Do you believe in aliens?

[Placo]

As the title suggests, do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations?

 

[1043169]

I do, yes. Do I believe they have been to earth? My theory is they aren't those little grey men or whatever people think. I think if they have come to earth it was waaaay back in the time of like the dinosaurs or something, studied them, and decided we weren't worth anything.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

Yeah but I don't think they're gonna be that much more advanced than us anyway. Even if they were, it doesn't make sense for such an advanced civilization to need to waste all the energy and resources required to initiate galactic scale conquest so we're probably safe from them.

Even if any alien species are incredibly intelligent that probably just means on an individual level they're likely to be even stupider than we are since they'd likely be overly reliant on all their progress and technological advancements just to survive. We could probably take them in a physical fight at least…

 

[leloyon]

Yes. I don't know if they've ever visited us, whether there have ever been genuine UFO sightings, or if they even know of us or can visit us. However I think it would be rather egotistical to believe that out of the entire universe, we are the only inhabited planet, and that humans are the only intelligent lifeform out there.

 

[Placo]

Yes. I don't know if they've ever visited us, whether there have ever been genuine UFO sightings, or if they even know of us or can visit us. However I think it would be rather egotistical to believe that out of the entire universe, we are the only inhabited planet, and that humans are the only intelligent lifeform out there.

An interesting hypothesis is that of ancient aliens, which would explain the origin of religions for example, but at the moment it is considered pseudoscience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts

 

[EvisceratedJester]

I'm not sure, though I feel like the evolution of complex multicellular life forms is likely rare (though I don't know for sure).

 

[ham and potatoes]

There are 100s of billions of galaxies, each with 10s of billions of stars, which each could have multiple planets.
There's no way that this little rock we are on is the only one where life happened

 

[1043169]

There are 100s of billions of galaxies, each with 10s of billions of stars, which each could have multiple planets.
There's no way that this little rock we are on is the only one where life happened

Exactly! That's my thinking too. Like, c'mon the math even estimates there are like idk thousands of possible places out there just in our galaxy (something like that don't quote me).

 

[ijustwishtodie]

Considering how the universe is infinite, I believe that there must be life somewhere other than earth. However, I don't think that they would look like how they're depicted in movies

 

[Saturn_]

Maybe somewhere out there, a species of aliens hates their lives and has their own Sanctioned Suicide, and is discussing this very same question right now...

 

[eatantz]

10000% if the universe is real then something has to be out there

 

[Praestat_Mori]

There are other life forms out there, chemistry and physics is the the same everywhere in the observable universe. Even if there's only 1 civilization (or any kind of simple life forms) per galaxy then the universe can be considered to be full of life.

 

[Agon321]

A very important question is: what do you consider aliens?

I think we can all agree that there are most likely simple organisms in the universe.
It would be very strange if there were no organisms in such a vast space.

"Intelligent" animals (we are animals too) are a different topic.
At this point we cannot rule out various options.

Space is gigantic and we still don't know the answers to some questions.

Maybe we are the most advanced civilization? We cannot rule it out completely.

Maybe there are many civilizations like us, but we will never meet each other because we are too far apart.

Maybe there are civilizations that can destroy us in a split second and from our perspective they are Gods, but they are just very advanced.

We can multiply and multiply theories.

Let us remember that even if by some miracle we can travel at the speed of light, it still does not guarantee us a comfortable galactic journey.
The distances are simply too great.
So if there is a civilization that can travel very fast, it means that there may be technologies that for us humans at this point are something like magic.

Overall, I believe that there are most likely other animals in the universe.

It's a pity that I probably won't find out the answers to many interesting questions.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I feel like there must be life out there somewhere. Just how developed it is would depend on how their planets developed I guess. It's weird to think about though. Are there other beings out there also wondering if we exist? Would we get on if we met?

 

[KillingPain267]

No, all the galaxies are just decorations as far as we know. Statistical chances are not proof they exist.

 

[xulam]

Yes, however, I don't really think about it much. Probably it is a very different form of life and I do not believe we ever contacted aliens or that they ever contacted us. In this sense, it doesn't affect me in any way if they exist or not.

 

[DarkRange55]

Mostly natural phenomena and optical illusions, plus a lot of hoaxes, but there is some weird stuff out there that has physical reality, and there are secret military projects. As for extraterrestrial visitors, if they wanted us to know that they were here, we would know, and if they didn't want us to know we would never see them. I suppose it is possible that they don't care whether we know. But for the weirdest stuff, I have to answer "insufficient data".

Because of the evolution of biological living organisms on this planet would serve as evidence that it is possible for that to be happening elsewhere. Ergo its definitely possible that something similar has happened, will happen, or is happening somewhere in the universe.
It's definitely possible. And I would say even plausible. However, I wouldn't say that I believe that they exist until we discover proof of their existence. Possible, yeah.

But it is interesting that now we're getting to the point where there's more of an admission from the government than we've ever seen previously. Area 51… is interesting. I don't know how much of the stuff is folklore and myth and how much of it is true but there might be certain segments of the government that know a hell of a lot more than other portions of the government. But I will say that at the end of the day I do not understand the people who are really obsessed with it because we're all gonna end up in the same place. We're having this conversation which is I don't know, you don't know. All we can do is speculate. Which is fun sometimes.

There's a lot of crazy speculation, conspiracy theories one might say. On this particular aspect of the alien issue I'm not even going to attempt to speculate. Although I do find stories like the one that broke maybe 10-15 years ago about the former NASA Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, I find those very interesting.

Do I think they have come here? Not necessarily. And even if they do exist, there's no guarantee that they would be advanced enough to get here. And personally, I would stay the hell away from here.

And then to take it a step even further, we just talked about the universe, some scientists think and there's some evidence to believe that there are multiple universes, multiverse theory. So like our universe is just like a bubble in a bathtub, thats a good way to think of it. So we are on a planet, that is within a solar system, that is within a galaxy, that is within a universe, that is within a multiverse. I'm a hardcore believer in science and evidence, ect. so I haven't been convinced by any stretch of the imagination that any of the things so far they haven't found anything but at some point… yeah. At some point yeah.

I'm not sure, though I feel like the evolution of complex multicellular life forms is likely rare (though I don't know for sure).

Could be, but the processes that led to life on earth look common.

The chemical system that is life obeys the laws of kinetics and thermodynamics and while it is possibly the most interesting phenomenon it's not magical. Intelligent life does not seem inevitable in the same way, it just seems extraordinarily likely. In statistics there's something called the mediocrity principle, basically if you have a sample size of one chances are that, that is from the most common dataset.
I go by the soft Copernican principle – we should not assume that we should have some special place, but we should also not assume that we do not have a special place.

I suspect that intelligent life emerges fairly often (on probably a few percent of life-bearing planets, and occasionally on life bearing moons).
I suspect that intelligent life merges with electronic life at only a slightly more advanced state of development and we are currently at.

Yes, however, I don't really think about it much. Probably it is a very different form of life and I do not believe we ever contacted aliens or that they ever contacted us. In this sense, it doesn't affect me in any way if they exist or not.

Aliens (speculatively, of course) are hypothesized to have a broader range than life forms on earth do – at least from viruses to whales in size, and individuals and societies at least as complex as humans and our civilization.

Not only are chances good that life exists but chances are good that a wide spectrum of life exists. On some planets life is probably very basic. Single-cell organisms, some bacteria, maybe some plants, etc. Where on other planets the life is probably much more advanced. To me the question is not if life exists but rather if any of the life that does exist is advanced enough to know that we exist and to subsequently visit us.

Any aliens that travel from other stars will be at least as advanced as we are, and probably much much more so. Some of these will bear some similarity to humans or octopuses, but some are likely to be based on electronic circuits rather than genes, cells, and chemical potentials, and some may be so far beyond our comprehension that we don't even know when they are here.

No, all the galaxies are just decorations as far as we know. Statistical chances are not proof they exist.

Everything we smell, see, hear, taste, or touch is just decorations as far as we know.

A very important question is: what do you consider aliens?

I think we can all agree that there are most likely simple organisms in the universe.
It would be very strange if there were no organisms in such a vast space.

"Intelligent" animals (we are animals too) are a different topic.
At this point we cannot rule out various options.

Space is gigantic and we still don't know the answers to some questions.

Maybe we are the most advanced civilization? We cannot rule it out completely.

Maybe there are many civilizations like us, but we will never meet each other because we are too far apart.

Maybe there are civilizations that can destroy us in a split second and from our perspective they are Gods, but they are just very advanced.

We can multiply and multiply theories.

Let us remember that even if by some miracle we can travel at the speed of light, it still does not guarantee us a comfortable galactic journey.
The distances are simply too great.
So if there is a civilization that can travel very fast, it means that there may be technologies that for us humans at this point are something like magic.

Overall, I believe that there are most likely other animals in the universe.

It's a pity that I probably won't find out the answers to many interesting questions.

I suspect that the speed of light is a limiting factor for biological visitors, but I would be surprised if life never crosses interstellar space.I am skeptical of FTL travel, and pretty sure that if it can be done, the shortcut through space can itself only propagate at the speed of light.It may not be practical to traverse the cosmos using general relativity in the standard model. You can use time dilation, you can hope for wormholes, you can imagine generation ships. But it may require a distinct theory of physics. Or, the universe may be slowly traversable. If we were just a little more advanced than we are now, but with the same physics (just applied on a larger scale), we could cross to the nearest stars in a few tens of thousands of years. That would be quite doable for machines, or for spacecraft carrying sperm and eggs and artificial wombs, and potentially for humans in suspended animation. Or, if we solve aging, what's a few tens of thousands of years in a very long life?(master replacing mitochondria, and then reverse engineering what our original embryonic stem cells were and replicating them to replace defective cells in our bodies. That would set the foundation for editing our own genomes as well as for immortality).
I am skeptical of wormholes as something that could provide a useful shortcut through space or time, but I try to keep an open mind.

I suspect that intelligent life merges with electronic life at only a slightly more advanced state of development and we are currently at. As for us going beyond the solar system, by the time we accomplish that we probably will have merged our minds with ageless machines...

I feel like there must be life out there somewhere. Just how developed it is would depend on how their planets developed I guess. It's weird to think about though. Are there other beings out there also wondering if we exist? Would we get on if we met?

Theoretically, a civilization can get electronics before they get a steam engine.

It's very difficult to estimate but there are stars which are billions of years older than our sun, some of them very likely have planets and therefore I can imagine civilizations immensely beyond the capabilities of our own. What capabilities those are no can tell, in the same sense that even the most fantastic prognostications from the middle of the 19th century about the technology of the 20th century all fell short. People asked to imagine what transportation devices people would have a 1950, imagined a type of Victorian living room with plush velvet furniture in a gondola at the bottom of an enormous balloon which went from New York to San Francisco in only a few weeks and he was of course the most imaginative speculative thinkers of the 19th century, others would've been more cautious. So it's very difficult to predict far into the future even 100 years where not only new technology but new scientific principles may be discovered.

Considering how the universe is infinite, I believe that there must be life somewhere other than earth. However, I don't think that they would look like how they're depicted in movies

We do not know if the local (observable) universe is truly infinite. Infinity exists as a mathematical concept. We do not know if it exists as a physical reality.

There are other life forms out there, chemistry and physics is the the same everywhere in the observable universe. Even if there's only 1 civilization (or any kind of simple life forms) per galaxy then the universe can be considered to be full of life.

As far as we know, in this universe they will still be stuck with the same toolkit.
When it comes parallel universes (multiverse), we simply don't know what is possible.

 

[scarlet-pixie]

Of course. Our own existence already proves they exist.