Do you believe extraterrestrial life exists?

[The Pikachu Mafia]

But if they were more advanced, even if they were lazy, they could just use machines to do all their bidding for them. It's easier and smarter than enslaving a whole planet anyways. Also I don't believe they are like us at all, not to say that they would be perfect, but I do think that sci-fi movies, books, games etc. have put ET's in a situation where we would stereotype them. But then again I could be completely wrong

 

[Dork Void]

You're the aliens.

To the theory that if we were a billion years more advanced we'd have the technology to visit other planets: in a billion years I'm pretty sure we'll all have killed ourselves off, and killed off the earth and likely a few other planets too. Just because the universe is infinitely expanding does not mean that there are infinite planets and therefore infinite planets that can sustain life etc., it means that there is a finite (although incredibly large) amount of planets moving to fill a presumably infinite space. The chance of life forming at random is incredibly small. Of course, with the size of the universe, there have probably been an incredibly large amount of scenarios in which it could have happened. Is there life out there? Flip a coin a billion times. Did you get all heads? Now flip a billion coins a trillion more times. Did you get a billion consecutive heads twice?

 

[The Pikachu Mafia]

agreed for the most part, except that instead of saying you're, you should said we're. Unless you're implying that you came from another planet which in fact to you makes us the aliens

 

[Pokequaza]

The only thing that would lead me to believe in ET's being here in the past are the pyramids. But that's a weak theory imho.

http://www.eloquentpeasant.com/2007/08/24/why-the-aliens-did-not-build-the-pyramids/

 

[Bootortle]

Until every corner of the universe is explored, we really don't know. And because of that...

 

[Bolt the Cat]

I think so, but probably more like us than little green men who have godlike powers and all that nonsense. And they're probably lightyears away, too far for us to contact with our current technology.

 

[Luckyfire]

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists anywhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." - Calvin and Hobbes

 

[omahanime]

Proof that we have been visited by alien intelligence.

Spoiler: proof

Clefairy and Clefable​

 

[Chaos Jackal]

Don't forget Elgyem and Beeheeyem.
Still, I don't really believe aliens have visited us. Although there are some ancient monuments on Earth that we have no idea of their use... Who knows? Maybe something like the Stonehedge or those drawings at South America are actually made by or made to communicate with aliens?
Yeah, I know. Extreme, improbable, etc. You're right.

 

[omahanime]

Still, I don't really believe aliens have visited us. Although there are some ancient monuments on Earth that we have no idea of their use... Who knows? Maybe something like the Stonehedge or those drawings at South America are actually made by or made to communicate with aliens?

Many people have made that connection. So alien species has advanced technology enough to travel the vast distance in an acceptable time frame. Gets to Earth to build in stone. That does not add up for me.

 

[AnUnown]

Ever read sirens of Titan? The story there was that an alien crashed on one of the moons of Saturn (or Jupiter?), and was subtly manipulating earthlings to build giant structures that could be seen through a telescope-like device from his home world. The structures, like pyramids, Stonehenge etc, were messages to home.

 

[Meaty]

Unless they can get here, I don't see how the knowledge of alien life would affect my life.

That's funny, that's pretty much my stance on God and religion. And yet for the most part I do believe that alien life exists and I acknowledge the possibility that a higher alien intelligence has visited/influenced us in the past. Maybe I just find that concept more interesting than an omniscient and omnipresent almighty God. But it's as Pokequaza's link says, the thing with people is that they all like to think that there's something higher than them out there.

 

[Chaos Jackal]

Many people have made that connection. So alien species has advanced technology enough to travel the vast distance in an acceptable time frame. Gets to Earth to build in stone. That does not add up for me.

That's why I said I don't believe it. The only way would be having hidden devices within the rocks of Stonehedge, which isn't possible.
As for the Nazca Lines (or whatever they're called), I don't think they're associated with aliens (or Earthbound Immortals, for one ).

 

[Starboard Driger]

There are many unsolved mysteries, on and beyond earth. Some explain them with God, others, with aliens. And some simply don't believe what isn't proven.

I'm in the latter group.

 

[Zeto]

Imo, if a race with superior knowledge can travel through galaxies near the speed of light, I believe it has way more things to discover and to do than build some structures on earth lol.

 

[Ysmir]

There are many unsolved mysteries, on and beyond earth. Some explain them with God, others, with aliens. And some simply don't believe what isn't proven.

I'm in the latter group.

But how do you know what's been proven or not?
Not saying I disagree but do we have all the answers? Even the simplest, most explored things are being re-evaluated. Humans have a silly tendency to think they have things "all figured out" or concede to the fact...the more we learn the more we realize we don't know nothing or barely grasp the concept.

 

[Starboard Driger]

There are many unsolved mysteries, on and beyond earth. Some explain them with God, others, with aliens. And some simply don't believe what isn't proven.

I'm in the latter group.

But how do you know what's been proven or not?
Not saying I disagree but do we have all the answers? Even the simplest, most explored things are being re-evaluated. Humans have a silly tendency to think they have things "all figured out" or concede to the fact...the more we learn the more we realize we don't know nothing or barely grasp the concept.

I may have worded my post confusingly. I was referring to the "alien structures" that were brought up in this thread, and by saying I don't believe what isn't proven I meant I don't believe something thats basis is "idk how this got here, therefore aliens."

 

[AnUnown]

Imo, if a race with superior knowledge can travel through galaxies near the speed of light, I believe it has way more things to discover and to do than build some structures on earth lol.

We have the technology of super fast travel to a crab or snail... Yet we still go to their homes and spend afternoons making sand castles.

 

[Zarco]

There's almost certainly life around the universe, via the Drake equation and such. We don't know if it's evolved. I reckon some of it is at least as evolved as us, but who knows: our star may have been one of the first in the group that can support living planets, so who knows? Whatever the case is, the universe is so large and impossible to travel that it's really unlikely that there are aliens that are visiting us, even if we assume there are extremely advanced aliens. They simply have no reason to expend the resources and time to see us if in fact they are so advanced.

 

[omahanime]

Astrobiologist says alien life may be rare across universe, if it even exists


When it comes to life across the cosmos, the universe might just be an "awful waste of space" after all.

A new theory presented at a conference this week would confirm the worry of Ellie Arroway, Jodie Foster's character in the film "Contact," that life might not exist on other worlds.

Some scientists think that just because exoplanets could have habitable environments, that does not mean that life evolved there.

"The pervasive nature of life on Earth is leading us to make this assumption," Charles Cockell, the director of the U.K. Center for Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement."On our planet, carbon leaches into most habitat space and provides energy for microorganisms to live. There are only a few vacant habitats that may persist for any length of time on Earth, but we cannot assume that this is the case on other planets."

Cockell's hypothesis states that, although habitable alien planets might abound in solar systems around the universe, it does not mean these locales harbor extraterrestrial life.

"It is dangerous to assume life is common across the universe. It encourages people to think that not finding signs of life is a 'failure,' when in fact it would tell us a lot about the origins of life," added Cockell.

There's new evidence that suggests that a comet or meteor brought the building blocks of life to Earth. Derrick Pitts of the Franklin Institute joins Ed Schultz to explain the details.
It is also possible that scientists will not be able to detect alien signs of life, even if it exists, Cockell said. Life might be markedly dissimilar from planet to planet, making it unlikely that astronomers on Earth will see recognizable signatures of life. But not all hope is lost.

"Professor Cockell explains that in coming decades, increasingly powerful telescopes and developments in spectroscopy may allow us to look for the signals of life on planets beyond our solar system," officials from the Royal Society, the United Kingdom's national academy of science, said in a statement."However, regardless of this, our view is still going to be heavily influenced by our knowledge of life on Earth."

Cockell presented his theory at a conference sponsored by the Royal Society.