Do you believe that there is other intelligent life in the universe?

Question

I wholeheartedly do.
For me it's just a case of mathematics, with all the gazillions of stars out there, how can ours possibly be the only place where there is life.
Wel, what do YOU think?

Answer 1

Think of the 'possibility' of life elsewhere.

For the sake of argument, lets say .05% chance of life existing.

In our Milky Way there are Trillions of Stars so we'll have to reduce it to a more manageable figure.

Lets say 1,000,000,000 Stars.
There are a LOT more but this is an easier figure.

Scientist believe that at least 65% of these stars would be similar to our star 'Sol'.
That reduces the Stars we have to 650,000,000.

Of these stars, so far every one of them that have been observed has planets in orbit. So we still have 650,000,000 left.

In our own system there are quite a few planets, 1 of which may have had life at some point (Mars) and 1 that does have life.
Life (as we are a aware), needs liquid water and certain temperatures to develop.
There is life throughout our planet so the requirements can be from scalding hot to slightly beyond freezing. Taking this into account, the chances of a planet have the environmental conditions needed are fairly low, maybe as low as 20%.
That leaves around 130,000,000 planets capable of sustaining what we know as life.

Perhaps the planet has been decimated by Meteor impacts? We'll include them. Our planet is hit every year by thousands of meteors. 40% contain the raw building blocks of life.

Lets drop the figure by that and we are left with, around 52,000,000 planets that are in the right place at the right time, with the right sun and the basic requirements for life to form.
Is there 1 in 52,000,000 chance of life?
Then we are alone in our portion of this Galaxy, but there may be others in the other bits.
I rounded down the figures severely so you can multiply the amounts by 10 or even 100.

No other life? Virtually impossible that there is NO life anywhere else.

Intelligent life? If life develops then it evolves and if it evolves it will gain a degree of intelligence. Even on our own planet there is life at varying evolutionary stages.


My personal belief is that there is life of 1 sort or another (anything from bacteria to what we have on Earth), on 1 in 10,000 planets. the Galaxy is teeming with life that may ask the same question of "Are we alone?"
Or they may not care.
Or they might not have the technology to wonder.

Or they may be on their way.
When we find out for certain I will be dust but I'd like to think that the Human Race gives a good account of itself.


Long winded I know.
Thanks for reading.
:~}

Answer 2

Oh, great question!
Personally I've been found of Astronomy, Ufology and Science Fiction since I was 12. And I think exactly the same thing: with all the Galaxies existing in our Universe it's statistically impossible (I don't like this word because I'm sure that Nothing's Impossible If You Want ;) that there are no intelligent creatures on other planets. And to find them it's not necessary to visit other galaxies. Our own Milky Way is full of systems, many of which are surrounded by planets, and at least one of them must be similar to Earth! The problem is that we are looking for aliens similar to us, kind of Star Trek Vulcanians, you know, but the life is a very complicated thing, so aliens can be very different from what we are used to imagine.
And, another HUGE problem are distances that exist between various systems. I hope that Stephen Hawkings, or someone else, will manage to invent the Warp drive and we'll be able to go where no man has gone before! :D

Answer 3

Hello Flash...

I am with you (almost)...

You said one thing in line one of your question (INTELLIGENT LIFE)

then on down a little farther you said just the word (LIFE).

There is a huge difference between one and the other. Are Reptiles intelligent? Are Insects intelligent? Are Birds intelligent? How about Fish? Are they Intelligent?

If you mean human beings might exist elsewhere in the Universe.....the chances are much narrower for that possiblilty.

The Earth has been through about six stages of global extinction wherein almost everything was killed off by some major catastrophe. Following the last global extinction some interesting twist of fate produced a variation in mammal development which lead to the ability of certain mammals to think and compute within their brains. Human Beings are the result of that development.

Before jumping to the conclusion that there are human beings somewhere else in the Universe, one should look at the "total number of varieties" of :
Invertabrates
Insects
Fish
Birds
Reptiles
Mammals

And then note that Human Beings are only "one particular
type" of Mammal.

Therefore, odds are that one other species might be the dominant species on another Earthlike planet out there in the Universe somewhere. Will it have developed Intelligence? I don't know. But the likelihood of a very well developed Bird, Reptile, or Fish is highly possible, given the enormous number of varieties here on Earth. One would suspect large varieties to have developed elsewhere as well.

It is also possible, given the cycle of repeated extinctions, that on some distant Earthlike planet, that mankind did emerge, and was wiped out during one of their similar extinctions a long time ago. And, if that is the case, maybe all that is left for us to discover is a fantastic population of very well developed birds or fish.

Answer 4

Mathematics can only apply if you know the variable.We don't.The "drake equation" is an example.Other than the estimated number of stars,and the estimated number of stars with planets,every other variable is ENTIRELY guesswork.If ANY of the variables =0,the total will =0.We DON'T know how common life is,so far,we have found it precisely 1 place,Earth.I tend to think life is fairly common,as the building blocks,such as amino acids,are detected in interstellar clouds.I am not nearly as confident in intelligent life.Many people seem to think evolution inevitably produces intelligence.That is not the case,evolution has one purpose only,survival.Intelligence may NOT turn out to be such a great survival trait,when combined with other traits like toolmaking and aggression.Bacteria have been here billions of years,zero intelligence.Dinosaurs ruled 160 million years,dumb as rocks,until an asteroid hit.Modern man appeared 100,000 years ago or so,a relative "eyeblink"in time.Yet we stand at the verge os self extinction with possible nuclear war.Intelligence may turn out to be just another in a long series of "evolutionary dead-ends"We just don't know.One cannot legitimately say "the odds are for it"There is no way to calculate the odds,as we have no clue of the conditions for life,and intelligence.The ONLY number we can be reasonably sure about is the number of stars.Everything beyond that,sheer speculation.Personally,I think there is life in abundance.I am still undecided if intelligence naturally follows.On Earth it certainly didn't.Only one species in billions of years made it to technology,and we don't know if that intelligence will destroy it.It's not arrogant at all to think intelligence may not be widespread.The one planet we know,and can calculate odds,show it is billions to one for intelligence developing

Answer 5

I think that you're right. There might be up to 400,000,000,000 stars in our own galaxy - most of them could have planetary systems - even if the chance of life was like a thousand of a percent there would be loads and loads of inhabited worlds. Intelligence? Life won't always evolve in such a way but where sentience does develop it will help its owners to survive.

There's also over 100 billion galaxies so in the whole Universe, we could only guess at how many intelligent races there were.

The only thing I disagree with you about is your term 'other intelligent life' I don't see much intelligent life on this planet.

Answer 6

I too find it inconceivable that we are the only ones.
It is likely that life is fairly widespread in the universe, but that only a small percentage of it is intelligent and rational. However, since there are countless many planets around countless stars, there's still a possible huge number of worlds supporting intelligent life, some of which may be home to advanced space-faring species.

Unfortunately, the distances between such civilizations is so vast that I think it's unlikely that any two civilizations will ever meet.

Answer 7

Scientists agree with you that this is a probability question: the vast number of stars and planets in the universe, versus the amazingly improbable conicidences and small margins for error that allowed life on Earth.
A compromise position would be that there is other intelligent life out there, but so far away from us that either it or we would be dead before being able to discover each other.

Answer 8

As you say there are billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars in the universe. The debate over whether any have visited us or whether we will ever meet them is another story entirely, but I wholeheartedly agree with you as statistically it would be highly unlikely that we would be the only intelligent life in this universe. I would put my house on it but I don't think it would get proved one way or the other in my lifetime - you never know though.

Answer 9

I'm with you all the way on this one. Although most of the Universe is empty space, it is generally reckoned to be something in the general region of 10^23 miles across. Bearing in mind the fact that this little tiny ball of rock we call home (aka Earth) is under 8000 miles across, it would be more than just blindly arrogant of mankind to assume that this is the only residence for intelligent life.

One day, hopefully, the question will be definitively answered - I just hope they come peacefully rather than being like something out of "Independence Day".

Answer 10

Like one of the characters in "Contact" said, "If there wasn't, it would be an awful waste of space." Like you said, the sheer size of the universe, the universal speed limit, and the number of possibilities are the greatest challenges that have thus far prevented another species from making First Contact. Before I pass on, I hope to see the day when scientists can confirm that there is another kind of life - intelligent or not - off world.