Do you think there is intelligent life or even just life, within communication distance from the Earth?

Question

I think not, but I would be grateful for your opinion and reasons
"Communication distance" means about 100 light years, other wise we shall never know.

The number of stars within that range is limited, and the combination of circumstance needed for life are incredibly large. As for intelligent life... forget it.

I think people who believe there is life are indulging in wishful thinking and the scientists who encourage such opinions and keep searching are just safeguarding their hobbies and jobs, at our expence.

Answer 1

So far we've seen no verifiable evidence of other sentient species. That said, I believe with some certainty that somewhere in our galaxy at some past, present, or future time, a sentient species did/does/will exist.

Why haven't we heard from them?

Perhaps they are not technologically advanced enough to be heard. They may be mastering stone knives right now, or experiencing their own Rennaisance.

Perhaps they are here right now. Any species sufficiently advanced to travel interstellar distances would be able to hide or masquerade with ease. That Boeing 737 that just flew by may be a surveillance craft.

Perhaps they are so far away they will never notice us and vice versa.

Perhaps they existed a million years ago and died out.

Perhaps they will exist a million years from now.

It is really impossible to know for sure.

The Drake Equation suggests that there is sentient life out there. The Fermi Paradox casts doubt. Play around with the calculation form at the second link and see what you think.

Answer 2

It depends on what you mean by communication distance. It could very well be that we are using radio waves to try to communicate with others "out there". And when it comes to outer space, it really isn't very efficient. Distance is a problem.
But that is because we don't have any other method of communicating...yet.
I believe that eventually, there will be another form of communication that is far advanced from the primitive radio waves we use now.
I don't think it will be something we will see in this century, but who knows.
If there is superior lifeforms out there and they chose to contact us some day, there is indeed a possibility if they will have capability of traveling great distances and with that the ability to communicate the same distances quicker than radio waves. And just maybe, they will share this technology with us, if we don't manage to destroy ourselves by then.
Of course this is all hypothetical. But whether it is wishful thinking or not, we just don't know.
Got to admit, there is a lot more we don't know than what we do.

Answer 3

It is pretty unlikely that there is intelligent radio communicating life within close distance to the Earth. That doesn't mean we shouldn't look though. Even if there is only a small chance at making what would be the greatest discovery in history, I would think that it is definitely worth it. After all, if we don't look, then we definitely won't find anything.

Answer 4

I think there COULD be life. It depends on whetehr we accept the standard criteria for 'life', as stated by scientists, as being applicable however.

The same applies for communication. Perhaps there is intelligent life but there are simply 'communication breakdowns' between us?

I think it is far too egotistical to think that humans are the only 'intelligent life' in our universe as, if we are the intelligent life, then pity help the universe!!

Answer 5

ANSWER:
1. The International Space Station is not on the Earth
2. There is intelligent life on the ISS
3. We communicate with the ISS every day

THEREFORE we can say that; Yes- there is intelligent within communication distance from the Earth!!!

Answer 6

Well planets around stars seem to be fairly common. Vega, at around 25 lys has possible planets around it and Bernard's Star has, arguably a star around it as well and it is the closest star to us after the Alpha Centauri system.

However I have no idea why you've decided that 100 lys is the cut off point. Obviously anything we've detected is within communication distance since light is the best way to send a message in space (so far) and if we've detected a star we've detected it's light in some form or another. If you mean for us to be communicating back and forth with it, well that really just has to do with how long we are willing to wait for a response...

If they want to hear from us first then, as mentioned in the book/movie Contact, we could only be now recieving a message from responders within about 30 or 40 light years of us since we've only been sending out substantial signals for about double that. So it would take 40 years for our message to get back and if they responded right after it would take 40 years for their response to get back to us. But you probably knew that.

If we want to be able to give and recieve many messages in our live time the source would need to be very close, and this is unlikely to happen. Just to give and recieve a message in one's lifetime the planet would have to be within 50 or so light years... of course I doubt many of us are very involved with this before we are 20 (Send out when 1yr old, they get when you're 51, you get it back when you're 102... assuming you live that long). We have to accept that if light really is the fastest way to travel then this communication process could be very drawn out, even if we do make contact: with messages being given or recieved maybe once in a lifetime and likely skiping entire generations.

With that said, I do think that they are out there. Yes a lot of lucky, chance happenings led to us being here today (timely extinctions, environment of lifeless earth, elements present, etc) but while that tells us that there is likely nothing out there like us, life can take on many appearances. I think life is abundant but half of it we wouldn't even recognize right away. I think the field of extrasolar planet detection will help show us this.

So do I think we will make contact with these abundant civilizations? Yes. I don't think I'm being delusional either.

I have been reading about (realistic) teleportation a lot lately, quantum entanglement in particular. While I can barely understand it, there are plenty of people out there who know the process intimately, so intimately that they have been able to teleport things. SOME intelligent aliens are likely to be more inteligent than us and hence, know even more about QE and other teleportation methods. Even if they don't use the particular ones we've conceived, our growing understanding of the science says one thing loud and clear: we have a long way to go and a great deal to discover. Messages (not nessisarily the aliens themselves) could be teleported across space instantaneously so that waiting for light to move across the vast expanse of space is no longer a problem.

I agree that people can get a little ahead of themselves when considering alien life. It's like we want it so bad that we can't control where our mind takes us. But I am a fairly level headed person and I think that this is possible, it just might not be the dreamy star-trek kind of world that we want (at least not for a while!). The scientists working on these projects are often privately funded (therefore not doing this at your expense) or work for well-recognized groups like SETI. SETI is a serious group that is respected by most of the scientific community. They aren't out there hooting about maybes, they are looking for real, solid proof and are making wonderful discoveries and contributions to all areas of astronomy as they do it.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_with_confirmed_planets
http://www.solstation.com/stars.htm
http://www.chara.gsu.edu/RECONS/TOP100.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nearby_stars

Quantum Entanglement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement
(there are pleanty more sources out there for this including some lovely ones with pictures)

Answer 7

Sure there is. Just say a prayer to Jesus!

Answer 8

Depends on what you consider intelligient or human form..