Thread: Alien Space Travel? Why Do We Not See them?

this has a name if anyone's interested

Fermi paradox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by usda select

None or at least very few of the planets we've found are much like Earth. Thus our uniqueness.

There are billions of stars, more billions of planets floating around, even more moons. The likelihood that we are unique is almost zero.

In addition, there is nothing to suggest that life elsewhere is anything like life on earth. 50 years ago it was understood that life here is carbon based, oxygen breathing, can exist within only a limited range of heat, and cannot withstand immense pressure. Organisms have been found here on earth that disprove all the above.

Originally Posted by stonewall50

I have taken a few astronomy classes, and of course this subject comes up. We are looking for alien life out in space, and we wonder why we haven't seen any true proof that they are looking for us etc. I have an idea as to why:



Space is mostly empty right? And space travel takes a really long time. Now if you ask me, I believe that there is intelligent life out there. The odds are FOR it. But if they are intelligent, then they know how long, dangerous, and difficult traversing space would be. It would just not be something that you would attempt unless you were facing a collapsing solar system. In that case you would hop on and go, but why leave your comfy home?

Heck why not colonize nearby first? I heard about something called the jungle theory I think? That our planet is in a wilderness section maybe? And that while there might be life trapsing about the Universe, the odds of us ever seeing them is slim.

Thoughts?

My theory is that they're travelling in Inter-Galactic First Class, while we're stuck in coach

Originally Posted by stonewall50

I have taken a few astronomy classes, and of course this subject comes up. We are looking for alien life out in space, and we wonder why we haven't seen any true proof that they are looking for us etc. I have an idea as to why:



Space is mostly empty right? And space travel takes a really long time. Now if you ask me, I believe that there is intelligent life out there. The odds are FOR it. But if they are intelligent, then they know how long, dangerous, and difficult traversing space would be. It would just not be something that you would attempt unless you were facing a collapsing solar system. In that case you would hop on and go, but why leave your comfy home?

Heck why not colonize nearby first? I heard about something called the jungle theory I think? That our planet is in a wilderness section maybe? And that while there might be life trapsing about the Universe, the odds of us ever seeing them is slim.

Thoughts?

There's plenty of life out there but they will never get here and we won't get there....it's just too far to travel. 100's or 1000's of light years will never get any closer no matter how advanced a civilization gets. The speed of light is not just a number, it's a warning. Don't expect to go elswhere if we screw up the Earth, it's not an option. The Earth is a lifeboat in a eternity of nothingness as far as we are concerned.

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Originally Posted by jimbo

There are billions of stars, more billions of planets floating around, even more moons. The likelihood that we are unique is almost zero.

In addition, there is nothing to suggest that life elsewhere is anything like life on earth. 50 years ago it was understood that life here is carbon based, oxygen breathing, can exist within only a limited range of heat, and cannot withstand immense pressure. Organisms have been found here on earth that disprove all the above.

Earth is unique. Ask any martian. Oh wait, there are none.

????

Originally Posted by usda select

None or at least very few of the planets we've found are much like Earth. Thus our uniqueness.

As I pointed out, we haven't found many planets approximating Earth because we currently lack the capacity to detect them (planets that small), barring a near-miracle combination of circumstances.

At present we have no way of calculating their frequency or rarity.


We are like a man who is nearly blind, trying to read an eye-chart.... just because we can see that the three biggest letters are A, B and O doesn't mean we have any clue how often the letter "e" appears among the other 84 letters that are too damn small for him to read. We/He have to wait for better "eyeglasses".... which are in the works....

Originally Posted by usda select

Earth is unique. Ask any martian. Oh wait, there are none.

????

So, if you're reaching into a barrel, whose contents you cannot see because the top is too high and the sides are opaque, and the first four items you pull out are grapefruits (probably because they're the biggest things in there), do you assume the barrel, which may contain hundreds or thousands more items, is full of only grapefruits? Or even fruits at all?

That's where we're at. We've seen a handful of the easiest-to-detect (mostly, extra-huge) exoplanets, and have not yet perfected the ability to detect the smaller ones (such as Earthlike ones)... so making ANY assumptions at this point is.... well you know what happens when you make ASSumptions.....

Originally Posted by stonewall50

I have taken a few astronomy classes, and of course this subject comes up. We are looking for alien life out in space, and we wonder why we haven't seen any true proof that they are looking for us etc. I have an idea as to why:



Thoughts?

I figure it's more likely because they don't want us to see them.

I didn't see if this was posted already but it could be the sheer distance between star systems. There is no way that we currently understand in physics that any life could travel such vast distances in many lifetimes or with a viable energy source. Unless, they've figured out how to fold space and travel inter-dimensionally it doesn't appear probable.

Originally Posted by grip

I didn't see if this was posted already but it could be the sheer distance between star systems. There is no way that we currently understand in physics that any life could travel such vast distances in many lifetimes or with a viable energy source. Unless, they've figured out how to fold space and travel inter-dimensionally it doesn't appear probable.

Well, I would assume that if they are indeed real, and can come here, they're already light years ahead of us technologically.