Heidi's Hypothesis - God made us the most intelligent life form in the universe since nothing has contacted us

Question

If there is life it would be very very unlikely that life on another planet would be at the same evolutionary stage as us because it would not make mathematical sense, therefore, it would have to be significantly brighter or dumber. Before you jump down my throats, just think of the odds that life on another planet would be at the same evolutionary stage as us - I reckon it would be the number of planets with life x the number of species x the number of years the universe has been in existence, hence a very large number.

Therefore life on another planet would seriously have to be either brighter than us or dumber than us. So if it is dumber than us, why are we the most intelligent life form in the universe and therefore what made us different to all the other beings in the universe that we are the only one to use technology or at the very least the most advance beings at using technology?

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070803234845AAHBoBy&r=w

Wrong link

http://uk.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-CnyQK005dKEK2QiK6uFFT4vGOzI-?cq=1

Answer 1

Are we the only advanced ones? Maybe they came, had a look, were disgusted with what they saw and took off again. I would..

Answer 2

I disagree with your logic.

I read about the fermi paradox a while back, which basically covers all the angles on why we have not (been) contacted by life elsewhere in the universe.

It is mathematically quite likely that life will occur, occurs, or did occur elsewhere in the universe.

As for intelligent life, that is quite likely as well.

As for travel, or even communication, given the probable distances between inhabitable or life-supporting planets, it would take lifetimes upon life times for anything to get across, even traveling at light speed.

Also, if you look at the age of the earth, and the percentage of time that humans have been on it, you will see that it is tiny tiny tiny, so another problem becomes, even if there WERE two similarly intelligent lifeforms in the universe simultaneously, the odds of them becoming aware of each other and actually communicating before one of them died out is improbable.

We haven't even been producing and receiving radio communications for even a century yet. Once again, even if there was other intelligent life, it would have to be very close by to have been able to receive and respond to our signals by now.

Also, if you notice, we've had a relatively short age of long-range electro-magnetic communication. We are moving more and more toward signals that travel short distances, or through wires(fiber optics), so even if there are other life forms out there, they may be pre or post radio communication, so the signals would be impossible to recieve.

Another theory is that the static we get from space might be actual signals, but compressed to a degree we have not yet reached.

Another theory is that other life forms may not communicate in anything near the way we do. If you look at the other animals on the planet, you will see that some communicate by chemical scent(ants), body language(wolves). It is possible that these other beings have adapted other ways of communicating that we could not understand.


The point is, it is likely that life will be/is/was elsewhere in the universe but highly improbable for any communication to take place, so how would/do we know?

Read it, it is awesome.

Answer 3

It is also possible that there is intelligent life out in the vast universe and they may be trying to make contact with other life off their planet but we are far too primitive to understand the technology they are using. After all what are we listening with? Radio. If the universe is indeed teeming with life as some learned people believe, God has seem to it that they are too far away for contact or interaction between them to ever take place. If the universe is devoid of life except for the Earth wouldn't that be overkill. I believe that is why the creator made the universe so vast.

Answer 4

I actually find it quite disturbing to think that we are the only intelligent life in the universe. All those planets and solar systems to be alone is a very lonely thought.

However Bill Bryson in his opening chapters of A brief History of Nearly Everything really puts the fine balance that keeps us in exsitance in perspective the odd atom here and there and we woudl cease to exist in our current for or even at all.

Fascinating subject, have a star

Answer 5

There is always another hypothesis.

Out in the Galaxy somewhere is a race that are light years ahead who like the English of the past transported their criminals out of their system. This would make this a convict planet and the fact that we now have the technology to go into space will no doubt be worrying.

Once we have the ability to go interstellar that no doubt the race we come from will take action to stop us from going any further.

Answer 6

I think there are other intelligent life on other planets. I don't think the intelligence is better or worse but different - more advanced in some areas, less in others say war for example. As for making contact - would you contact a family that was continually killing each other?

Answer 7

There is no Alien found until now. The existence of life or any other form of intelligence is nothing but fictions made by numerous persons. Even some claimed that they had seen UFO or encountered them or carried out somewhere from the origin by a space vessel etc etc. But all these stories were originated from USA or other developed countries but never heard from other parts of the world. Better not to believe those baseless stories as those are only imaginations.

Answer 8

It would be the height of hubrus for mankind to think we are the only intellegent life in the universe.

Have you ever heard of the Drake Equation?

The Drake Equation was developed by Frank Drake in 1961 as a way to focus on the factors which determine how many intelligent, communicating civilizations there are in our galaxy. The Drake Equation is:

N = N* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x fL

The equation can really be looked at as a number of questions:

N* represents the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy
Question: How many stars are in the Milky Way Galaxy?
Answer: Current estimates are 100 billion.

fp is the fraction of stars that have planets around them
Question: What percentage of stars have planetary systems?
Answer: Current estimates range from 20% to 50%.

ne is the number of planets per star that are capable of sustaining life
Question: For each star that does have a planetary system, how many planets are capable of sustaining life?
Answer: Current estimates range from 1 to 5.

fl is the fraction of planets in ne where life evolves
Question: On what percentage of the planets that are capable of sustaining life does life actually evolve?
Answer: Current estimates range from 100% (where life can evolve it will) down to close to 0%.

fi is the fraction of fl where intelligent life evolves
Question: On the planets where life does evolve, what percentage evolves intelligent life?
Answer: Estimates range from 100% (intelligence is such a survival advantage that it will certainly evolve) down to near 0%.

fc is the fraction of fi that communicate
Question: What percentage of intelligent races have the means and the desire to communicate?
Answer: 10% to 20%

fL is fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations live
Question: For each civilization that does communicate, for what fraction of the planet's life does the civilization survive?
Answer: This is the toughest of the questions. If we take Earth as an example, the expected lifetime of our Sun and the Earth is roughly 10 billion years. So far we've been communicating with radio waves for less than 100 years. How long will our civilization survive? Will we destroy ourselves in a few years like some predict or will we overcome our problems and survive for millennia? If we were destroyed tomorrow the answer to this question would be 1/100,000,000th. If we survive for 10,000 years the answer will be 1/1,000,000th.

When all of these variables are multiplied together when come up with:

N, the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy.

(It is millions) !!!!!!

And that is just one galaxy, our Milky Way.

Answer 9

I think it a bit strange that in most science fiction movies, there are highly intelligent aliens coming from another world and they've come to kill us and we can't stop them.

How do we know (if there are aliens) this is true. We've only just gone to the moon 40 years ago. What makes everybody think aliens are coming here?

What if the aliens are very primative and peaceful? I think that WE would be the ones to invade and destroy them.

Answer 10

or the Universe is so Massive and the limits of travelling through space at a rate of speed is insufficient to get any real distance through the cosmos. Or maybe were too dumb to even perceive another Alien cultures means of communication. Or maybe they don't want us to know they are there. speculation is pretty much endless.

Answer 11

Have you read the book "Chariots of the Gods"? by Erich Von Daniken, in which he asks "Was God an Astronaut?".
An interesting read/suggestions/questions - try your local library or Amazon.