are we alone in the universe?

Answer 1

No the universe is far to huge to be empty of life apart from Earth. To think otherwise smacks of arrogance.

Answer 2

I read a book once saying that there was a formula that takes into the account:

The number of solar systems
The number of planets
etc etc

But things are being found all the time. If there are aliens out there then perhaps when we are deemed advanced enough they would contact us.

I hate to go all Trekkie here but there was an episode I watched which of TNG that showed that they didn't contact any civilizations until they were deemed advanced enough to cope with the knowledge and the changes to come.

What's to say some other races our there are doing the same.

We may never know.

Answer 3

Wouldn't it be amazingly arrogant of us to think so. The odds must be millions to one against.

Anyway, where did life on Earth came from? Who were the Gods and Angels who nearly everyone believes got us started here.

Why would every civilisation have folk lore about giants, wizards and all knowing all seeing beings who came here from heaven or the stars?

Why would pictures of such high tech people and transportation exist in cave paintings.

Who gave us ideas to 'discover' electricity, radio, nucler power, flight, x-rays, mocrowaves, lazers, computers and so much more.

What technology was required to clone Eve from Adams rib.

What could the tree of Knowledge have been except a primitive description of a computer and what could the fruit of all knowledge be but a computer program (perhaps the original Apple),

To think that we are alone in the universe requires a lot more blind faith than I have.

Answer 4

The best thing about this question is that we have a lot better answer in our lifetime. Just looking at Earth it seems that life is hard to keep down. If we find life on Mars or one of Jupiter's moons or wherever, it increases the odds of aliens drastically. If life can evolve just about anywhere with a little heat and some water, then there should be life everywhere. We could be in for a real Start Wars type universe with hundreds of alien races.

Answer 5

To be honest with you, I think we're all alone in the universe. I think we should stop thinking about creatures from different galaxies, who we'll probably never meet, and start thinking about our galaxy and the fact that even though professional psychologists or neurosurgeon can tell you intricate details about the human mind, we're all just as confused about each other as we've ever been.

Though sometimes I like to think that we're not alone in the universe because its nice thinking that maybe some where out there in a different galaxy, someone might be wondering if there's life outside their galaxy.

Answer 6

Think of it this way .. the sun is one star in the universe. ONE star.. and when you look in the sky, each of those stars is like a sun for a solar system in the universe. So who are we to think that we as humans, who are under one star [the sun], are the only form of life? There MUST be some definite forms of life somewhere out there.

Answer 7

The only life form we would know about would have to be more intelligent than us.

They may well have already taken a good look at us. They had two options:

1. Use us as slaves.

2. Note the way we behave and watch the rubbish on our TV and give us up as a bad job.

I prefer answer 2.

Answer 8

Maybe...maybe not...
If you're referring to finding intelligent civilizations elsewhere in the universe, your best bet is to start with your local galaxy. Our best estimates for doing that, involve the drake equation.

If you look at the Drake Equation, you will know that our chances of finding E.T. vary. You need to take into account:

1. Number of stars in the galaxy(current estimates 100-400 billion)
2.of those stars, how many have planets(estimate 20-50%)
3. For stars with planets, how many planets able to sustain life(estimate 1-5)
4. on planets able to sustain life, how many will life evolve on(current estimates sketchy 0-100%)
5. On planets where life evolves, what percentage of those evolve into intelligent life. (sketchy again 0-100%)
6. On planets with intelligent life, will they wantto and/or develop the means to communicate with us(conservative estimates say 10-20%)
7. For each civilization that does communicate, for what fraction of the planet's life does the civilization survive?

multiply these all together to get the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy.

Question 2 and 4 make this equation tricky though. We're finding new planets everyday, so the estimates may be much higher. Also, since we try to use our own solar system for observations in guessing these variables, the debate of life on mars(the mars meteorite), and the possibility of life under the ice of Europa; greatly put these values in flux.


If you follow the link below, there is a calculator which will calculate the possible number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy. Keep in mind that if E.T. does want to chat with us, that our broadcast signals have only been going out for roughly a hundred years, and if they are just now getting our signal, theirs still has to make the return trip. When I tried it, I came up with a very conservative estimate that says it could be just us on earth. But if you give some more liberal figures, still being realistic, I think it could be up to 280,000.

Answer 9

we only understand one type of time,in the universe there is no time,space goes on for ever,there could be millions of other life forms not haveing to breath the the atmosphere like us,they may not have space ships to travel like us at the moment,if space had a end to it,then you can judge whether or not where alone in the univers.

Answer 10

Id like to think that we are not alone. Check out the net for the Drake Equation. It's too long to explain