2006-12-29 05:23:52 · 6 answers · asked by bunny 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
"If it is just us, then it would be an awful waste of space" - Carl Sagan.
And I couldn't agree more. Statistically it's nearing impossible that we're actually alone. It is, however, very probable that we're not evolved enough (or ill evolved, if you ask me, funding war and religion instead of science and education) to search for planets / communications / life in a truly thorough manner.
2006-12-29 05:28:27 · answer #1 · answered by DNA-Groove 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
To truly answer this, you have to know how many planets there are. Probably not as many as many people would like to believe. And then what form would other life take. Would it be life as we know it? Maybe, maybe not. To be life as we know it, it would have to evolve in an area of the universe with comparable conditions to the one we exist in. Remember the weak anthropic principle. Why is the universe the way we see it. The answer being, if it wasn't the way we see it, we wouldn't be here to wonder about it. Even if there is other life, there is no reason to believe it is more advanced than we are. Conditions suitable for the development of complex organisms only began at a definitive time and we were fairly early on. So, to be more advanced, their rate of evolution must have been considerably greater than ours and there is no evidence that that would have been possible.
Bottom line really is, we will probably never know.
2006-12-29 13:43:38 · answer #2 · answered by Elizabeth Howard 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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.
2006-12-29 13:59:53 · answer #3 · answered by Otis F 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour,
That's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.
Our galaxy itself contains 100 billion stars
It's 100,000 light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, 16,000 light years thick
But out by us its just 3,000 light years wide
We're 30,000 light years from galactic central point,
We go round every 200 million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding Universe.
The Universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light you know,
12 million miles a minute, that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space
Because they’re all crazy down here on earth.
2006-12-29 14:03:31 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do believe that we are not alone in the universe. There may not be extraterrestrial life living in our solar system but there HAS to be more than just us in our galaxy and definately in the entire universe. I think that there has to be more life forms than just us, we just can't stretch ourselves far enough to find them.
2006-12-29 13:34:58 · answer #5 · answered by dancer_luver2000 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no..
i mean...i believe that we're not alone here in our universe..
this universe is too huge for us to be standing here "all alone"..
we have not explored space yet so it's too early to say that we're the ones in here..
that's a simple question only our Creator can answer..
2006-12-30 01:16:09 · answer #6 · answered by naz0711 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋