Green men and squid.

[Kitchen]

1 hour ago, gweilgi said:

Prove it.
?

Seriously, though: it may be a hallmark of intelligent life to instantly outcompete and exterminate other intelligent competition.  It is what Homo Sapiens did -- we were not the only species of thinking ape to evolve on this ball of mud, we are simply the last one left standing.

 

Is this not why astronomers are looking for planets in the so-called Goldilocks Zone?  With a search area as big as the observable universe, it makes sense to restrict ourselves to looking for planets (and evidence of life on those planets) which we know for a fact can support life.  And we keep finding them. 

 

Intelligence does not in itself require technology as proof.  A pre-Contact Plains tribesman or Neolithic Celtic farmer would have been no more and no less intelligent than the average person living today.  By the same token, I would not expect the average crew member of an alien spacecraft visiting Earth to be a towering genius in comparison with a representative sample of humanity (obviously, an active subscription to the instagram channel of the Kardashians would be instant disqualification).  Lack of suitable resources may impede or halt technological development, but would not stop the ability to think.  

Hmmm .... hmmm ... so you want me to prove that we are alone even though you can't prove we are not ... hmmm ...

Just because we keep on finding planets in the goldilocks zone does not mean intelligent life exist on them.  It could be that just life exist and nothing more.  

Insofar as your last paragraph, sure.  My point being that if one did not have the resources, they would never be able to advance that far, let alone actually get off their planet.  

[RDB]

2 hours ago, Fuzz said:

Assuming that any alien life form has the same limitations as humans.

Even if they are super inteligent, they still face the same laws of physics. Light takes 2.5 million years to reach us from Andromeda, the nearest gallaxy... 4 years even from the nearest star.   So unless they (or we) invent massively faster than light travel, we’re not meeting any time soon.

[Jimmy_jack]

Yes. There is life out there. 

[Fuzz]

35 minutes ago, RDB said:

Even if they are super inteligent, they still face the same laws of physics. Light takes 2.5 million years to reach us from Andromeda, the nearest gallaxy... 4 years even from the nearest star.   So unless they (or we) invent massively faster than light travel, we’re not meeting any time soon.

They may not need to worry about the laws of physics if they do not have corporeal bodies.

[joeypots]

10 hours ago, HDGSN said:

Yes, I believe there is intelligent life out there somewhere in this universe, but, of course, I do not deny there could be more than one universe. There are 70 sextillion stars in the *observable* universe.  That is 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars.

I definitely dig stuff on the Kardashev Scale, Fermi Paradox and all of that.

 

54 minutes ago, RDB said:

Even if they are super inteligent, they still face the same laws of physics. Light takes 2.5 million years to reach us from Andromeda, the nearest gallaxy... 4 years even from the nearest star.   So unless they (or we) invent massively faster than light travel, we’re not meeting any time soon.

A bit more perspective. To get to the star closest to our sun, Proxima Centauri, in a ship that travels at a million miles an hour will take something like 3000 years. 

[IanMcLean68]

To paraphrase the late great comedian George Carlin, if earth is anything to go by and what us humans have done to it, if there really is a god, then he/she/it should be sacked, because these are not the results that belong on the resume of a supreme being. It looks more like the work of an office clerk with a bad attitude.

So I'm hoping, truly hoping there is something out there!

[hunterbeav]

I captured this photo at sunset in my backyard...not sure but looks like an alien to me...and really pisses me off that he's got a bigger weiner then me....wtf

What do you think...

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[Puros Y Vino]

Interesting topic. As a kid growing up watching/reading Sci-Fi I was always open to the possibility that intelligent life exists outside of our lonely sphere. I had not seen anything close to being a UFO...until last summer.  It was mid June I was smoking in my backyard looking up at the sky.  A great summer day with a few clouds.  A small white light caught my eye up in the sky.  At first I thought it was a plane flying head first in my direction.  So the fuselage would look like a sphere.  But this white dot was moving South to North across the sky.  And it would stop at certain points and it's flashing pattern would change.  From 1 blip / 2 blip to something along the lines of 1 blip / pause / 3 blips / pause 2 blips / then repeat.  I got out of my chair and tried to take a photo or video. It was too small for me to capture.  I noticed my neighbour was chilling in his backyard with his dog.  So I told him to look and give me his thoughts. He's a nuclear engineer, so I would be interested in his take.  He took a look.  Went to his phone and called up some apps that show if any rocket launches were planned and where satellites were positioned. Nothing was planned in that part of the sky, though there was a Space X launch a few hours earlier.

This object did pass in front of a few small cloud patterns so it was definitely flying low.  We kept looking and then it disappeared.  I went back to my lounger to smoke, my neighbour back to his drink and his dog.  About 5 minutes later it reappears almost in the same part of the sky. Same South to North travel.  Bright white metallic body is as best as I could describe it. And it was varying between different patterns.  From our vantage point, it seemed to then head NE and the ball became smaller.  My neighbour and I chatted a bit thinking damn. "this could be a UFO for real".  A few minutes later we gaze up again. No white ball. BUT.  In the space where it had been, we now saw the contrail of something moving very fast towards that location.  Probably an F-18 scrambled to take a look.  And from where we were looking, there is an Air Force base with F-18's up in that northern area of Ontario.  So, it was probably pulling its' full Mach 1.8 (IIRC) to take a look.  That jet, flying to that location validated my assertion. That was a UFO.  My neighbour, though skeptical, had agreed.  It was an interesting interlude to a quiet Sunday afternoon.  With the activity in the skies gone, I invited my neighbour over for a cigar.  Where we continued our discussion over some fine Cubans and some Cognac.      I have the footage on my crappy cellphone, but the object maybe takes up a few pixels at best. It might as well be dust on the lens.   

 

[hunterbeav]

Interesting topic. As a kid growing up watching/reading Sci-Fi I was always open to the possibility that intelligent life exists outside of our lonely sphere. I had not seen anything close to being a UFO...until last summer.  It was mid June I was smoking in my backyard looking up at the sky.  A great summer day with a few clouds.  A small white light caught my eye up in the sky.  At first I thought it was a plane flying head first in my direction.  So the fuselage would look like a sphere.  But this white dot was moving South to North across the sky.  And it would stop at certain points and it's flashing pattern would change.  From 1 blip / 2 blip to something along the lines of 1 blip / pause / 3 blips / pause 2 blips / then repeat.  I got out of my chair and tried to take a photo or video. It was too small for me to capture.  I noticed my neighbour was chilling in his backyard with his dog.  So I told him to look and give me his thoughts. He's a nuclear engineer, so I would be interested in his take.  He took a look.  Went to his phone and called up some apps that show if any rocket launches were planned and where satellites were positioned. Nothing was planned in that part of the sky, though there was a Space X launch a few hours earlier.
This object did pass in front of a few small cloud patterns so it was definitely flying low.  We kept looking and then it disappeared.  I went back to my lounger to smoke, my neighbour back to his drink and his dog.  About 5 minutes later it reappears almost in the same part of the sky. Same South to North travel.  Bright white metallic body is as best as I could describe it. And it was varying between different patterns.  From our vantage point, it seemed to then head NE and the ball became smaller.  My neighbour and I chatted a bit thinking damn. "this could be a UFO for real".  A few minutes later we gaze up again. No white ball. BUT.  In the space where it had been, we now saw the contrail of something moving very fast towards that location.  Probably an F-18 scrambled to take a look.  And from where we were looking, there is an Air Force base with F-18's up in that northern area of Ontario.  So, it was probably pulling its' full Mach 1.8 (IIRC) to take a look.  That jet, flying to that location validated my assertion. That was a UFO.  My neighbour, though skeptical, had agreed.  It was an interesting interlude to a quiet Sunday afternoon.  With the activity in the skies gone, I invited my neighbour over for a cigar.  Where we continued our discussion over some fine Cubans and some Cognac.      I have the footage on my crappy cellphone, but the object maybe takes up a few pixels at best. It might as well be dust on the lens.   
 

That's a great story....can you post the video you have...

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[DBNInc]

If there is, it’s unlikely we’ll ever meet them.  Space is a hostile place to travel through.  The distances we’d have to cover are mind blowing, and growing all the time.  The resources required to maintain life on such a journey would be insane.  I’m not particularly religious, but it almost seems to me that the universe is designed in such a way as to permanently prevent inhabitants from different areas from meeting.  Kind of like Petri dishes.

[dominattorney]

14 hours ago, Corylax18 said:

Ive never had a run in with any extraterrestrials myself. But, Mathematically speaking, there is ZERO chance earth is unique within the the universe. The universe may just be too big for us to find whatever else is out there. 

This.  Prez's question also begs a tighter definition of "intelligent" life.  If intelligence is scaled down to the microbial level, it is highly likely that it exists elsewhere in the universe.  Before anyone scoffs at the idea of microbial life being intelligent, recall that bacterial strains have developed the ability to resist antibiotics through genetic alternation.

[gweilgi]

5 hours ago, Kitchen said:

Hmmm .... hmmm ... so you want me to prove that we are alone even though you can't prove we are not ... hmmm ...

Actually, I was asking for proof of intelligent life on this planet...

?

 

 

5 hours ago, Kitchen said:

Just because we keep on finding planets in the goldilocks zone does not mean intelligent life exist on them.  It could be that just life exist and nothing more.  

Insofar as your last paragraph, sure.  My point being that if one did not have the resources, they would never be able to advance that far, let alone actually get off their planet.  

Look at the time spans we are talking about here.  Humanity as a species is a couple of hundred thousand years old, give or take.  That's nothing in the overall history of life on Earth.  The beginnings of human civilisation with buildings, sharing of resources, specialisation of labour, writing and all the other essential attributes is less than 10,000 years old.  "High" civilisation hallmarked by a sophisticated application of technology and manipulation of nature and its laws is only a few centuries old -- precise navigation between continents has been possible for only around 300 years, remote communication has been around for only 150 years, the exploration of space itself began only 60 years ago.  

So my argument would be that even if intelligent life does exist elsewhere, it is entirely possible for it to develop civilisations, conquer space and evolve itself out of existence on multiple planets without us being any the wiser because until the past few decades -- our own lifetime -- we simply did not have the tools to look or the knowledge to recognise evidence of alien life if we fell over it.  When searching for extraterrestrial life, the tyranny of time and distance is extreme....

[BrightonCorgi]

17 hours ago, FatherOfPugs said:

My belief on this can be summed up in 1 Bible verse: Genesis 1:27 "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

You may disagree and that's perfectly fine. No need to give me every reason you think I'm wrong.

God may have also done that in other universes & galaxies too?  How are we to know?  I don't feel a strict interpretation of the Bible excludes other life forms in the universe.  

[Stump89]

Hard to imagine that there isn't life out there.  I remember being about 9 years old seeing something I'll never forget.  I saw my old man staring out our back porch around 9 at night. There was a long line of white lights longer than the house approaching. Being at night in the middle of nowhere in central Pennsylvania, he found that to be quite odd. We watched as the lights came directly at where we were standing, he said we needed to get out of the house in case this thing was going to crash. The whole family and dog ran outside as we watched this 'thing' fly directly over where we were. It was dead silent the entire time we watched this.  One of the weirdest experiences in my life, and I'll never forget the look on my dad's face.  Being a retired federal government contractor and USAF vet, he still can't figure out what it could possibly have been to this day.  Camp David, the Pentagon, and lots of major airports are fairly close so there's the possibility it was just some kind of plane/glider or whatever. But it sure as hell was weird lol.  

[Colt45]

Obviously fact.....

[Ken Gargett]

9 hours ago, IanMcLean68 said:

To paraphrase the late great comedian George Carlin, if earth is anything to go by and what us humans have done to it, if there really is a god, then he/she/it should be sacked, because these are not the results that belong on the resume of a supreme being. It looks more like the work of an office clerk with a bad attitude.

So I'm hoping, truly hoping there is something out there!

hard to believe that there isn't. 

have to love carlin. given that the knobs covering this planet cannot agree on just what/which god etc etc, we have here, and even if the/a god exists, the fact that they created the kardashians hardly shrieks competence, you'd have to hope that they did better elsewhere. perhaps we were a trial run? perhaps carlin was right and god did get sacked. would have been nice if the new bloke had come back and cleaned up the mess the first one left. 

given that the so-called intelligent life on this planet is quickly dooming it to extinction, really hard to believe that there isn't anything smarter out there. 

[poorman]

Time and distance always comes up when this is discussed. 

An aliens life span could be 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, 100,000,000 years or more, who knows. 

So travelling long time spans might not be a problem for them. 

[Justin]

I heard this story on the radio earlier this week. Turns out it’s fake which is good news for any of you that think you were abducted and probed in the past!

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/texas-alien-anal-probe/

[Akela3rd]

Clearly you chose to not read the second and third sentences in my post. That's what I believe. If you differ, fine. We agree that we disagree.

He wasn't actually disagreeing with you, merely extrapolating on your comment. Your views, as you quite rightly state, are your own and more power to you for that. That there may be another dog loving, cigar smoking, Bible reading entity out there having the very same discourse is not provable but could, just could, be a reality. No-one knows, but it's interesting to ponder.

Sent from my ActionMan walkie-talkie

[dvickery]

[Ken Gargett]

 

 

 

[amberleaf]

I think Terry Bisson's famous short story best explains our relationship with extra terrestrials:

Quote

"They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."

"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"

"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."

"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."

"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."

"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they're made out of meat."

"Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."

"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?"

"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."

"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."

"No brain?"

"Oh, there's a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat! That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"So ... what does the thinking?"

"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."

"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal!  Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"

"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."

"Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."

"Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?"

"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."

"We're supposed to talk to meat."

"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.' That sort of thing."

"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"
"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."

"I thought you just told me they used radio."

"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."

"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"

"Officially or unofficially?"

"Both."

"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."

"I was hoping you would say that."

"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"

"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say? 'Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"

"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."

"So we just pretend there's no one home in the Universe."

"That's it."

"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You're sure they won't remember?"

"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."

"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."

"And we marked the entire sector unoccupied."

"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"

"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."

"They always come around."

"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone ..."

 

[GrouchoMarx]

10 minutes with my EX would convince anyone. ?

[Fuzz]

* They talk by flapping their meat at each other. *

No, no, Fuzz. This is a family forum....

 

[hunterbeav]

Omg.... We have a fleshy headed mutant in the forbidden zone

 

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