Are We Alone In the Universe? New Analysis Says Maybe

[-Cp]

Scientists engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) work under the assumption that there is, in fact, intelligent life out there to be found. A new analysis may crush their optimism.


To calculate the likelihood that they'll make radio contact with extraterrestrials, SETI scientists use what's known as the Drake Equation. Formulated in the 1960s by Frank Drake of the SETI Institute in California, it approximates the number of radio-transmitting civilizations in our galaxy at any one time by multiplying a string of factors: the number of stars, the fraction that have planets, the fraction of those that are habitable, the probability of life arising on such planets, its likelihood of becoming intelligent and so on. [10 Alien Encounters Debunked]


The values of almost all these factors are highly speculative. Nonetheless, Drake and others have plugged in their best guesses, and estimate that there are about 10,000 tech-savvy civilizations in the galaxy currently sending signals our way — a number that has led some scientists to predict that we'lldetect alien signals within two decades.

Read the rest at:

http://www.space.com/12421-alien-life-rare-universe-extraterrestrials-seti.html

[PostmodernProphet]

Drake's Equation is faulty......the maximum number of planets that might support life rotating any particular star would be two, and then only if they were in totally synchronous bipolar orbit......in reality the likely number of such planets would be one or zero......

any mathematician can tell you the true result of any formula in which you multiply something by zero.......

by application of Drake's Equation, Earth does not exist........

[Missileman]

Scientists engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) work under the assumption that there is, in fact, intelligent life out there to be found. A new analysis may crush their optimism.


To calculate the likelihood that they'll make radio contact with extraterrestrials, SETI scientists use what's known as the Drake Equation. Formulated in the 1960s by Frank Drake of the SETI Institute in California, it approximates the number of radio-transmitting civilizations in our galaxy at any one time by multiplying a string of factors: the number of stars, the fraction that have planets, the fraction of those that are habitable, the probability of life arising on such planets, its likelihood of becoming intelligent and so on. [10 Alien Encounters Debunked]


The values of almost all these factors are highly speculative. Nonetheless, Drake and others have plugged in their best guesses, and estimate that there are about 10,000 tech-savvy civilizations in the galaxy currently sending signals our way — a number that has led some scientists to predict that we'lldetect alien signals within two decades.

Read the rest at:

http://www.space.com/12421-alien-life-rare-universe-extraterrestrials-seti.html

I'm curious how you managed to formulate your thread title after reading that article. I'm even more curious why you felt compelled to so grossly mischaracterize the content of the article with your choice of words in the thread title.

[Mr. P]

I'm curious how you managed to formulate your thread title after reading that article. I'm even more curious why you felt compelled to so grossly mischaracterize the content of the article with your choice of words in the thread title.

LOL... tis CPs MO ya know.

[darin]

I'm curious how you managed to formulate your thread title after reading that article. I'm even more curious why you felt compelled to so grossly mischaracterize the content of the article with your choice of words in the thread title.

Did you miss the BIG TEXT at the top of the article which reads:

"Are We Alone In the Universe? New Analysis Says Maybe"

(shrug).

Anything that points to the 'special-ness' of our Plant and the intricate and perfect DESIGN, really hurts folk who place their hopes on magic and random chance being the source of all life.

To think our biological systems just sorta happened, is honestly just as stupid to think coffee beans, milk, vanilla beans and water, if left in their containers will magically 'given millions of years' somehow form into a delicious vanilla non-fat latte.

[Missileman]

Did you miss the BIG TEXT at the top of the article which reads:

"Are We Alone In the Universe? New Analysis Says Maybe"

(shrug).

Anything that points to the 'special-ness' of our Plant and the intricate and perfect DESIGN, really hurts folk who place their hopes on magic and random chance being the source of all life.

To think our biological systems just sorta happened, is honestly just as stupid to think coffee beans, milk, vanilla beans and water, if left in their containers will magically 'given millions of years' somehow form into a delicious vanilla non-fat latte.

The link I followed from his post was: http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/...ronomers-1812/ which contradicts the title of the thread.

[Gunny]

Drake's Equation is faulty......the maximum number of planets that might support life rotating any particular star would be two, and then only if they were in totally synchronous bipolar orbit......in reality the likely number of such planets would be one or zero......

any mathematician can tell you the true result of any formula in which you multiply something by zero.......

by application of Drake's Equation, Earth does not exist........

The actual fault is the junk science premise that in order for life to exist, it requires a situation the same as Earth, and the presumption that life must be organic (why else would it need a similar world to Earth?) and or that any life is required to exist only within Man's ability to explain it. The biggest flaw in scientific theory is Man's supreme arrogance.

[Gaffer]

Is there life on other worlds? Probably. Is there human life on other worlds? Probably not. The big question is whether there is sentient life capable of building civilizations. And that's what we are really looking for.

[Gunny]

Is there life on other worlds? Probably. Is there human life on other worlds? Probably not. The big question is whether there is sentient life capable of building civilizations. And that's what we are really looking for.

I can go with the probably.

One can get pretty imaginative about what that life might be. I would say as important as your points are, the ability to communicate with us and we with them would also be a necessity.

[Gaffer]

I can go with the probably.

One can get pretty imaginative about what that life might be. I would say as important as your points are, the ability to communicate with us and we with them would also be a necessity.

Communication would be essential. But the distances of space make it extremely difficult to have any kind of contact, even if we just listen in on something. It could take hundreds or thousands of years for a simple sentence to reach either listener.

We are not going to be traveling to other star systems any time soon. They would have to come to us which I'm not comfortable with.

[Gunny]

Communication would be essential. But the distances of space make it extremely difficult to have any kind of contact, even if we just listen in on something. It could take hundreds or thousands of years for a simple sentence to reach either listener.

We are not going to be traveling to other star systems any time soon. They would have to come to us which I'm not comfortable with.

Remind you of that Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Mankind"?

[Gaffer]

Remind you of that Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Mankind"?

Yep. I just can't help feeling that an alien race that far advanced wouldn't look on us like a bunch of primitives. They would want to establish a small colony and we know where that would lead.

[Gunny]

Yep. I just can't help feeling that an alien race that far advanced wouldn't look on us like a bunch of primitives. They would want to establish a small colony and we know where that would lead.

If that "life" is anything like us, given our history of the way we treat anything we consider inferior, it would most likely get ugly for us quick.

[chloe]

The only aliens I am aware of are the illegal ones bringing there bedbugs into the usa

[revelarts]

I'm not into UFOs or Aliens but the question is a GREAT head game and I love scifi stuff.

But whenever we think of the life off of our planet we usually bring a lot of baggage to the question.

Gaffer I agree with you about human type life, that was my biggest gripe about S. TREK.

but you also mentioned "civilization". why does another life form have to have a civilization? why not a hive mind. Or why does it have to be a group? what if a single life form came out from a place and had the capacity for super high level thought. AND Alone had the capability to build a space craft or other means of travel. might he/she/it assume that it was alone in the universe and never conceive of Communication... ever. Never having any with anyone but it self and lifeless stars and planets all around.
Even with Communication we assume a lot too. They are looking for radio waves. what if a another life form communicated with light. and has been blinking some infra red (?) frequency at us for 10000 yrs that we've been to stupid to pick up on. They're assuming that any INTELLIGENT creatures would respond. maybe it's not light maybe it's magnetic waves or gravametric.

the other thing we assume is relative size.
There are stars far bigger than our solar system and there are things a lot smaller. What if there are super intelligent microscopic life. Science has shown that we can put "intelligence" in an extremely small space. what are the radio wave going to look like to an intelligent group of beings like that? Or a Super huge intelligence that is made up of a galaxy or group of galaxies at an unprecievable infinite distance.

the other thing is capacity and speed of thought, we assume that we are the smartest fastest thinking things around or that other aliens would be just a bit smarter than us with amazing tech that we could understand if given time. What if they were a billion TIMES Smarter and faster thinking, would they even bother talking to us? would we even understand what they were doing at any given time?

What if they were non corporal, made of light or intelligent gas clouds that stretched across the galaxy that didn't use tech they communicated using other means.

etc etc etc

There could be billions of intelligent beings that never get on our radar becuase we are looking for beings "like us" on a lot of levels.

Or we could be alone with God and his crew in universe. Who knows, but i doubt a couple of radio towers are going to tell us one way or the other.