Is it naive for humans to believe that were the only galaxy with intelligent life??

Question

Theres millions of Galaxy's out there. Is it relly that impossible for there to be another planet out there with intelligent life on it?

Answer 1

With the vastness of the universe, as we know it to be, and how much bigger it really is (beyond our imagination), I can not fathom the idea that Earth is the only planet with living beings on it. There has to be many planets out there that have atmospheres that can sustain living and breathing beings or at least animals, fish, plants, something. I'd truly love to know what's really out there. I think it'd blow our minds. Humans can't live in peace in one planet, can you imagine what would happen if we find other beings one other planets?

Answer 2

If you follow the Copernican view, then there has to be other life out there. The Copernican view states that if there is one thing in the universe then there are many other of the same thing. For example, if there is one planet in the universe then there are many planets in the universe. Obviously we have already identified many other planets outside of our solar system and even our galaxy.

There is another theory though that states that the conditions for life were so perfect on Earth that it would be nearly impossible to have those same conditions anywhere else in the universe. This is assuming of course that all life would have to be similar to life on Earth; mostly carbon based life forms. But who is to say that there isn't life out there that is not carbon based?

I believe that there is intelligent life somewhere else out there. There could have been intelligent life that was born, grew, and was already destroyed, seeing as our universe is about 14 billion years old.

Since the universe is so big and constantly growing though I wonder if we would ever be able to contact other life forms. We do not currently have any technology that can allow us to travel at a speed that would realistically get us anywhere near another galaxy or even another solar system in our own galaxy. Even at the speed of light it could take millions of years to get anywhere. So even if we contacted other intelligent life, by the time they responded and we sent an exploration team, they might be completely annihilated, or by the time they could contact us, we might be completely annihilated.

I just read an article that Yahoo! will be sending a laser beam into space with text, images, video, and sounds that represent human nature in an effort to make contact with extraterrestrial life. It would be very exciting if they found something. Here is a link to the article from cnn:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/10/09/mexico.yahoo.reut/index.html

Also, there is a program sponsored by SETI that you can download to your computer. It is a way for SETI to use people's home PCs, which generally sit idle for most of the day, to help process noises from space and see if any life out there is trying to contact other life. Go to this website and you can download the program:
http://www.esea.dk/esea/boinc.asp

Answer 3

Much of the space program is devoted to finding life outside of earth. I guess there is even a program to see if we can catch messages via radio waves, So it would seem that most science and gov agencies lean to the yes there is life side things. Believe is a strange word. It suggests a positive position but allows for error. I guess it's a wishy washy word. Be more committal, Sure there is intelligent life out there some-where's. When we find it we may have to re-evaluate what we mean by intelligence (we might not like the an sew)

Answer 4

There is something called the Drake equation that expresses the probability for intelligent life existing elsewhere in the universe.

A group of scientist called SETI are currently looking for this life.

It's mostly an intellectual exercise, however, because if it exists it is essentially impossible for us to have any interaction whatsoever. Given the uncertainty of the individual terms in the Drake equation, one can only give a range of somewhere between 0% to 100% for equation's solution. In other words, even the best scientific evaluation of this question is a frowning shrug.

Answer 5

Don't worry about the number of galaxies worry about the number of stars that can support planets.
There are 100,000,000,000= 100 billion stars in our own galaxy.
There are 100,000,000=100 million know galaxies.
Even if .33% of every star could sustain life that would be over 3,000,000 planets with life on them.



Try the equation here>>>
http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/SETI/drake_equation.html


Just remember that Drake is moron, because intelligent life has to be able to communicate, so make sure you leave those two caluclations the same.

Answer 6

Yes ...statistically speaking, it is very likely that there are other life forms out there. Will we ever make contact with them???....
Probably not!! (Helll we haven't even been to the moon!! it was filmed in Hollywood!!..... HAHA..JK) The human species will probably become extinct long before that, (the odds of our survival as a species are stacked against us).. The Closest planet with the potential to even support life, let alone intelligent life, is about 3 Parsecs away.!!!
(a parsec is 3.26156378 Light Years) That means it will take LIGHT 9.78469134 years for light to reach that planet coming from earth. *We have not mastered speeds that high!!!

Answer 7

No to both your first and second question. I mean, come on!!! Is there a proof that we're the only ones in the galaxy with intelligent life??? And it's a big galaxy...there's much more that we don't know about it!

Answer 8

There is absolutely no scientific evidence to either support or deny the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life. (There is only limited evidence of intelligent terrestrial life.)

Recent attempts to locate intelligent life within our portion of the Milky Way have not detected artificial electromagnetic signals. This could indicate that there is no intelligent life near us, or that intelligent life near us has the intelligence not to contact us.

The existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life is largely a matter of philosophical speculation. The enormous number of stellar systems in the universe would argue for a large number of intelligent species. On the other hand, we do not know how fragile and peculiar life on our own planet may be.

We may indeed be alone in the universe. The thought of being alone has haunted our species. Fear of being alone is why we have invented angels and gods and spirits. It is highly likely we may never contact another intelligent species in the enormity of the universe even if millions of intelligent species exist.

Answer 9

The human mind is limited to time and space. In other words, it is limited to that which it can perceive albeit, see, feel, taste, hear or otherwise sense. This is however, one of man's biggest limitations. The truth is that we can neither tell whether there is extra-terrestial life outside of our galaxy.

What we should concern ourselves with is the thought that if we are genuinely the only intelligent life-form on this side of the universe then it is our responsibility to be "Guardians". Have we performed this role well?

Answer 10

No. It is naive to believe that there must be life on other planets just because there is life here. Until we have some evidence either way, the only non-naive attitude is to say we just don't know.