• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!
  • Welcome to our archives. No new posts are allowed here.

Extra-terrestrial intelligent life

You have all been watching and reading far too much sci-fi.
In fact, there is nothing to suggest that life on planet earth is anything but unique.
It amazes me that the notion of the existence of alien beings is so widely accepted when there is no hard evidence to indicate any life, in any form, outside of our own planet ...while at the same time, half the nation does not believe that man made air pollution is resulting in an increase is mean temperatures globally. Something that can be documented with mountains of scientific data and evidence.
To paraphrase Twain; Bullcrap can travel half way around the world before the truth can put on it's shoes.
Such are the illogical convictions of human nature...
jus'sayin'
 
Buck Ewer said:
You have all been watching and reading far too much sci-fi.
In fact, there is nothing to suggest that life on planet earth is anything but unique.
It amazes me that the notion of the existence of alien beings is so widely accepted when there is no hard evidence to indicate any life, in any form, outside of our own planet ...while at the same time, half the nation does not believe that man made air pollution is resulting in an increase is mean temperatures globally. Something that can be documented with mountains of scientific data and evidence.
To paraphrase Twain; Bullcrap can travel half way around the world before the truth can put on it's shoes.
Such are the illogical convictions of human nature...
jus'sayin'
Click to expand...

God, you must be so much fun at parties.
 
Buck Ewer said:
You have all been watching and reading far too much sci-fi.
In fact, there is nothing to suggest that life on planet earth is anything but unique.
It amazes me that the notion of the existence of alien beings is so widely accepted when there is no hard evidence to indicate any life, in any form, outside of our own planet ...while at the same time, half the nation does not believe that man made air pollution is resulting in an increase is mean temperatures globally. Something that can be documented with mountains of scientific data and evidence.
To paraphrase Twain; Bullcrap can travel half way around the world before the truth can put on it's shoes.
Such are the illogical convictions of human nature...
jus'sayin'
Click to expand...

Actually, have you heard of the Drake equation? According to this it's statistically unlikely we're the only life in the Milky Way, let alone the universe. A big part of this is understand just how massive the universe is. It's pretty audacious to suggest life only started here on Earth. Also, I'm not sure, but I think you're paraphrasing Winston Churchill.
 
If they show up here, the probability that we're screwed approaches 1.
 
sbrettt said:
Actually, have you heard of the Drake equation? According to this it's statistically unlikely we're the only life in the Milky Way, let alone the universe. A big part of this is understand just how massive the universe is. It's pretty audacious to suggest life only started here on Earth. Also, I'm not sure, but I think you're paraphrasing Winston Churchill.
Click to expand...

Well, it's said about 4 percent of stars aren't a red dwarf like star or stars which possess the same attributes as our on sun. Consequently that means about 96 percent of stars aren't going to provide the types of elements necessary to support planetary life. HOWEVER, 4 percent of all stars in the universe is an unimaginable number...well for me.

I get lost after 99 bottles of beer on the wall. :mrgreen:
 
Removable Mind said:
Well, it's said about 4 percent of stars aren't a red dwarf like star or stars which possess the same attributes as our on sun. Consequently that means about 96 percent of stars aren't going to provide the types of elements necessary to support planetary life. HOWEVER, 4 percent of all stars in the universe is an unimaginable number...well for me.

I get lost after 99 bottles of beer on the wall. :mrgreen:
Click to expand...
Exactly, it doesn't seem like much until you consider how massive the universe is. In fact, ever heard Gliese 581? From what I understand that planet is potentially in the goldylox zone.
 
sbrettt said:
Exactly, it doesn't seem like much until you consider how massive the universe is. In fact, ever heard Gliese 581? From what I understand that planet is potentially in the goldylox zone.
Click to expand...

Wow...that's a whole new twist regarding red stars. That certainly opens up new possibilities. But some theorists believe that every law we believe is constant throughout the universe...is not close to accurate.
 
Removable Mind said:
Wow...that's a whole new twist regarding red stars. That certainly opens up new possibilities. But some theorists believe that every law we believe is constant throughout the universe...is not close to accurate.
Click to expand...

From what I understand, any star can support life, except certain dead ones like pulsars and black holes, can support life as long as the planet is the right distance from it. I think, in theory, even a white dwarf could if the planet was close enough.
 
sbrettt said:
From what I understand, any star can support life, except certain dead ones like pulsars and black holes, can support life as long as the planet is the right distance from it. I think, in theory, even a white dwarf could if the planet was close enough.
Click to expand...

I attended the 11th Annual Astronomy Festival in Bryce Canyon Utah a couple of years ago and there's about 200 amature astronomers who get together and set up some really nice telescopes...some pretty large. And you can go to them all and see incredible things.

I do love seeing a good Super Nova.
 
Everytime I see the topic about space travel it reminds me of the book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull".

Jonathan wants the fly faster than any other seagull...EVER. But then he encounters a seagull that opens his eyes to a different way of traveling. "Just think it...and be there."

That's closer to the ability to travel in just around our own galaxy, much less other places in the universe.

Who knows...it might be possible for some much much older beings elsewhere?
 
Removable Mind said:
I attended the 11th Annual Astronomy Festival in Bryce Canyon Utah a couple of years ago and there's about 200 amature astronomers who get together and set up some really nice telescopes...some pretty large. And you can go to them all and see incredible things.

I do love seeing a good Super Nova.
Click to expand...
I hope one day to see the birth of a black hole relatively up close. LOL
 
Removable Mind said:
More than likely traveling at the speed of light would be child's play for any extraterrestrial life form capable of coming here. In order to come to our humble little planet from places in or out of our galaxy, I would think it would have to be much, much older than us. They would have to travel not just hundreds of times the speed of light, but probably thousands times faster.

Even if we could travel say 100 times faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles "per second")...it would take us 250 earth years to get to the center of our own galaxy.

Just a thought...
Click to expand...
And who knows. Maybe it's not about speed in getting here but shortening the distance by using wormholes. :shrug:
 
Bob N said:
And who knows. Maybe it's not about speed in getting here but shortening the distance by using wormholes. :shrug:
Click to expand...

Possibly. Wormholes...now that's a mind boggling apparatus.

Recently I saw a piece on the science channel where it's theorized that there might be a way to use space itself to move a ship faster than light. That is way my over head. The prospect of a wormhole is probably in the same theoretical vein as somehow using space to propel a ship.
 
Odds are they would not be peaceful. IMO, history shows us that anything at the top of the food chain is not something those at the bottom of it want to meet.
 
sbrettt said:
I think you're confusing technology and science which are also not synonymous. I'm referring to scientific discoveries that caused us to adjust our ethics. Think back to 1796 when extinction was established as fact. Technology can also cause us to change our ethics which results in a betterment of humanity as a whole in my opinion. Think of nuclear weapons. I believe understanding that it is possible to drive ourselves into extinction gives us a new and better perspective. It makes us more careful. Not careful enough, but still less reckless IMO. I think with new knowledge comes new wisdom. My point being, we're always advancing. Still, we have a long way to go.
Click to expand...

Personally, I think trying to build loosely defined "science" up as any kind of overtly ethical construct in and of itself tends to be misguided at best, and blatantly dangerous at worst. If recent history has shown us anything, it is that science, when freed of moral constraints, can have a tendency to trend towards frightening amorality, self-servingness, and even anti-humanism more often than not.

Human life takes on a secondary importance to the single-minded desire to achieve "results" above all else.

Too each their own, however. :shrug:
 
Last edited:
calamity said:
Odds are they would not be peaceful. IMO, history shows us that anything at the top of the food chain is not something those at the bottom of it want to meet.
Click to expand...

Maybe they're really tiny and weak?
 
ChrisL said:
Well so far the only "aliens" we have found are bacteria. :lol: Not very evolved.
Click to expand...

And yet I was so excited when we found them I went "Squeeeeeeeee!!!"
 
Gathomas88 said:
Physical brawn can have a tendency to become decidedly less important when someone has the capability to drop multi-mega ton warheads on their enemies from orbit. ;)
Click to expand...

Maybe their bombs are tiny too! :mrgreen:
 
sbrettt said:
What the if we encountered intelligent life that was technology inferior to us to the point that we could dominate them? Would it be like the discovery of the "new world" all over again, or have we grown up as a species?
Click to expand...

That strikes me as utterly impossible. I definitely believe that there are millions, if not billions, of kinds of intelligent life in the universe. I do not believe that any race intelligent enough and technologically advanced enough to reach earth from another planet could possibly be technologically inferior to us.

Now if humans were magically made technologically advanced enough to be the explorers rather than the explored, I would fear for any inferior cultures we stumble upon. It would be Avatar in real time as we exploited them and their resources. If humans ever reach that stage of technical advancement, I can only hope that our wisdom and intellectual advancement has kept pace. I am not optimistic.
 
DiAnna said:
That strikes me as utterly impossible. I definitely believe that there are millions, if not billions, of kinds of intelligent life in the universe. I do not believe that any race intelligent enough and technologically advanced enough to reach earth from another planet could possibly be technologically inferior to us.

Now if humans were magically made technologically advanced enough to be the explorers rather than the explored, I would fear for any inferior cultures we stumble upon. It would be Avatar in real time as we exploited them and their resources. If humans ever reach that stage of technical advancement, I can only hope that our wisdom and intellectual advancement has kept pace. I am not optimistic.
Click to expand...

There actually was a short science fiction story written with basically that premise. It was pretty funny.

It turns out that hyper drive is so ridiculously easy to master that even bronze age peoples should be able to figure it out. Due to bad luck and unfavorable conditions, mankind simply never got around to it.

This leads to kind of an amusing turn of events when a seemingly unstoppable alien empire does finally invade, as they all pile out of their landing crafts wielding muskets and military tactics that wouldn't be out of place in the Napoleonic era.

Needless to say, they are trounced pretty easily. :lamo

We then go on to use the technology we took from these aliens to conquer the known galaxy.

Harry Turtledove - The Road Not Taken
 
Last edited:
Gathomas88 said:
There actually was a short science fiction story written with basically that premise. It was pretty funny.

It turns out that hyper drive is so ridiculously easy to master that even bronze age peoples should be able to figure it out. Due to bad luck and unfavorable conditions, mankind simply never got around to it.

This leads to kind of an amusing turn of events when a seemingly unstoppable alien empire does finally invade, as they all pile out of their landing craft wielding muskets and military tactics that wouldn't be out of place in the Napoleonic era.

Needless to say, they are trounced pretty easily. :lamo

We then go on to use the technology we took from these aliens to conquer the known galaxy.

Harry Turtledove - The Road Not Taken
Click to expand...

:lol:

That actually is pretty funny!
 
ChrisL said:
Maybe they're really tiny and weak?
Click to expand...

Tiny and weak but capable of "leaping" giant distances at a single bound. If they can get here from who the hell knows where, I suspect that they can convince us to hand over our grandmas, first born and all the virgins from here to Sri Lanka if they so desired.
 
calamity said:
Tiny and weak but capable of "leaping" giant distances at a single bound. If they can get here from who the hell knows where, I suspect that they can convince us to hand over our grandmas, first born and all the virgins from here to Sri Lanka if they so desired.
Click to expand...

I'm not scared. :lol: I'll squash them like bugs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom