Question of the Day, Friday, April 17

Good morning!  And Happy Friday! 

Today's question would probably be suited more for IMO. But I'm sure that we can be nice and keep this on an even keel:

Do you believe in aliens? Do you believe there are other life forms? Why or why not?

I get completely freaked out just even thinking about it.

Yes. Definitely.

We are constantly being reminded how unbelievably huge the universe is and new galaxies and solar systems are being found all the time. To think about that and then assume that out of all the planets out there that this is the only one with intelligent life on it is (IMO) crazier than thinking that it's not. 

People have been recording sightings of crafts and alien life form for thousands of year. Were they ALL lying?

Area 51 is real. They finally had to admit it. Why all the secrecy unless they have something(s) in there that they think "average" people won't be able to deal with. 

I actually would be more freaked out if we were the only inhabited planet in the universe than if we were not. What a lonely existence. Movies and television like to make alien life form out to be either  murderous monsters or goofy, cuddly pals that we need to protect from murderous humans. I think that most of those civilizations are far more advanced than we are and find us rather silly. if they wanted to do us harm, they would/could have done it a long time ago. We're a much bigger danger to our own planet than anyone else could be. 

My mother always swore Jamie was an alien. :lol3: She could never get over him calling her when he played with the speed dial/redial buttons on the phone.

It doesn't seem logical to me that there's no life anywhere but on earth, but I'm extremely skeptical about earth being visited by aliens at any point in time.

I too think we would be incredibly vain to think that in an ENDLESS universe we are the only intelligent life. I don't think we have been 'visited' yet, I would need proof for that, but it is fascinating to see some of those documentaries saying we were visited thousands of years ago!

Di and Bob said:

 
I too think we would be incredibly vain to think that in an ENDLESS universe we are the only intelligent life. I don't think we have been 'visited' yet, I would need proof for that, but it is fascinating to see some of those documentaries saying we were visited thousands of years ago!

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Very self-centric too, which is very characteristic of us as human beings. We like to think of ourselves as being more important. While there is no proof that life on other galaxies exist, the probability that life DOESN'T is so astronomically small.

As for us being visited, that cannot be a good thing. There are articles out there that explains why any alien civilizations who visit us are very likely to be hostile. The basic premise is that only expansionary civilizations will visit other star systems, and if they are expansionary, it is likely because resources are starting to become scarce in their home planet. If that's the case, then if we are rich in the resources they need, and considering they have the technology to visit us, it would not end well for us. It would be like the original people of the Americas meeting Columbus.

Of course, the counter-point to that is to assume alien lifestyle mirrors ours, again the self-centric tendency. It could be that intelligent life is abnormal and unsustainable. According to Stephen Hawkings, it took three billion years to go from single-cell microbes to evolve to multicells, which is the precursor to intelligence. 3 billion years is a long time. Our earth is 4.5 billion years old, and the Sun is expected to turn into a giant red star in 5 billion years. Microbes are a lot more survivable than multicell beings, so intelligent life may just never (or rarely) have enough time to evolve before being wiped out.

I am pretty sure there are other planets out there with some type of life.  It's pretty far fetched that out of all the other planets this is the only one with life.  I don't necessarily believe in all the stories about visitation by other life forms.  I don't disbelieve in visitation but I would need to see proof of it beyond anecdotal stories and stories about government conspiracies.  Huge conspiracies are really far fetched because someone always talks.  I have worked for the U.S, government off and on and believe me they are not organized enough for a huge conspiracy. 

I never believed in aliens until we were in Colorado last week and saw these guys:


Just kidding--these were on the wall of a pizza place we went into.      Bizarre decor for a restaurant. 

Denice said:

 
 I have worked for the U.S, government off and on and believe me they are not organized enough for a huge conspiracy. 

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That has always been my suspicion.    

Like others, whilst I'm skeptical about visitation, I think it would be incredibly arrogant to think that we are the only intelligent life in the entire universe.

On visitation - I did read a beguiling fictional theory: that we have been visited very often by countless alien life forms, and in their enthusiasm to 'capture' humans for testing they've only ever managed to capture each other, and a halt has been called on proceedings until the whole mess can be sorted out! (thank you Terry Pratchett)

I have no doubt there are other worlds with intelligent life, the universe is too vast not to have life develop elsewhere. But I don't believe we have been visited by anyone from another planet. The distances are just far too great (the universe is 99.999% empty space). Plus we are not even a tiny speck in our own galaxy, I can't imagine we would even be noticed.

Di and Bob said:

 
I too think we would be incredibly vain to think that in an ENDLESS universe we are the only intelligent life. I don't think we have been 'visited' yet, I would need proof for that, but it is fascinating to see some of those documentaries saying we were visited thousands of years ago!

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Yes, that's pretty much what I wanted to say. the universe is way too big for ours to be the only planet with life on it.