Are humans alone in the universe?

Do you think we are the only intelligence in the Universe? Is there REALLY a Deity, aliens, spiritual forces or something else impersonating them...hiding in some corner of the Universe?

There are some microscopic aliens hiding in your drawer. You need to look closely between the pens and the staples... they usually impersonate themselves as rules or erasers, but also rarely as card holders.

If you are human and alone and wave a Confederate and a Nazi flag are educated people bothered?

Yes, and I have been touched by His Noodly Appendage

If we are indeed not alone in the universe, how long before the nazi types start switching the use of the word foreigner from outside their country to outside their solar system?

As Eric Idle sang in 'the meaning of life'

"Lets hope there's intelligent life out in space as there's bugger all down here on earth"...

Any intelligent life out there, flying around space in whatever lets them do this has prob seen us, listened to us and posted a 'not worth the effort' sign.

Its prob stuck on the back of pluto looking out into the galactic void.

My Grandpa always said that space is so big that there must be another life form out there somewhere. He also said that, if there is, space is so big that we will never meet it. I think that's a good take on the subject.

That's kind of my take as well.

This kind of question always strikes me as strange. In agreement with a previous posters grandad, there is more than a possibility of intelligent life somewhere in the universe. I guess my problem is that us humans with our miniscule grasp of sciences think we are intelligent. perhaps there truly exists intelligence in the universe, a life form that hasnt felt the need to resort to creating TT as an outlet for often pointless shows of how big the brains happen to be in relation to others of the same species. A world where the flounce isnt needed, a world where intelligence is accepted and doesnt need to be proved in a rather purile way. (oops, I shouldnt have said that should I)

I really don't know sorry

Yes.

Yes; the ET's went to ancient Egypt, South America, Stonehenge and Easter Island for their hols, but those places are no longer trendy so the ET's have fucked off elsewhere leaving us on our own.

Perhaps we are part of a more 'the forgotten' like experiment...

There are ET's out there, they are using us a lab rats for whatever reason. Like a little kid with a pet rat, they just keep changing the environment and thinking 'wow, how clever' when we manage to complete a test.

However they also think 'so, klets so if you can so well next time'.

When we don't they get angry as their pet has failed and its time for a little punishment...

Watch the South Park Episode ''Cancelled''... Kinda deals with the same subject

I think if there are ets out there - we would never even notice them. why is it we can only imagine intelligent beings as looking relatively like us (head, eyes, limbs etc)? what's to say our biology is the best? plants, for examply, are the most underestimated life-form we know of. if et's exist they'd b practically invisible to the human mind.

If space is infinite, that means all possibilities are too.

Unless these biological entities live by completely different biological laws, there's every liklihood that they'd look relatively like us or other living creatures

@ timmeh: no there isn't! look at how much variety there is on our planet! carniverous plants for e.g. and all the strange sea creatures that have entirely different body structures. nature/evolution tries things out. it experiments with forms etc.

Nature does "try things out". But as stated, unless these creatures go against everything known about biology, there's every liklihood that they'd look something akin to one of any number of the creatures on the planet.

why? if that were true then there wouldn't be so much differentiation between the species we already know about

Are you familiar with evolution by the process of natural selection? This is what accounts for all the species that are currently on this planet.
Life arose here due to certain conditions existing. These certain conditions would need to exist elsewhere for life to exist too. If there were two planets where similar conditions exist, it would be expected that the evolution of life would follow a similar path due to the process of natural selection.
If there is life that does not conform to what we know about the basics of biology then, yes, there may be some freaky shit out there.

I like that. Space, there may be some freaky shit out there.

Life here also developed based on environmental events and such that weeded out certain evolutionary lines early. Theres also the possibility of non carbon/oxygen based life..

Toytown Germany
There may be some freaky shit out there.

Fixed it for ya!

Anyway I hope there is life out there. We are running out of things to kill down here.

Yes I am familiar with Darwinism and natural selection (who isn't?)

Life could very likely arise out of different other conditions and hence very different life-forms could be created. They wouldn't have to resemble us or operate in a similar way to us at all. We are still pretty damn ignorant of our own biology and that of other species - and are guilty of species chauvinism to boot. Hence I said that we would not even notice if there were alien species around us. I think the example of plants is pretty apt here.

Open your mind and don't define life in such a limited way!

I'm firmly in the camp that says the probability of this planet being the only place where life formed is too small. If it happened here it happened elsewhere.

Hmmm...odd choice of word. How old do you think the earth is??

There is the possibility that life could originate under different conditions, but that then falls into the "goes against everything we know about biology" category

We have a pretty damn comprehensive knowledge of our own biology, and a damn good knowledge of nuumerous other species too.

What's that?

Just make sure you don't open it up too much so that your brain falls out.
Thanks Dick Dawkins.

You are assuming that we are intelligent in the first place and lately around here that has to be called into serious question.

Doubly fixed it for you both!

Respected Ex- NASA scientist says ALIENS EXIST.

He also says that our technology is not as sophisticated as theirs.

These rules of biology Timmeh keeps referring to are only applicable to life on Earth. Other contexts and environments may give rise to completely other life forms. What if there is life somewhere that came about without gravity or oxygen or a place without light? It wouldn't be life as we know it, we probably wouldn't recognize it as life, but we shouldn't assume that everything else lives by our rules.

Italian physicist Enrico Fermi and Nobel prize winner was once having a discussion on this subject, when he paradoxically asked "where are they?"

Years later thinking about Fermi's Paradox, Frank Drake up with an estimate as to how many intelligent life forms are there in the universe, known as the Drake Equation.

Calculated back in 1961, the answer was 10

timmeh - you gave 4 replies to me. I'll answer them in order:

1). I don't understand your question

2). life evolving under different conditions does NOT go against what we know about biology. I don't think very many scientists would say that life can only evolve under these set circumstances! Also, "everything we know about biology" isn't all that much!

3). the arrogance of humanity! There are so many diseases we know precious little about and our ignorance is especially evident when it comes to the workings of the human brain. Scientists are still doing huge amounts of research into how our brain functions and which parts of it control which behaviours etc. Plus, we don't even know of all the species that exist under water - a very widely accepted statement in the scientific world. So no we don't know as much as you think we do

4). I used the eg of plants because they are very very different to us both in form and in the manner by which they live/operate. Their bio system is so different to ours. Also, studies now indicate that contrary to prior belief, plants can communicate with each other - we just don't know exactly how yet

Hmmm, well, I will rephrase it. How old, in years, do you think the earth is?

Well, you need to get up to date on biology, life (as we define it) can only form under set circumstances. This is why life (as we define it) is only present in one place in our solar system.

Agreed that there is still much more to be learned, but I think you underestimate our knowledge of our own biology and that of many other species.

And considering about 40% of our DNA is the same as a lettuce it show's the extent that evolution and natural selection has pushed various organisms in different directions.

Links to these studies??

1. what I did not understand was how that q relates to me stating that I am familiar with darwinism

2. I think the position is that we have only seen life evolving under certain circumstances not that it is only possible for it to evolve under these circumstances. If we found out about a new life form which needed no oxygen etc we would not say it isn't life, we would say it is a new form of life. We have defined life by what we have experienced of it. All of our experience is located in Earth - hence obv the same circumstances exist for all the life forms we know of!

3. I think you overestimate the extent of our knowledge

4. I never heard that before about the lettuce - where did you get that info? The point is that bcoz plants r structured so differently to us, it is difficult for us to perceive many of the ways in which they function.

Look it up on the internet if you like - re: plant communication. plants within a certain distance of each other seem to be able to send messages to each other (perhaps through adjoining roots) which aids their survival.

Sounds like good "lettuce" to me. Where can one procure such lettuce? English Garten? HBF? Hostel?

Toytown Universe. There may be some freaky shit out there.

Don't be silly! My dogs are highly intelligent, even more so than some humans that I've met

Don't give JimBob any ideas now!

Toytown Universe

Could make an incredible video game.

The courageous Owain Glyndwr has to rescue Eleanor Rigby from the clutches of the evil BadBob.

On the first level the newbie OG has to collect roast potatoes while trying to find the search function and avoid the rabid MadAxeMurderer. Bonus points for collecting GreenTea and Lavender Rain.

On the second level our OG must attend TTT. Armed with only a hand drawn map from Keydeck he must navigate the horrors of the U-Bahn using as few strips of his streifenkarte as possible. On arrival at TTT he must work out where the group is despite there only being one group of loud pissed up English speakers in the bar. To unlock the next level he has to utter the magic words 'are you Toytown?'

The third level is a corker. OG must collect PopRocks whilst trying to find the legendary Bunny before the Bunny reaches full power and vibrates the level to MonksTown. After finding the Bunny OG must raise it to the sky and then slay the Darkknight with it.

On the final level he must survive Oktoberfest. Nobody really has a clue what goes on on this level but there seem's to be a hell of a lot of cleavage to navigate and there is a 10,000 point bonus for finding a waitress who smiles.

On finding his beloved Eleanor our hero OG can settle down to a lovely evening of Marmite sandwiches and walkers crisps.

This is going to get deleted for being off topic isn't it?

Didn't the doctor tell you not to mix alcohol with cold medication?

cheddar cheese and branston pickle sandwiches, rather.