Thoughts on alien life in the universe (multiverse)? Do aliens (who are even remotely similar to us) exist?

[Praying 4 a Miracle]

I just posted a similar question and accidentally put it in the discussion area. Off topic is definitely where this question belongs.

Personally, I'm on the fence about whether or not I believe in aliens. However, considering how unimaginably massive the universe, (or more accurately the multiverse) is, it seems the chances are pretty good that alien beings do exist somewhere out there in the cosmos. I've personally never met or witnessed any (yet), but am definitely open to the possibility of their existence.

Considering that there are at least 1.7 million different species of life on this planet alone, it's not a huge stretch to think that there are likely others on different planets. I think that the bigger and more specific question here is, are there other forms of life in the cosmos, that are even remotely similar to human beings?

 

[cicatrezESP]

i've always believed in aliens, i think they are real without a doubt

 

[pollux]

It depends on how rare it is that life emerges in a given planet. Odds seem pretty low though; you need a calm and long lived star, small enough that it doesn't just burn up quickly but big enough that your planet doesn't just become tidally locked to the star.

You obviously need a planet in the habitable zone of it's star, but also one with an atmosphere, a magnetic field, geological activity etc.

The most common type of star are Red Dwarves, which are pretty small and tend to flare a lot; this limits habitability substantially. Any planet close enough to one probably is tidally locked (one side faces the sun all the time) and probably doesn't have an atmosphere.

Stars like the Sun make up less than 10% of the population of stars I believe, so we're already limited there.

Then you get into how unlikely the Solar System is overall compared to most others (for example, there are no Gas Giants near our star, which is common in other systems).

Of course, not even entering into biology...

The fact that there are many species of living beings on Earth isn't really indicative of much. There are many species here because the conditions for life are right, here. There's no telling how common they are overall. And so far, we really haven't found anything.

Not sure whether we should expect them to be like us either. Even other animals are quite different from us, and we aren't that far apart in the evolution tree. A completely different starting point in another planet would produce quite different beings.