Are We Alone in the Universe?

NYT ^ | 11-20-13 | Paul Davies

[sickoflibs]

They will keep us docile by giving us free phones that can pull up porn websites.

Oh and social sites like facebook so we can spy on ourselves for them.

They will fatten us up with food stamps.

[stormer]

I’m Venus bound...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7_YNTQmtGg

[staytrue]

I think there is probably life around. It may even be intelligent like a salmader, or even a dog. But technology seems really hard, even on earth. And it seems life is really hard even on relatively friendly mars.

So I say 40 billion to one is not good enough odds for me.

[Covenantor]

Listen up people!

We have been placed on the Intergalactic Federation’s DO NOT CALL List.

We’ve been quarantined

They’re all tired of receiving unsolicited transmissions of Miley Cyrus twerking, Madonna and her snow cone bras, the Khardashians, Lady Gaga. They especially despise Rap.

Unless we stop it, they will send armies of Moose-shell biosynths to punish us. That would be the multi-segmented thorax decapod version with a more horrible voice than the original.

So cut it out. Save our chilrun.

[staytrue]

If you are trying to Warp space time, then a spheroid may be easier than a box.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

We could communicate with distant civilizations via radio. Low data rates and long message delay times, no doubt. The Milky Way, our “hood” is 100,000 light years across. If we try to communicate with a relatively nearby civilization, say 1000 light years distant, we could send a message today and would not expect a reply until 4013, or about the time between the present and the birth of Christ.

Of course, if you could travel near the speed of light, you could travel to this distant civilization in what for you would seem like a relatively (no pun intended) short time, but by the time you get back, the earth will be 2000 years older, and your mission will be the stuff of ancient legend, no one expecting to ever see you again.

[Moonman62]

Our moon is really large relative to the planet. It also was likely created by a very unusual collision. This is because the moon is a lot like the earth’s crust and has no iron core so it did not form by acreation. It also means our iron core is bigger than normal and the crust is thinner than normal as the core of the colliding body and earth’s core merged and the crust go blasted into orbit by the collision. This is important or else you get a small core and a thick crust like mars and eventually you get a dead planet.

Our crust is thin and the core is still active so we get outgassing and we get plate techtonics and carbon recycling.

We also get a nice magnetic field that conserves our atmosphere and protects us from harmful radiation.

[Moonman62]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis

[Hot Tabasco]

There’s a big sign just beyond Pluto that says “Warning, this solar system inhabited by liberals, stay away!”

[cripplecreek]

I personally don’t care for our definition of habitable.

I think of Mars as habitable in the sense that we’re technologically advanced enough to survive and even thrive there if only in domed habitats. In a few hundred years we may be technologically advanced enough to restart the nuclear furnace at the core of Mars and start rebuilding an atmosphere.

Humans are the most adaptable species ever to exist on the face of the planet. We can adapt to things slightly outside our required parameters. The technology of today and the future can greatly expand those parameters.

[jimmygrace]

Great discussion!
I don’t want to get bogged down on the “100 years” example that I gave. The universe is estimated to be 10 billion years old, so there should be a likelihood that there would be civilizations that are much older than ours. My point is that, ironically, the more potentially habitable planets that they find, the lesser the chance that they are actually inhabited because of the normalized distribution which would but us at the center of the technological advancement scale. As for those who mentioned that there may be a higher power that may not want to communicate with us except maybe selectively, I welcome you to the Christian faith!

[Graybeard58]

In spite of intensive research, scientists are still very much in the dark about the mechanism that transformed a nonliving chemical soup into a living cell. But without knowing the process that produced life......

Odd.

I know.

[dfwgator]

If a planet had life and was only 100 years more advanced than us, they would be able to contact us and communicate with us.

"Send More Chuck Berry."

[dfwgator]

This is a pretty special place, thousands of parameters being just right for us.

And we've got Beer.

[Graybeard58]

The obvious problem with that position is conceivably, that other, more advanced otherworldly civilizations might be so cosmically distant that they cannot communicate with us-- yet.

Perhaps, the "letter is in the mail" and just hasn't reached us yet. We've been sending such "letters", at least since the invention of radio.

[central_va]

The Fermi paradox can be asked in two ways. The first is, "Why are no aliens or their artifacts physically here?" If interstellar travel is possible, even the "slow" kind nearly within the reach of Earth technology, then it would only take from 5 million to 50 million years to colonize the galaxy.[15] This is a relatively small amount of time on a geological scale, let alone a cosmological one. Since there are many stars older than the Sun, or since intelligent life might have evolved earlier elsewhere, the question then becomes why the galaxy has not been colonized already. Even if colonization is impractical or undesirable to all alien civilizations, large-scale exploration of the galaxy is still possible; the means of exploration and theoretical probes involved are discussed extensively below. However, no signs of either colonization or exploration have been generally acknowledged.

[truth_seeker]

“Perhaps, the “letter is in the mail” and just hasn’t reached us yet. We’ve been sending such “letters”, at least since the invention of radio.”

“Since the invention of radio” is a mere tick of a second, on the grandfather clock of time.

[Count of Monte Fisto]

I’m sure there are space aliens out there but what the hell good are they? They aren’t cleaning up Fukushima or lowering the cost of gas or beaming the Democrats and GOPe into a black hole so they can go jump into a lake.

[onedoug]

This question is the ultimate example of navel gazing.

I disagree. Paul Davies is a very accomplished science writer (and physicist as PCW Davies). He points out that increasingly sophisticated telescoping power may soon let us look for tell-tale signs of even primitive biology in different atmospheres, within tens or hundreds of light years. Such discovery would be the clincher, at least enabling us in the certainty that we are not alone in God's universe.

[Graybeard58]

“Since the invention of radio” is a mere tick of a second, on the grandfather clock of time.

Nor did I intend to convey other wise, just that the letter has been sent. Other possible worlds may have sent their letters much sooner than we did and we may receive it any day now.