off the top of my head, but it's not hard to see how things can go wrong.

To all that say: Just some microbes....

That would be insanely huge. A bakteria is like a cell of our body. If we would find another lifeform in outer Space just a bacteria somewhere:

That would answer thousends of questions at once:

Do they have DNA and RNA how are they structured do they have similar ways of creating energy. Do they have the same way of coding aminoacids. Is their DNA shaped like life on earth or is it different. Which genes does it have. How does it work. Are those microbes related to life on earth or did they develop independently. Also if we would descover life outside the planet earth it would indicate that the universe is full of life.

And it would also be interesting to see how extreme circumstances can get and life still resists. Extremophiles live in extreme environment but the most extreme environment they survive is nothing compared to the other planets in the solar system.

But I honestly doubt the magnitude of the discovery will be something like discovering life somewhere else. Maybe they found a planet with kepler who is truly earth like.

People cant appreciate the discovery of bacteria outside planet earth because they dont know how complex a single cell is and how extreme the conditions are. Maybe we find someday life on Titan which would be totally different compared to life on earth since it wouldn`t use water as a solvent but methane. 

A discovery of life elsewhere would lead us to a better understanding of life itself also we would have to rewrite some books. It could lead to new technologies depending on how life differs.

A bacteria is like a small animal with organs and shape and behaviour.

But as I said there is no way they found life yet.

My bet is on Kepler, Mars Rover found something maybe Cassini. Or some interesting discoveries during the comet fly by (except that it snows on comets).

It would definetly be the biggest discovery ever made but chances are so slim to withness something of that magnitude in your lifetime.

Edit: After reading the article again it just says:

NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.

That could mean anything but it certainly doesnt mean we found life. Maybe a discovery that makes the search easier.

Most definitly.  Well, as long as they don't turn into a Lavos like planet eater.

*ding ding ding ding*

We have a winner.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/30/5555919-see-whats-hot-on-saturn-moon

It turns out Enceladus has warms cracks in its surface. It's a moon that has been hypothesised to be able to hold life before.

This is exactly what I want...life is boring...an alien invasion will spice it up a little

Dude spoilerz!

yeah I hope it will be a long and brutal campaign that wipes out 80% of male population with me surviving.