A Conversation for Ask h2g2

ALIENS

Post 1

scrapy1(why not come to my cocktail bar at A2195364)

do u believe that there is aliens on other planets? plz leave ur views on this subject


ALIENS

Post 2

Gnomon - time to move on

I believe there are aliens on planets in other solar systems, and I also believe that they have never visited the earth.


ALIENS

Post 3

IctoanAWEWawi

I think there is alien life on other planets. But I don't feel any need to believe in it. The balance of probabilities in my mind suggests there may well be. They may well be unintelligent.
Alien life may be of a completely different form to us and thus unrecognisable. It may have visited earth but we didn't recognise it. Not necessarily in little flying saucers.
One of the interesting things I have learned recently is that, taking earth as a standard, which is all we can do until we find life elsewhere, is that the average life of a species is about 4 million years. We, as species Homo Sapiens, are nowhere near that, just something over 1000,000 years. We are in the very early days of our species. Hands up who thinks humans will make the 4 million years? Hmm?
If the universe is generally thought to be around 13.5 Billions years old (although no-one knows for sure) then our planet has been around since fairly early on. Both universe and earth have a lot of time left.
Our existance now depends on many bits of fortuitous luck. For example the 5 mass extinction events, any one of which if it had been of different magnitude, different timing or just not have happened would almost certainly mean we were not here now doing what we are doing. In fact no intelligent life might have arisen.
Then there is the current unusually extended interglacial period, which happens to coincide with the existence on the plane tof a great ape species evolutionary capable of taking advantage of it and developing us. Again, if it was a shorter period, like most interglacials are, then we almost certainly wouldn;t be here.
No-one is yet quite sure why we have the brains and intelligence we do. It certainly isn;t required for a species to be successful.
So on the hwole, I think there probably is other life out there, but the chances of it being intelligent, or if it is intelligent then lasting for long, is small. I also think there is an evens chance we are the first intelligent life to come as far as we have. After all, out of the billions of different species to have arisen on this planet, only one, and only now, is technologically advanced.
Which is not to say we are special, just lucky!
Just my 2 penneth!


ALIENS

Post 4

scrapy1(why not come to my cocktail bar at A2195364)

thank you for ur replies, i realy appreciate finding out what other peoples views are on the subject. i believe there are intelligent life forms in outer space however people always have the stigma of little green men. which i dont believe if aliens did come down to earth they are not going to be noticeable are they? they would take form of humans,animals and even plants. i dont see why humans should be arrogant and think they are the only intelligent beings in the solar system.


ALIENS

Post 5

Gnomon - time to move on

It is conceivable that there was intelligent life on Earth at some stage in the past. Although most dinosaurs had tiny brains, it is possible that there were big-brained ones which left no fossil record. Even if such a species evolved to fully intelligent state and built a civilisation, I doubt there would be any trace of it now. Unless they went to the moon!


ALIENS

Post 6

scrapy1(why not come to my cocktail bar at A2195364)

its like creatures under the sea that divers are now finding they are totally different to other creatures whose to say they are not some form of aliens??


ALIENS

Post 7

IctoanAWEWawi

Gnomon true enough, although it is brain capacity to body weight ratio that seems the determinant factor in intelligence, although not sure why.

An intelligent species could have arisen in the past but for some reason not attained what we recognise as technological advancement for many diverse reasons.

And who knows, if we ever decipher the language of whales or elephants we may discover them having long and meaningful philosophical discussions. We still have no clue as to what they are on about when they communicate.


ALIENS

Post 8

Gnomon - time to move on

I've a feeling the whale's song may mean "This is my ocean".


ALIENS

Post 9

pdante'

My mate bought one of those singing whales cds .Turned out to be a pirate recording made by a bunch of cheeky dolphins....(with thanks to Linda Smith)smiley - laughsmiley - run


ALIENS

Post 10

IctoanAWEWawi

with a sub text of
"b*gger off and leave me alone"?


ALIENS

Post 11

pdante'

smiley - tongueoutsmiley - run


ALIENS

Post 12

scrapy1(why not come to my cocktail bar at A2195364)

what about area51 do u think that was true or some american government cover up fro what the americans where actually doing?


ALIENS

Post 13

Northern Boy (lost somewhere in the great rhubarb triangle) <master of Freudian typos> Man or Badger?

My feeling on Area 51 has to be that if you look at the general ability of governments at keeping things quiet the idea that they could constuct and maintain a massive cover up seem unlikely.

I'm afraid the truth (in my opinion and not wishing to dispute any one elses opinion) is that area 51 is just a testing base for new aircraft as they say it is.


But then again i may be wrong and the general government ineptitude may all be some grand cover up.smiley - winkeye


ALIENS

Post 14

IctoanAWEWawi

well area51 exists, it is their top secret (or was!) development complex. Things like thge SR51 and other stealth technologies were developed there. And there was/is serious devlopment of disc shaped craft as well as many other oddidities of aeronautical design going on, quite possible explaining the sightings in that area. They may even have had people from Los Angeles there which would have explained the Alien references smiley - winkeye


ALIENS

Post 15

scrapy1(why not come to my cocktail bar at A2195364)

WHAT ARE UR OPINIONS ON THE ROSWELL CONSPIRACY? DO U THINK THAT ROSWELL EXISTED?

PERSONALLY I THINK ROSWELL WAS A BIG JOKE BY THE AMERICAN GOVERMENT TRYING TO BE THE BIG GUYS IN THE WORLD BY HAVING THE FIRST SO CALLED ALIEN. IF U LOOK AT THE FOOTAGE VERY CLOSELY U CAN SEE THAT IT IS MADE OF RUBBER AND ALSO HAS A ZIP LOL. DO U HONESTLY THINK ALIENS HAVE ZIPS ON THERE SUITS


ALIENS

Post 16

IctoanAWEWawi

I think you should stop shouting!

Roswell, well obviously Roswell exists, you can find it on most maps of the area smiley - winkeye
If you mean did an alien craft really crash there and did they find aliens, well, no, I don't but as an exercise in claim, counter-claim and the propogation of disinformation it is quite a good study. Whilst people spend their time trying to prove it they aren;t looking at what is really going on. So a useful event for USAF in many ways.

As for zips, why shouldn't they? It's a fairly basic but very neat solution to a basic problem. Similarly I would not be surprised if aliens existed of a comparable level of technology to find they used buttons, something like velcro or laces to fasten things. Sure they could have micro fusion powered magnetic fastenings. But why bother if a zip does the job? In our societies there have been numerous occasions when a particular invention has been made by two or more people without knowledge of each other. so why not elsewhere in the universe?


ALIENS

Post 17

scrapy1(why not come to my cocktail bar at A2195364)

do u think that alien technology is involved in our own technology today?? ie over the last 20 years look at the different types of pcs and how they have progressed in a short time


ALIENS

Post 18

~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum


>> ..from Gnomon: I've a feeling the whale's song may mean "This is my ocean". <<

The Beach Boys wasn't it...?


smiley - cheers
~jwf~


ALIENS

Post 19

Fathom


"do u think that alien technology is involved in our own technology today?? ie over the last 20 years look at the different types of pcs and how they have progressed in a short time"

No. I think the clue is in the word "progressed". If we had adopted alien technology there would have been a huge (quantum?) leap in computing power, not a steady - albeit rapid - progression. Unless the aliens were cr*p a t computing in the first place.

F


ALIENS

Post 20

only asking

I think you'll find the transistor was the greatest leap in the past fifty or so years. It was this piece of technology that lead to great advances in the electronic age.smiley - run

From there, it was all just trend and advancement, like a pop idol sensation or fad, once the initial spark happens, the rest is just logic or following in a big way.smiley - cool


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