A serious question about alien life?

Question

If there is life on another planet, what are the chances of it being more or less 'advanced' than us?

I mean take planet X- why do we assume there's always just one species? Why can't it have hundreds of thousands of species, like earth- some super-developed, others merely worm-like creatures?

Could it be possible to have an alien planet in a state like earth was during the age of the dinosaurs- so there is life, but it is not yet technologically developed? Thanks!

I made 'Planet X' up by the way- apologies if there's already a planet called this!

Answer 1

Yes it is possible, in fact it's hugely likely, but unlikely that in even our grandchildrens lifetime we will discover it, if at all.

Answer 2

Perhaps the reason we haven't had official first contact with aliens is because we are the most advanced race in the universe (scary!!!!) but, hey, someone has to be the first, right?

I think if there is life elsewhere in the universe and given the huge (although that is the ultimate understatement) number of stars out there, there must be a huge number of stars with planets, therefore there must be some planets with planets capable of life (and by 'some' I mean a huge number of them, I just don't like repeating words too much, very bad.).

There must also be the odd thousand or so where intelligent life has occurred and maybe, just maybe, there is intelligent life that isn't interested in blowing themselves up in which case we can't be The First because they are definitely more intelligent than us!

Answer 3

The universe has evolved over a specific period of time, which limits the universial creatures in their own evolution. For instance, no alien life can be on planet earth unless it has come from this solar system, as further distances outweigh the amount of time such advanced travellers would have had evolve to have developed the ability to travel such vast distances.
You are right. The assumption that their is only one alien species per planet is pretty stupid but then sci-fi is such an unimaginative genre anyway.

Answer 4

Good question!

The history of life on earth is roughly a 2 billion year story. "Advanced intelligent life" is often defined against our own technology and understanding at the moment. Suppose we give it a little "slop" and allow for a few hundred years cushion (Renaissance to present, with a midpoint around 1800).
That is 400/2 billion or 0.00002% of the time that life has existed on earth.
If we assume (big assumption, maybe) that other life-bearing planets have a similar course fo evolution with a range of starting points from 5 billion years ago to the present, that makes the probablity of a near-match to our own level of advanced-ness extremely unlikely.

The kicker, of course, is that once our species gained a basic knowledge about light and energy, space and time, it also obtained the ability to annihilate everything on the planet. Given our aggressive natures, that does not bode well for our future. If this is a generality for many or all species who evolve this far, that puts a serious bottleneck in the prospects for a mega-advanced culture. In the meantime, we pollute, despoil, make war, and overpopulate unchecked...

Answer 5

i believe that any life form which can develop technology so far as we have and has the opportunity with one mistake to destroy all their world, will eventually "suicide".

I don't think there is a very very more developed technologically species than human. If there was any, it probably extinguished by their own technology (atomic bomb stuff like this). ...And human is near the end...All we need to destroy earth is just a loonatic with an A-Bomb

So i believe that chances of advanced THINKING SOCIAL species that exists is about 30-20% and chances of less advanced THINKING SOCIAL species is 70%-80%
(I understand that predicting these numbers it's ridiculous if you can understand the infinite size of universe)

BUT if saying "life on another planet" you mean life form, plain and simple, if for example you include bacteria and stuff like this, then i believe that current living species in universe less advanced than us is about 99% :)

There are zillions of species out there. Little bacteria, Dwarf-like creatures, Giants and a lots of crazy stuff due to different enviroments.

Answer 6

With our limited technology, we cannot travel to anywhere with a stellar distance away from the Earth. We could travel to places that have distances measured in AUs now, but not light years in any "acceptable" amount of time. "Acceptable" meaning less than a lifetime of those back here on Earth who didn't go on the trip. Bottom Line: we would not be likely to come across an inhabited planet in our short travels if we undertook them with our present technology.
Now, why haven't we met anyone that has found us in their travels, even if they are so far advanced they could travel interstellar or even galactic distances? Well, my personal opinion is if they are THAT far advanced, why would they bother with us when there first images of and information about us is signals of early radio & TV braodcasts? "What kind of species is that", they might think and then set up some sort of instellar highway detour sign for any other travellers.

Answer 7

Yes, it's quite likely that there are other planets with life on them. My guess is that they would have many thousands of types of lifeforms - after all, if the planet had time to evolve intelligent life, it must have had time to evolve other creatures as well.

The Drake equation was developed to estimate how many planets would have intelligent, communicating life on them. Take a look at the link below and see what you think.

Answer 8

So far, it depends on what your beliefs are... I'm guessing (it's all anybody can do) that if *one* planet has life, there are others out there. And, guessing again, I'd be willing to bet there are some where life just began, and others that are far more advanced. We're on a middle-of-the-road planet, around a middle-of-the-road star, in a middle-of-the-road galaxy. All things being equal... I believe life's developed on thousands or millions of worlds throughout the universe.

Answer 9

assuming the big bang theory is right then the aliens don't have much time to evolve unless their planet cooled faster
and if there are aliens have we ever considered the fact that:
they are also made up of organic compounds?

and not inorganic stuff?so more or less they will resemble us and this huge jump and advancement in tech is bullshit

because if it was so they wouldn't sit at home waiting for us to reach us if they have the so called"super intelligence"

they would have made contact long back and i doubt it if they would do so sneakily
and all this sc fi - they portray aliens as giant octopus like creatures
why the hell would they remeble creatures from planet earth which are far less evolved than we are if they are super intelligent and hyper evolved?

Answer 10

I think the chances of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe
are rather higher than the accepted view that we are alone.That opinion flies in the face of logic as if one small planet orbiting with a small group of planets around a star can develop the huge variety of life that earth has,then who is to say that this has not happened countless times elsewhere and will not happen countless times again?

Answer 11

Imagine a species of human that is more intelligent than us and can shift through space at the speed of light. A human species that learned how to change forms to adapt to it's surroundings. One that can change from Human to appear like a bird, a dog, a cat.. or can shift to a fire-hydrant shape or bicycle... interesting...

I think that if other life exists and we're capturing their UFO visits on film, then it's safe to conclude that they're smarter and more advanced than us. We're still playing around in space 200 miles from earth...they're traversing space and visiting us...hmmmm... I wonder who's more intelligent.

Alien Planet yes... assuming ET life exists.. then they must live somewhere.. i.e. Planet-X