If aliens do exist and that's a big if, I seriously doubt they are visiting the Earth or giving people an anal probe.
Seriously though, I really don't think we'll find evidence of alien life any time soon.
That's why these Congesscritters get paid the big bucks.
Especially since there is none.
I think that there certainly is, was or will be - but the problem is the:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
I, personally, believe that the fundamental problem is that only predators develop significant intelligence, because they really NEED it. This may be fundamental to life itself, regardless of it’s form, DNA, chemical basis, and so on. You can see evidence of this on our own planet - why have all the great civilizations developed between 30 and 50 degrees of the equator? Because those people faced more adversity. Neanderthals were likely to have been more physically capable than we are. Where are they now?
For predators such as ourselves, many have estimated that the time between developing radio to blowing the he** out of your planet may be as short as 100-500 years, which is, of course, the blink of any eye in cosmological terms.
An inkling of this theory can be found in the Bible itself, in the Adam and Eve story...”biting the apple” has it’s costs...
To assume there is more intelligent life out there sets a very low bar.
You are right.
Also, the distances for visiting are too great.
"Out there" has the exact same elements that are here on earth. The periodic chart works for all existence. The only changes to those elements would be heat, cold and rather large explosions.
Probably all that would be found would be, at best, some bacteria--or old records of Ethel Merman singing: "There's NO business like SHOW business." :o)
Even if we somehow had enough fuel, our lifetimes are too short to get there. Even stasis sleep wouldn't be viable.
The astronauts wouldn't get back to earth for a thousand light years.
Their gardens would sure need watering, wouldn't they?
Not so much...there are roughly 100 billion galaxies out there (give or take), With a million civilizations, that would would be one for every 100,000 galaxies, which is roughly the size of the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies of which our own Milky Way is a member. That would mean that the nearest civilization is, on average, 50 million light years away.
Good luck getting an answer when the exchange of greetings alone will take 100 million years...
Seriously though, I really don't think we'll find evidence of alien life any time soon.
Now on that you just might be wrong. The next generation of supertelescopes should be able to resolve the spectrographs of the atmospheres of Earth-sized exoplanets. If free oxygen is found in significant amounts, it's an indication (an indirect one, granted) of life, since free oxygen is highly reactive and can only remain in the atmosphere of a planet over geologic periods of time by being renewed, presumably by some sort of plant life.
Please congress, try and get a handle on what’s happening here on earth first! Not even earth, just the US.
“And what do they think about New York City?”
They probably think there’s no life on Earth.
For M.I.T. to even lift the lid of possibility this much probably means they already know something far more profound about the existance of life as we know it elsewhere in our solar system. For now, the truth has to be spoonfed to most the public.
Why in the universe would there be a congressional committee hearing on this?
He's a little long in the tooth, but Ralph Hall is a solid conservative. He used to be my congressman.
The only aliens dems care about are those who vote for them, ruling out their interest in any intelligent life.
you don’t think you’ll find evidence of alien life anytime soon?
have you checked the White House lately?