Do you think intellegent aliens exist?if yes would they have already found us?

[Xanikk999]

I do. But then comes a problem.

If these aliens are as intellegent as us then wouldnt they be so advanced by now that they have colonized the entire galaxy and contacted us?

My reasoning for this is based on if they evolved millions of years ago into intellegent life equal to human intellegence. Because if civilization evolved millions of years ago for aliens then their technology would be so advanced that if galactic colonization was possible they would already have the technology to do it.

What do you think?

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

I've heard of the argument before that if there were intelligent aliens, we would have heard from them by now. This is known as Fermi's Paradox - we've been listening to radio waves from the galaxy long enough that we should have heard from any intelligent life in our galaxy, if it exists.

That doesn't apply to intelligent life outside this galaxy of course, but it is doubtful we could contact them.

 

[Tycoon101]

I believe that there are other life forms, but they are not as advanced as humans. We are chosen by God, aren't we?

 

[Irish Caesar]

If these aliens are as intellegent as us then wouldnt they be so advanced by now that they have colonized the entire galaxy and contacted us?

If they are as advanced as us, and we haven't found them, ...

Do you see where I'm going with this?

I do see what you're trying to say, I think...

I haven't thought at all about it, but if any other life form has picked up our radio stations, it'll take years for them to return the "hello"... possibly not until we're all (except El Mac, of course) dead.

 

[Taliesin]

Well, it seems reasonable to expect that a highly advanced alien civilisation might adopt an ethical principle of avoiding contact with primitive races, and there would be a pretty narrow window of time, relatively speaking, between the development of the ability to contact us and the development of that principle. So in itself the failure of any aliens to contact us isn't great evidence that they don't exist. It's also possible that there is no way to achieve FTL travel, in which case we might just never meet alien species.

I want to believe that they do exist, because it would be just so mind-shatteringly cool to meet them. And it certainly seems unlikely that life would begin only once in the entire Galaxy. But I have to remain agnostic on the question-- I have no idea, and won't know if they exist unless we meet them.

 

[Tycoon101]

(except El Mac, of course)QUOTE]

Who IS El Mac?

 

[Xanikk999]

Well, it seems reasonable to expect that a highly advanced alien civilisation might adopt an ethical principle of avoiding contact with primitive races, and there would be a pretty narrow window of time, relatively speaking, between the development of the ability to contact us and the development of that principle. So in itself the failure of any aliens to contact us isn't great evidence that they don't exist. It's also possible that there is no way to achieve FTL travel, in which case we might just never meet alien species.

I want to believe that they do exist, because it would be just so mind-shatteringly cool to meet them. And it certainly seems unlikely that life would begin only once in the entire Galaxy. But I have to remain agnostic on the question-- I have no idea, and won't know if they exist unless we meet them.

But even if FTL isnt possible it should be possible to colonize the galaxy at an extremely slow pace. Even if you cant mantain contact with your home world and it wouldnt serve any purpose it would still be possible.

 

[Godwynn]

(except El Mac, of course)QUOTE]

Who IS El Mac?

El Machinae, a user on these forums.

I think we might be the ones doing the discovering of other alien species.

 

[ForNoOne]

With all that goes on in our word... the violence, environmental destruction, greed, and other flaws in human nature... if you were a space faring alien race would you want to contact us? We still need time to grow, develop and mature as a species.

 

[Irish Caesar]

If you didn't live on this planet, you wouldn't know about such problems on ours.

 

[bhsup]

Do I think intelligent aliens exist? Absolutely! It is the height of human arrogance to presume that among all the universe, God chose only this one little ball of mud called Earth to populate with intelligent life.

Have they already found us? I very seriously doubt it.

 

[Caprice]

I see no reason for life to not exist outside the Earth's sphere. I also see no reason to assume that it is impossible for such life to become sentient, but I've got to assume that intelligence like ours is more unlikely than simple life. I mean, out of however many millions of life forms on Earth, only one is sufficiently developed to have discovered radio, so I have to guess there is a really limited number of creatures out there that can manage that.

So I have voted yes on the poll. I am not interpreting "advanced or more advanced" to indicate technological sophistication, instead, biological (like our brains).

So I've established that, just because there might be intelligent life out there, that doesn't immediately mean that they would have ever discovered the level of technology required to send radio transmissions.

But, if they had, and were reasonably close (not sure how to define "close" in outer-space distances LOL), I do believe we would be able to detect them, but amidst the myriad of cosmic radation background noise/static, there is no reason for us to assume that a transmission as weak as our media signals would even be able to be detected so far away from it's source. We can't say for sure because we've never gotten to another star system and listened to home to find out if we can hear ourselves that far away.

Clear as mud?

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

I see no reason for life to not exist outside the Earth's sphere. I also see no reason to assume that it is impossible for such life to become sentient, but I've got to assume that intelligence like ours is more unlikely than simple life.

So I have voted yes on the poll. I am not interpreting "advanced or more advanced" to indicate technological sophistication, instead, biological (like our brains).

That makes sense, given that it took 100,000 years between our brains reaching their modern sophistication and our ability to send radio signals, which we have only been doing for 80-odd years.

 

[ForNoOne]

If you didn't live on this planet, you wouldn't know about such problems on ours.

Perhaps... although I like to think that space faring aliens are not as dumb as they are in the 2005 version of War of the Worlds. If I were in their place I would investigate before making contact (or starting an invasion). Plus, an alien race traveling nearby could pick up our radio and television signals.

 

[bhsup]

If you didn't live on this planet, you wouldn't know about such problems on ours.

Then how do you explain Klaatu and his giant death Robot, Gort?? Huh? Huh?

 

[Smellincoffee]

If there is life out there, who's to say it's remotely like us? And if it's nothing like us, would it even recognize us as fellow intelligent lifeforms? Would we recognize an "intelligent" lifeform if it was vastly different from us?

 

[Caprice]

If there is life out there, who's to say it's remotely like us? And if it's nothing like us, would it even recognize us as fellow intelligent lifeforms? Would we recognize an "intelligent" lifeform if it was vastly different from us?

This is a reasonable curiosity, my coffee smelling friend.

 

[ForNoOne]

If there is life out there, who's to say it's remotely like us? And if it's nothing like us, would it even recognize us as fellow intelligent lifeforms? Would we recognize an "intelligent" lifeform if it was vastly different from us?

A good point.

Are we even the most intelligent species on our own planet?

Watch out for dolphins and mice!

 

[Bluemofia]

Does it make sense that in a fertile field, only one shaft of wheat shall grow?

No, that's why intelligent life exists out there.

Ok. The universe has about 100 billion galaxies at least.

And in each one, they have on average, 100 billion stars.

Now do the math. 10 septillion stars. Now assuming that each one has about 5 planets on average, that's 50 septillion planets.

The probability of there being no intelligent life out there, is the same probability of you getting killed 2 seconds from now by an antique Revolutionary war musket fired by a guy named Franz Hernando II of Toledo, who is wearing a purple shirt, and a tie that says "kick me" on it.

In otherwords, there are intelligent aliens out there.

 

[kingjoshi]

If there is life out there, who's to say it's remotely like us?

How similar is simliar? Well, we don't have a large sample of life to go by (1 planet). We're water based and another life can be amonia based or something else we haven't seen. No reason to assume primate like form since we know dolphins and whales have good intelligence.

And if it's nothing like us, would it even recognize us as fellow intelligent lifeforms?

Humans that study intelligence recognize the intelligence in ants. We recognize the variety of intellgiences and that species evolved given environmental pressures and that intelligent like behavior must take that into consideration.

Even if an intelligent alien species viewed us with no greater thought than most humans think of ants or cockroaches, we'll be fine. Assuming the first scout mission isn't completely militaristic that decides to wipe us off the planet to make room for them. One would assume that a species that has travelled that far would have some level of curiosity and scientists that understand the complexities of intelligence, better then their average fellow.

Would we recognize an "intelligent" lifeform if it was vastly different from us?

Yes.