h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

4 questions -
Are there other planets like earth?
Is there intellegent life on other planets?
Would they try and contact us?
If they could and want to why havent they done so already?

"Are there other planets like earth?"
Maybe! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655

"Is there intellegent life on other planets?"
Statistically there might be, but if there is it's not terribly likely to be that much like us.

"Would they try and contact us?"
Maybe. After all we've tried it, albeit as little packets of info put on deep space stuff on the off chance it gets picked up.

"If they could and want to why havent they done so already?"
The chances of being able to send a communication directly to us from an extra-solar star and have it get here within the timeframe of our technology being even vaguely compatible *and* it be in a form we can understand are infintesimally small. They might have done so several times without us even knowing.

the same series of questions was asked on a "global" televised link in the 70s with luminaries from all over the world connected - patric Moore was one of them, they all came up with the same answers too.
The last one was the they must have tried, but something happened.
it seems to me that we are very close to catastrophic disasters all the time - many of which we can do something about.
A fascinating idea to think that others could have faced the same situation.
Another interesting idea is that we are treading the same treadmill -

Scientists want us to live in a world they create - by putting measurements and principles behind everything - if you cant see it, hear it (or eat it), it dosent exist -
i would like to think i live in another world where, what if, is far more important.
The question we all need answers to is which world is the real one --

If visibility is everything and "what if" is unimportant you're doing science wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJkwtVAPjw4&feature=related

Ufos, yiarrrgh - must be a nutter?
Nick Cooke was the author of Janes commercial aircraft - this is his film - just take a little look -

There is actually one very good reason why there is no real goverment coverup about UFOs... governments are terrible at keeping secrets. Seriously.

That i can believe -mm, is that why we have diplomats?

I would certainly like to think so and should think that since it is pretty big out there, the chances are that there are other planets that would support earth-like life. And I should think that they have tried to contact us, or somebody else - or that they will at some point.

However, if they tried and the message passed by1 500 years ago, but have now bled their planet dry and died off, we wouldn't know.

On the other hand, if they are still just banging stones together, they won't get round to saying 'Hi' for some time yet, by which time we may well have bled ours dry.

Such a shame, but I suspect that we will be like (space) ships passing in the night.

PP

What if there is intelliget life on other planets ( I am sure there is )
but what if they started evolving say a million years before us.
We have only been flying about 100 years and look how far we have got, think how far forward we would be if we last another millon years, then that is how far they could be.

What if they never fight each other and have never had any need to build any weapons, and then they see us blowing each other to bits...

Would you visit us?

I think that perfectly illustrates the problem with how other potential intelligences are viewed... they are all creatures of extremes, with a single planet-wide culture of whatever that extreme is. I blame Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas.

Aliens, how about the idea that we are Aliens - perhaps Martians. it would explain a lot. (hehe)
Actualy i think we are far too lacking in imagination - we follow science blindly.
We like everything in neat boxes so we can feel comfortable. We even have a definition of what life is and what it requires - the idea that our definition could be quite wrong is abhorrent to many.
We need more scientists who can stand on their heads - who can see the world from another angle entirely -

manda, you have touched the sore spot. We´ll never know if there is anyone out there, we might only find out there once was someone. Light speed.
A signal from the sun closest to us (Proxima Centauri, and she has no planets) takes about four years to reach us - systems with planets are millions of years away.

But what if they can go hundreds time faster than light speed, they could be here in no time.

No way. Light speed is the limit. Einstein. Or, if you want the easy read, Hawking.

Light is not the limit.
Light speed IS the limit using the technology and knowledge that we have now.

scientists/experts KNEW that the skin would be ripped of your face if you went more than 30MPH when trains were first invented... but it does not.

scientists/experts KNEW that it was IMPOSSIBLE to go faster than the speed of Sound... but its not.

Einstein and Hawking are human... they could be wrong.

scientists/experts can only tell you what we can do with the technology and knowledge that we have now, who knows what we will be able to do in a thousand years or even 10 thousand years from now.

Um. Yeah.

Going faster than light is a hugely different thing to going more than 30mph or the speed of sound.

Besides which no 'expert' 'knew' it was 'impossible' to go faster than sound, they just feared it might be as bourne out by early tests.

Also there are time dilation issues to consider. Plus look at the forces exerted on a body when merely going faster than sound, how do you propose these beings which can go "hundreds of times faster than light speed" compensate for that?

Dreadful, re. time dilation: if you can find it, read "The Forever War" by (I think) Joe Haldeman. One of the best books I have.