'Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.' - Arthur C. Clarke
AC Clarke nailed it. It is equally scary to think of it either way. Sadly, I fear that we may never know either way.
I think we may discover other life forms, for example like Tardigrades, but intelligent life, I'm not so sure. The distances are SO vast that it seems impossible at least with our current technology.
I like to think that with the over 100 billion galaxies in the known universe it would seem probable that there is other intelligent life--otherwise, as has often been said, "it would be a terrible waste of space."
our life is to wonder, but also to ensure that future generations plan and survive long enough to explore. and to ensure superstitions don't hold back progress.
"We are not alone" . . . I don't know if that's an original line by Steven Spielberg
Almost without a doubt we are not alone. I would guarantee you that life is inevitable. A lot like how crystals "grow" under the right conditions.
If you consider the vastness and obscurity of the universe, then the chances that we are alone in it is pretty damn slim.
dunno if its worse if we are, or if we aren't and were really dumb compared to them
duuuuuhhhh . . . no problem me
Gotta love the non-reality and inventiveness of most sci-fi movies. How many centuries back have they had hand held pistols, 17th? And yet 200 years hence they are still firing their "lasers" with hand-held pistols- instead of waving a finger, or blinking an eye. "Really dumb" -----at least as movie producers. LOL
i think its usually kept simple because we don't actually know what kind of technology someone would have if they were much more advanced than us
Without a doubt, we are not.
But, who we think are aliens visiting us, most likely are our futuete descendents.
Let's ask the guys in Area 51
Hah
Probably not, but contact may be unlikely.
Some might have made contact and regretted it, so now they 'keep their heads down'. We, on the other hand, have been broadcasting our presence for 100 years. Maybe we should do the same by replacing all radio, tv and phone with fibreoptic technologies?
Probably not, considering our universe might not be the only one in existence. In fact, scientists have recently proved that an atom can exist in two places at one time, inferring the possibility of a multiverse.
When you consider that "life" increases entropy, then the odds of there being life on other planetary systems is more than likely. So out of many possible life systems there is also a probability of intelligent life somewhere else. I just wouldn't be holding one's breath waiting for some contact in the near future though.
It would be an awful waste of space if we were the only beings in the entire universe. I think the best guess is the easiest answer. If there were life on just one out of a billion planets then there would be life on billions of planets throughout the universe.
This is, in principle, an answerable question. First, when the WEBB telescope goes up, we may be able to narrow the search to exoplanets showing atmospheres with free oxygen or other signs of metabolic processes.
But then there's the science-fictiony path to an answer. Draw a line from roughly Bombay to Stockholm, about 1,000 miles wide. Before the age of exploration, and I know there are plenty of exceptions, people west of that area were mainly animists or had animalistic or monstrous deities. People to the east had dharma, karma, and ancestor worship But people inside that area had human-appearing gods with human attributes. This zone was also the high-tech zone: alphabetic writing, the wheel, the horse collar. And let's not forget the Baghdad Battery. Just look at a sample of technology referred to (maybe) in Enuma Elis, Gilgamesh, and Genesis. Surgery with anesthesia. A radio. A tethered satellite with an escalator. A space shuttle. I'm certainly not proposing an ancient astronauts paradigm, but it is a good place to start looking.
Most likely not. There are almost 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars out there. If one in a trillion of them supported life, that means there would be life on a trillion other planets. The spacing of planets around the sun is almost in proportion to a fibonacci sequence. It's likely that that is the case in other solar systems too. That means a significant fraction of solar systems will have a planet at the "sweet spot" between freezing and boiling which would support life as we know it. Plus the fossil data shows that life sprung up pretty quickly on earth. We should expect the same on many other solar systems.