I want to Believe

Are we the only living beings in the universe?

  • Yes

  • No


Results are only viewable after voting.

Acylum

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2006
12,967
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Hawking voiced his fears at the Breakthrough event, saying, "We don't know much about aliens, but we know about humans. If you look at history, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms have often been disastrous from their point of view, and encounters between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced. A civilization reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so, they will be vastly more powerful, and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria."
Oh that’s nice.
 

Bipolarcy

Well-Known Member
Oct 27, 2008
2,991
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How come in this age of high-def, digital cameras everywhere, in every pocket, practically, this is the best video we can get of supposed UFOs?
 

AuH2O

Well-Known Member
Sep 7, 2013
11,175
17,074
113
Hawking voiced his fears at the Breakthrough event, saying, "We don't know much about aliens, but we know about humans. If you look at history, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms have often been disastrous from their point of view, and encounters between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced. A civilization reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so, they will be vastly more powerful, and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria."
On the bright side, if you told most people you found a place that’s loaded with a new and strange bacteria, they might be cool with just steering clear of it.
 
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JM4CY

Well-Known Member
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SuperFanatic T2
Aug 23, 2012
33,711
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America
Hawking voiced his fears at the Breakthrough event, saying, "We don't know much about aliens, but we know about humans. If you look at history, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms have often been disastrous from their point of view, and encounters between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced. A civilization reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so, they will be vastly more powerful, and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria."
They see NO value in our species??? I beg to differ.
A8WF.gif
 

Turn2

Well-Known Member
May 12, 2011
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Clusterfunkeny
Are we the only living beings in the universe?

As I look out my window I can't even count the living things I can see. So the answer is "no". I've also had cats smarter than many people, so, well, that's another story.

We will eventually find proof of life on Mars. It won't be the last place in the solar system.

Will we ever become aware of interstellar travelers? I'm skeptical. We really have nothing that should interest them if they're that advanced. I feel it may be more likely that we're being visited from across dimensions than across light years. It's also quite possible we're just being visited by us. Think about it. YMMV. Burn one and see what you come up with.
 

CloneIce

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2006
36,687
19,558
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As I look out my window I can't even count the living things I can see. So the answer is "no". I've also had cats smarter than many people, so, well, that's another story.

We will eventually find proof of life on Mars. It won't be the last place in the solar system.

Will we ever become aware of interstellar travelers? I'm skeptical. We really have nothing that should interest them if they're that advanced. I feel it may be more likely that we're being visited from across dimensions than across light years. It's also quite possible we're just being visited by us. Think about it. YMMV. Burn one and see what you come up with.

Right there with ya. It’s a possibility that what we think are alien visitors are humans from the future. I assume that’s what you are speculating too?
 
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Jer

Opinionated
Feb 28, 2006
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If we find intelligent life out there, can we trade some of our unintelligent life for some of them?

On a more serious note though, I think people vastly underestimate what space travel requires beyond say Mars. While technology will create new opportunities and advances beyond today’s imagination, it would take something that fundamentally breaks our current laws of physics to be able to travel to 99.9999999999% of the Universe.

Despite all the advances of mankind over the past 100 years, we’re still fundamentally stuck with iterative improvements on the same core principles of rocket design and thrust. There is no scenario where anything we can think of today can make space travel possible beyond our small solar system (or even within most of it). Unless or until we can find or prove something like teleportation, wormholes, etc (things of fiction today), we’re not going to get anywhere of real promise for advanced civilizations.

Even today, getting beyond a few hundred miles above earth’s surface requires vast expenses and time. Getting to the moon and back takes weeks, and getting to Mars and back would take many months and a lot of luck. Jump ahead another 100 years and without some theoretical game changer, it’s likely only the moon and Mars will be in reach.

It’s almost certain there is other intelligent life, but also possible that even if they are millions or billions of years ahead of us, there just isn’t a way to travel such vast distances and/or detect various types of communication or signals.
 
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Aclone

Well-Known Member
Dec 14, 2007
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Des Moines, Ia.
I’m speaking more about these videos of UFO’s that always pop up. I don’t believe any of them. I don’t think some UFO flew 100 billion miles and stumbled upon earth, flew next to a jet, and then leave never to be seen again.
You say that like human pilots have never hot dogged around other human pilots flying inferior craft, then flown off never to be seen again.
 

BWRhasnoAC

Well-Known Member
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SuperFanatic T2
Apr 10, 2013
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Dez Moy Nez
I don’t think people understand how vast the universe really is... so, is there life someone else out there? The answer is almost certainly yes. Now do I think we will ever interact with other evolved living beings? No I do not. The distance between us is likely to big for us to ever meet. Unless we start talking about traveling through wormholes and stuff like that...
Quantum entanglement.
 

t-noah

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2007
17,032
10,809
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Need at least two more choices in your poll. Don't Know, Don't Care.

I'd probably check both of those. I would start caring if we were made aware of legitimate sightings and evidence. I guess that is debatable.
 

t-noah

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2007
17,032
10,809
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If we find intelligent life out there, can we trade some of our unintelligent life for some of them?

On a more serious note though, I think people vastly underestimate what space travel requires beyond say Mars. While technology will create new opportunities and advances beyond today’s imagination, it would take something that fundamentally breaks our current laws of physics to be able to travel to 99.9999999999% of the Universe.

Despite all the advances of mankind over the past 100 years, we’re still fundamentally stuck with iterative improvements on the same core principles of rocket design and thrust. There is no scenario where anything we can think of today can make space travel possible beyond our small solar system (or even within most of it). Unless or until we can find or prove something like teleportation, wormholes, etc (things of fiction today), we’re not going to get anywhere of real promise for advanced civilizations.

Even today, getting beyond a few hundred miles above earth’s surface requires vast expenses and time. Getting to the moon and back takes weeks, and getting to Mars and back would take many months and a lot of luck. Jump ahead another 100 years and without some theoretical game changer, it’s likely only the moon and Mars will be in reach.

It’s almost certain there is other intelligent life, but also possible that even if they are millions or billions of years ahead of us, there just isn’t a way to travel such vast distances and/or detect various types of communication or signals.
Warp Drive?
 

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