Originally Posted by Burning Down (Post 1038986)

I haven't completely ruled out the notion that there might be something more out there. I'm just skeptical about the whole UFO thing. UFO =/= Aliens per say. I just wonder why they would want to interact with us and not make any sort of proper "landing" or something. Also, the fact that Area 51 is so secretive makes me even more skeptical about UFO investigations.

Should this be moved to the Philosophy, etc. section?

Originally Posted by RVCA (Post 1039078)

-There are on the order of 100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) galaxies in the universe, as far as our telescopes can detect.
-Some of these galaxies may hold up to 100,000,000,000 stars, but most galaxies probably contain at least 10,000,000,000 (ten billion) stars.
-Young galaxies may not have formed many solar systems yet, while very old galaxies may have very few solar systems left. For the galaxies of middle age, as many as 1/4 of the stars may possess solar systems.

Assuming for practical and computational purposes that 1/3 of galaxies are of "middle age" and full of stars, you get:
(3.33 x 10^10 galaxies) times (1.00 x 10^10 stars) times (1/4) = conservatively and roughly 8.325 x 10^19 stars with solar systems in our universe.

That's 83 billion billion (83 with eighteen zeros after it) other stars with solar systems in the universe. To me, it's a statistical inevitability that we are not the only intelligent life in the universe. Alien life is not something you "believe in", it's pretty much something that exists, but we have yet to discover.

Originally Posted by Thom Yorke (Post 1039076)

Note to self: befriend Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson before the impending invasion.

Originally Posted by Pedestrian (Post 1039069)

If there is life on other planets, then we should not know about it, because we'd go and do something idiotic like declare war on them or try and kidnap them for our own research, and they'd just up and nuke us.

Honestly, we as a species can't handle that information. If there is life outside of Earth, it hasn't destroyed us yet, so we ought not give it a reason to.

Originally Posted by Abearmauledme (Post 1039092)

Don't talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking - Times Online

They don't make a proper landing because they probably don't want to be friends, they want our resources.

Originally Posted by Thom Yorke (Post 1039076)

Note to self: befriend Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson before the impending invasion.

Originally Posted by djchameleon (Post 1039127)

Not, only do they want our resources they want our bodies as well. They don't want to attack us because they are too busy studying us.

Originally Posted by Ian E Coleman (Post 1039098)

Even if there are 8.325 10^19 stars that doesn't mean that there has to be intelligent life elsewhere. What were the chances of human beings happening? Think about that, and you eliminate a vast majority of those stars as possible places for life.

Originally Posted by RVCA (Post 1039078)

-There are on the order of 100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) galaxies in the universe, as far as our telescopes can detect.
-Some of these galaxies may hold up to 100,000,000,000 stars, but most galaxies probably contain at least 10,000,000,000 (ten billion) stars.
-Young galaxies may not have formed many solar systems yet, while very old galaxies may have very few solar systems left. For the galaxies of middle age, as many as 1/4 of the stars may possess solar systems.

Assuming for practical and computational purposes that 1/3 of galaxies are of "middle age" and full of stars, you get:
(3.33 x 10^10 galaxies) times (1.00 x 10^10 stars) times (1/4) = conservatively and roughly 8.325 x 10^19 stars with solar systems in our universe.

That's 83 billion billion (83 with eighteen zeros after it) other stars with solar systems in the universe. To me, it's a statistical inevitability that we are not the only intelligent life in the universe. Alien life is not something you "believe in", it's pretty much something that exists, but we have yet to discover.

Originally Posted by RVCA (Post 1039160)

Why? What makes Earth so special? The universe is so incomprehensibly vast that it's quite silly and self-important to think that humans are somehow special.

Originally Posted by CanwllCorfe (Post 1039163)

Yup. This is pretty much how I feel on the subject. Do I think it's possible they visited us at one time or another? Perhaps, but nothing further than that.

Originally Posted by RVCA (Post 1039173)

I doubt it. From what we know about the way our universe works, it's currently impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. So even if an advanced alien race from another galaxy developed a method of traveling at the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s), it would take them thousands of year to "visit" us. The nearest galaxies are the Sagittarius and Canis Major dwarfs, which are some 80,000 and 25,000 light years away respectively. So that's a 25,000-80,000 year journey.

Originally Posted by RVCA (Post 1039173)

Yeah, and to be honest, I think the notion that we're the only intelligent form of life in the universe is largely a religious one.