Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Intelligent Civilizations Rarer than One in a Million
Scientific Computing ^ | Tue, 02/12/2013 - 7:13am

Posted on 03/22/2013 6:37:25 AM PDT by null and void

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last
To: Noamie

If the God of the Bible truly exists, it would make no sense if there is life on other planets.....I believe the entire universe, in ways mortal man could never understand, is all in place to support life on this one planet.


41 posted on 03/22/2013 7:52:49 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Sirius Lee
All the cool advanced civilizations use communicate via quantum entanglement. The coolest ones have the new iTangle - now with more cattle mutilation apps.

Precisely.

42 posted on 03/22/2013 7:54:34 AM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: null and void

What do they consider “Intelligent Civilizations”? Surely they know the one here on Earth flunks that test.


43 posted on 03/22/2013 8:03:45 AM PDT by Old Retired Army Guy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void

Intelligent life on other planets is not just a problem of distance, but of time.

Starting with distance, about the only way to get from our rather sparsely populated spur of a spiral arm to somewhere with some likely candidates for occupied planets, you need a spaceship that can travel at least 500 times the speed of light. Which means you can visit planets within 500 light years in just a year of transit time.

But here’s the other problem. The universe is about 13.5 billion years ago. Our solar system is only about one third of that, and any kind of life on Earth about one quarter of the life of the universe. Only about 200,000 years for the human species, something approaching intelligent life, and only 200 years of technological society.

So humanity has been able to communicate with someone not on our planet for about 1/67,500,000th of the life of the universe.

Now we need to make a wild guess of how long an intelligent technological species would last, before either a disaster happened that wiped it out, or it either de-evolved or evolved and died out. For an utterly wild guess, how about assuming a liberal lifespan of an intelligent species of 500,000 years?

This would mean maybe 24,000 cycles of intelligent species appearing and becoming extinct in the universe, of which we exist in just *one* of these cycles.

So the odds of any intelligent life being anywhere near enough to us to matter is pretty tiny. But there might be a way to change that.

If life doesn’t come to you, send life to lifeless planets and make it, not by scratch, but by giving it a jump start.

If natural selection is any hint, in a relatively few number of generations the bacteria, plants and animals on these worlds will become novel, adapting to their alien environment. And this can be augmented and accelerated considerably with, dare I say it, “intelligent design”.


44 posted on 03/22/2013 8:05:19 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Best WoT news at rantburg.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Noamie

What’s this “we’re alone” stuff. Does that mean you think the civilizations here on Earth are “Intelligent”?


45 posted on 03/22/2013 8:05:56 AM PDT by Old Retired Army Guy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: null and void

46 posted on 03/22/2013 8:13:03 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
If the God of the Bible truly exists, it would make no sense if there is life on other planets.....I believe the entire universe, in ways mortal man could never understand, is all in place to support life on this one planet.

You would limit God to one Bible and one planet?

Interesting.

47 posted on 03/22/2013 8:15:24 AM PDT by null and void (If the government is so worried about civil disturbance, why are they working so hard to disturb us?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: null and void

Is there some other Bible I should be aware of?


48 posted on 03/22/2013 8:16:13 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: SampleMan

I hear ya but ... I see no way to escape eventual world-wide communism and central control which would be fully in place before any such colonization. In mneantime ... we fight.


49 posted on 03/22/2013 8:17:28 AM PDT by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
Is there some reason OUR Bible, and it is ours made specifically for us by God Himself, must be the only Bible in the universe?

It is ours, custom made for our salvation, and only our salvation.

Any mention of other creations and other covenants in our Bible would serve no useful purpose, would only serve to confuse rather that illuminate.

The Bible makes no mention of an entire "New World" half a planet away from the Holy Land, why would it need to discuss life in other solar systems?

On a human scale such was totally irrelevant at the time of the Patriarchs, remained so for the Apostles, and still isn't of much relevance even today.

I'm pretty sure that when it becomes an issue, we'll get a second update.

50 posted on 03/22/2013 8:29:30 AM PDT by null and void (If the government is so worried about civil disturbance, why are they working so hard to disturb us?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: null and void

I suppose it’s possible, we’ll never know, but to me it seems why would God need more than one planet with life on it....I guess he would only know, but at least to me, it wouldn’t really make too much sense.


51 posted on 03/22/2013 8:31:19 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: SampleMan

I hear ya but ... I see no way to escape eventual world-wide communism and central control which would be fully in place before any such colonization. In mneantime ... we fight.


52 posted on 03/22/2013 8:34:05 AM PDT by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: null and void

A wild guess. But I can understand how they got the number. 1 million has 6 zeros.


53 posted on 03/22/2013 8:36:13 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Pi$$ed off yet?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Fair enough. It doesn’t make sense to me that the universe would be so vast and so lonely.

But we are not even small “g” gods, what makes sense to Him on such a scale is beyond our ken.


54 posted on 03/22/2013 8:37:42 AM PDT by null and void (If the government is so worried about civil disturbance, why are they working so hard to disturb us?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: null and void

Just consider all of the things that have to be exactly in the right place in order to sustain life on this planet...the distance from the Sun, the distance of the Moon. And who knows if things that are billions of light years away in some manner help to support life on this planet.


55 posted on 03/22/2013 8:39:26 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

If those “odds” intrigue you,
you should first watch the video, then read the book,

“Privileged Planet”.


56 posted on 03/22/2013 8:42:41 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

For example, a distant gamma ray burst can reset the ecosystem and literally slay the dragons that were in the way of the next step forward.


57 posted on 03/22/2013 8:43:15 AM PDT by null and void (If the government is so worried about civil disturbance, why are they working so hard to disturb us?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

I believe this is why the “scientists” are so desperate to find ET life. To “disprove” God.


58 posted on 03/22/2013 8:43:28 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: null and void
It doesn’t make sense to me that the universe would be so vast and so lonely.

The Solar system and the space around it is vast and lonely. Life on Earth is extremely rare if one uses an objective measure like a mass ratio.

59 posted on 03/22/2013 8:43:36 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: MrB

I agree. I makes for great science fiction, but that’s all it is.


60 posted on 03/22/2013 8:43:58 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson