Maybe we are alone in the universe

[BigP]

I am with Skippy. To think we are IT in the universe (and there could be an infinite number of universes out there) is extremely arrogant and typical of what we are.

Why haven't they contacted us? Why would they want to?

The technology required to span such vast distances may never be available to us

[Bobby]

I don't believe that life only started here on Earth.
Microbes may have colonised the whole universe.
We may find microbes on Mars very soon.
( but they may have come from Earth)

The question is -
is there any intelligent life in the universe apart from humans?
By intelligent - I mean smart enough to communicate by radio etc.

[skippy]

I don't believe that life only started here on Earth.
Microbes may have colonised the whole universe.
We may find microbes on Mars very soon.
( but they may have come from Earth)

The question is -
is there any intelligent life in the universe apart from humans?
By intelligent - I mean smart enough to communicate by radio etc.

It’s an interesting question,bobby.
Given humans have only had the “smarts” to communicate via radio for the past hundred years or so ourselves does that mean we were not “ smart “ until then?
Our technology “smarts” are a mere blip of our existence on Earth.
Do we measure intelligence by our own criteria? Because other beings may measure it by very different ways.

[Bobby]

I don't believe that life only started here on Earth.
Microbes may have colonised the whole universe.
We may find microbes on Mars very soon.
( but they may have come from Earth)

The question is -
is there any intelligent life in the universe apart from humans?
By intelligent - I mean smart enough to communicate by radio etc.

It’s an interesting question,bobby.
Given humans have only had the “smarts” to communicate via radio for the past hundred years or so ourselves does that mean we were not “ smart “ until then?
Our technology “smarts” are a mere blip of our existence on Earth.
Do we measure intelligence by our own criteria? Because other beings may measure it by very different ways.

Radio progress is just one way to measure intelligence.
Also - if there are any intelligent beings within 100 light years from here then
we're only going to find out about it by radio signals.
Alpha Centauri is only 4 light years away.
Anyone living on a planet near there could send back a reply
and we'd get it 8 years after sending our signal.

As you said 100 years is brief.
The Universe is over 13 billion years old.
The Earth is only around 4.5 billion years old.
It's possible that an alien civilisation sent out signals 13 - 4.5 = 8.8 billion years ago
and they all died out 1,000 years later.
Such a signal would be lost in time.
The possibility of 2 civilisations being alive at the same time
and able to communicate is remote.
We might be the only civilisation alive right now in the universe &
millions of other civilisations could have come and gone in the distant past.
Even if they did sent out signals they might be too weak to pick up even
with the largest radio telescopes.

[skippy]

Ahhh bobby, au contaire

The possibility of 2 civilisations being alive at the same time
and able to communicate is remote

Based on recent exoplanet discoveries, Frank and Sullivan assume that one-fifth of all stars have habitable planets in orbit around them. This leads them to conclude that there should be other advanced technological civilization out there, unless the chance for developing such a civilization on a habitable planet in the observable universe is less than 1 in 1024 (a 1 with 24 zeros!). For our own Milky Way galaxy, the odds of being the only technologically advanced civilization are 1 in 60 billion. Thus, it’s very likely that other intelligent, technologically advanced species evolved before us. Even if only one in every million stars hosts a technologically advanced species today, that would still yield a total of about 300,000 such civilizations in the whole galaxy
Read more at https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-plane ... FUBz18H.99.

[Bobby]

But you're forgetting that civilisations may have existed but we'll never know about it.
Radio was invented in 1895.
Remember it was only 50 years later that we had atomic bombs &
15 years after that, that we had enough of them to destroy the whole planet.
That gives about a 65 year tiny window before civilisations can be lost by their own stupidity.
65 years is such a tiny window compared to over 8 billion years. ( as per above )
We're only here by pure luck that some idiot didn't press one button.

[skippy]

But you're forgetting that civilisations may have existed but we'll never know about it.

Am I ?
Where did I say that?
In fact I think it is more likely than not many civilisations have existed and are now extinct.
I was pointing out to you that statistics suggest not only have they existed in the past but it is statistically
probable by 60 billion to one that we are not alone right now.

[boxy]

This would actually be good news for us... alien species aren't any more likely to be altruistic beings than we are. They'd likely fuck us up big time, if we were in their way, and it didn't cost them anything.

[Super Nova]

I think in all probability we are not the only life but we maybe the only life that has developed technology to communicate. Think about it, we only discovered and developed an exploitable understanding of the electromagnetism just over 100 or so years ago. Its not a given an intelligent species will develop the tech we have.

[BigP]

I think in all probability we are not the only life but we maybe the only life that has developed technology to communicate. Think about it, we only discovered and developed an exploitable understanding of the electromagnetism just over 100 or so years ago. Its not a given an intelligent species will develop the tech we have.

The distances are so great electromagnetism is not a good enough medium to communicate ,