Are we alone in this Universe as the only intelligent being?

Question

What is the probability that we are not, if so why not?

Answer 1

The probablity that we are alone is incredible low, so much so as to make it basically an impossibility. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcBV-cXVWFw

Answer 2

The odds are that they exist because the universe is either unimaginably huge or truly infinite, but I think you mean aliens that are in our galaxy, not the Virgo supercluster or something. The odds of this can be calculated using this website and educated guesses:

http://www.station1.net/DouglasJones/drake.htm

With my guesses about the universe, there should be about 40 detectable civilizations within the galaxy right now. However, I turned down the probability of planets developing life and set the average lifetime of a technological civilization at 100 years...there may be many more out there. Still, there is no guarantee that any of those 40 will be on our end of the galaxy.

Answer 3

The probability is very high, but only because the extents of the universe are so incredibly vast that there isn't a single person alive that can comprehend it.

Think about a few things. You can drive 100 miles in a little more than an hour on the freeway. The Earth is about 25,000 miles around, almost 8,000 miles in diameter. The average sunspot is over 300,000 miles across and we could line up our entire planet 38 times across one of them. A sunspot makes up as much of the sun's surface as a freckle on your face; how much bigger is the sun than our planet?

The core of the sun makes up 50% of its mass, but only 2% of its volume (is it hard to think about yet?). The rest of the sun is so dense that it takes light 47 hours to reach the surface, but only 8 minutes to reach Earth. The amount of energy produced by the sun's continuous fusion in ONE SECOND could power our entire planet for 10 million years. Even California and Las Vegas!

All that enormity, power and sheer size is right next door, but at what point do all the numbers cease their meaning? you can understand driving 100 miles, but powering the Earth for 10 million years just goes beyond comprehension!

Let's go farther- the sun, our sun, is one of billions of stars within our galaxy, which is so large that it would take light (which travels at 186,000 miles per SECOND) 100,000 years to cross it lengthwise. Just within our own galaxy there are billions of other opportunities for life to exist, but there are countless other galaxies beyond our own, and even more that we may never have the ability to see.

Can you really wrap your thoughts around that, or does your mind automatically fit the entire universe neatly into a "box" with finite limits? What are the odds, out of hundreds of billions, no, INFINITE chances, that there are other intelligent life forms? I'd say it's pretty safe to assume we're not the only ones in existence, but I wonder if they believe in God?

Answer 4

I don't know the statistic, but seriously, we don't know the size of the universe. personally, I doubt that there are other planets that can support life as easily as ours.

1) earth has a circular orbit, which keeps us never too close or too far from the sun

2) earth's axis allows seasonal change, which for beginning life (which was likely in Africa, at about 20 degrees above the equator) was beneficial

3) earth has mercury to absorb a lot of the sun's heat for us, jupiter to keep asteroids away from earth, and many other plants' special chemical compositions and gravity to keep earth in its orbit

4) if earth were in any other planets' place all the water would evaporate or freeze

5) it is (theoretically) self sustaining as all life (not tampered with by mankind) helps to stablize and maintain ecosystems and the atmosphere and the original ozone layer kept earth at a desirable climate

6) it is the only known planet with the right atmospherical chemistry to support life, and the only known planet with a bountiful supply of liquid water

seriously, earth was built for us. if there are other worlds, I doubt they're as lucky.

Answer 5

If we are alone that would be a travesty.For the universe to contain millions if not billions of galaxies,for each galaxy to contain billions of stars,and for each star to cantain a couple of planets.If we are the only "intelligent" life then all I have to say is "what a F***ing waste of space".btw.we are not alone,just give it another 10-25 yrs.

Answer 6

I doubt it. If life could materialize on earth, and evolve into an intelligent form, why couldn't this also have happened elsewhere in the universe?

(Although, some would argue if we truly qualify as intelligent beings. For intelligent beings, we sure do a lot of moronic things.)

Answer 7

lol i dont think so. i mean most of our technology structures and ideas are based on anilal structures and development. the eiffel tower is structured the way our thigh bone is and thats why it is so strong. i read a thigh bone of an human being can hold hundreds or even sometimes thousand forced pressure. planes got the idea from staying up high in sky from birds. if it wasn't for their expert piloting accurate flying, if it wasn't for the birds we wouldn't know what flying would be. we seeing a bird flying getting around way faster taught us how to gt faster lol. animals that dig 12 feet down with their paws in matter of few seconds to a minute taught us. u will see many of our like dirt digging machines that are shaped into claws. those claws are shaped in that particular machine that particular is for a reasom and that is because of these animals that we live with. so we are not the only intelligents. there are experts out ther that are not humans that us human wish to be in expert like them lol :)

Answer 8

Very hard to believe that we are the only ones, matter of fact I give credit to some intelligent beings for genetically engineering us

Answer 9

We're not alone on this PLANET when it comes to intelligent beings, and maybe not a the top even then.

Answer 10

We don't have enough data to judge, but looking at the size of the universe, I have to think it would be an awful waste of space if we were alone.