Science: Why life begins and ends on Earth

[Super Nova]

Futurist Ray Kurzweil has stated that either humans are on the leading edge of evolution or more advanced life forms are simply keeping silent around us, either which is possible. He also says that if there are advanced alien life forms they wouldn't need giant ships full of bodies to traverse great distances - they could watch and study us all they wish from a distance and never be detected.

I am starting to believe that we may a lone in this galaxy and could be the most advanced here. However I refuse to believe we are alone in this huge universe.

I suspect the laws of physics, distance and the limits to speed may prevent us ever meeting an advanced ET.

I think it was Boxy who said months ago... are we sure we want to meet them.... they may just conquer us or just take our resources because that is what we do. (paraphase)

[Mattus]

Who gives a fuck about aliens, we might have some higgs boson up in this bitch by Wednesday.

[Super Nova]

Who gives a fuck about aliens, we might have some higgs boson up in this bitch by Wednesday.

Well Matt, I give a fuck.

Like all thing phylosophy, one of the biggest question is “are we alone?”.

As we continue to understand the universe the big questions are:
- Where did we come from?
- Is there a purpose for our existence?
- Are we alone?
- For some, is there a god?
- What is the future?

Contemplating the chance of other beings as advanced or more advanced than we are is one of the big questions.

[Jovial Monk]

SN talks total nonsense:

I would argue that we are unique in the universe.

While life could form in other places in the universe, the chances of there being civilisations that have reached our standard of knowledge and engineering experitise will be very limited. Almost zero.

But you haven’t argued your belief in our uniqueness (as intelligent beings) you just stated it.

[Super Nova]

They are still finding planets. Now they can form around binary stars. Now every star has planets. The chance for a Goldielocks planet is growing.

I still contend we are the most advanced life form in this galaxy. The chance of one being more advanced lowers the more we search. They should be obvious and stand out like... like dogs balls.

The universe is looking increasingly crowded as scientists announced the first proof twin stars can host multiple planets – boosting their search for a planet that could support life.

"We're seeing more and more planets in more and more situations," Jerome Orosz, an astronomer at San Diego State University, said.

"We're almost to the point where you look at a star and say why doesn't this have a planet?"

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci ... z2513s2tXl

[AiA in Atlanta]

We could be the leading edge of intelligence ...

[annielaurie]

I think the universe, at 13.7 billion years, is too young to have spawned more than a few intelligent species in any one galaxy living at the same time.

There is the dimension of time. It's hard to get a grip on how long even one billion years is, a thousand million.

But our universe will keep expanding larger and larger and the galaxies will keep spreading farther and farther apart over many trillions of years. So the universe is really still in its infancy.

There are probably hundreds of millions of star systems with planets similar to ours, which could support carbon-based life, but the odds are against the existence of many intelligent advanced civilizations existing all at the same time.

It could be that ours is the only one right now, in this epoch. There may have been civilizations that came before us somewhere, but they are already extinct. And the distances between solar systems are so vast that we will never know about them.

As for the future, that is yet to come. We could spread throughout this galaxy in the next billion years or so.

But we will have become a variety of new species in order to adapt to new environments by then, and no longer human as we know ourselves, here today on our home planet.

[mellie]

Worst case scenario, we all evolve into looking something like one of these.


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qXdFN-bGEZI/T ... ip-001.jpg

Thanks, but i'll pin my hopes on there being intelligent life-form elsewhere, some place other than on earth.

[Jovial Monk]

Meteorites contain organic material sometimes.

Considering the size of the universe and the finite speed of light to make a pronouncement about other intelligent life is a nonsense. Whole alien civilisations might have formed and died and their galaxies so far away, if still existing we won’t hear of it for thousands of years!

[Rorschach]

Evolution eh?
One of my fave movies touched on that.