Welcome, guest. Register to remove this message!

[Gemini Prime]

In an attempt to have something for us to discuss (besides swedish politics) and try to liven up our forums I would like to start a thread regarding life on other planets. Not sure how interesting it will be but it´s something that enter my mind on occasion. Since I doubt I am the only Sci- Fi fan on the forums it may even be interesting.

In the news today it was reported that the UN has an emissary for contacts with intelligent life on other planets, her name is Mazaian Othman. I have no problems with this initiative by itself. It´s a bit like looking for asteroids, it may take millions of years before we are hit by a big one, but you cant be sure. It´s good to be prepared. When it comes to alien life there are many things to take into consideration.

First off all the question if there is life on other planets. I think the likelihood for that is very high. It would seem very strange if life only appears on one planet in the entire universe. But what are the odds that they are intelligent? There is no rule as far as I know that demands that intelligent life evolves after a certain amount of time. The universe could be full of life but they may not be very sentient.

There is also the matter of time to take into consideration. There could be intelligent, sentient life near by but if they are 300 years behind us in their technical development, they have no way of knowing that we are here. On the other hand they could be older than us and use a technology that we are unaware of and as a result using radio waves could be the equivalent of using smoke signals to them. Of course alien life could be aware of us but simply leave us alone since we are seen as to primitive and they dont wish to disturb our development, a bit like the Prime Directive in Star Trek. There is also the possibility that intelligent life existed near by but was extinguished long before our kind stood upright.

Then there are other problems as well. Even if we made contact via radio waves (which seems most likely) the signals we receive could be thousands of years old. A reply would take just as long. Contact could just mean confirmation that there was life elsewhere but we may have no way of knowing if they are still there. There is also the possibility that we are not as intelligent or sentient as our ego makes us believe. An alien form of life may not make a difference between us and all other forms of life on our planet.

Stephen Hawking made a claim that we should lay low and not try to make our existence known to a hypothetical alien. I am not too worried about that. In order to travel to us you should be able to travel faster than light and since you cant do that (well, you can travel at the speed of light if you dont have any mass but that opens up new problems) it would seem likely that they would (again) use stuff from Star Trek, namely a way to bend space as way of travel (warp drive). If you could travel freely through space, which must be seen as a necessity in order to get here, I doubt you would stop to invade or contaminate our cultures. If you have countless of stars to visit, why waste time on us?

I just realized just how long this is getting so I will save my thoughts on us visiting other planets that harbors life for another time.

This post has been edited by Gemini Prime: 26 September 2010, 19:27

[Knottetron]

Cool topic. I will give a few toughts for starters.

I think the main problem is that we always seem to think the other specie/s would be like us. Ok, they might be. But they also might be planet wide sentient neural networks, a hive mind, a bio mechanical servant race created by long gone masters or something even more "out there"(pun intended).

Stephen Hawking made a claim that we should lay low and not try to make our existence known to a hypothetical alien. I am not too worried about that. In order to travel to us you should be able to travel faster than light and since you cant do that (well, you can travel at the speed of light if you dont have any mass but that opens up new problems) it would seem likely that they would (again) use stuff from Star Trek, namely a way to bend space as way of travel (warp drive). If you could travel freely through space, which must be seen as a necessity in order to get here, I doubt you would stop to invade or contaminate our cultures. If you have countless of stars to visit, why waste time on us?

Why would they not. We might just be good protein to "them". Or slaves. Or we could be seen as a possibility to sell cosmic glass beads to. Or a good place to hide from the their law enforcement. Or even as savages ready to be converted to the true belief of the great twenty eyed steel god Xargalaa. Or just an empty ship appearing for no apparent reason in our solar system.
The possibilities are endless. I am not as pessimistic as Mr. Hawking. But i have to admit that i see more possibilities for contact than just well meaning beings coming to bring us the cosmic light. Or intergalactic army ants coming to eat us all.

One thought that in enjoy tremendously is thinking about the courses in xenohistory and archaeology that this could open.

I just realized just how long this is getting so I will save my thoughts on us visiting other planets that harbors life for another time.

And guess if i am miffed that it(propably) wont happen during my life time.

[BigPete]

Interesting topic

I am convinced that there is life on other planets. As Gemini Prime says, it is highly unlikely for our planet to be the only one in the entire universe that has life on it. However, there's an equally big likeliness that other planets contain forms of life we can't even begin to imagine. Who says life has to be carbon based? Or comes only from oxygen, water, and a temperate climate? Also, what criteria do you consider when saying something is alive or not? we could stumble upon a planet populated only by amoeba, or on the other end of the scale, a super-evolved lifeform that has no physical entity. How about sizes? Planetary conditions could just as well create entire civilisations that could fit in the palm of your hand, or creatures hundreds of meters tall. There is so much room for different kinds of life, and in a more or less unlimited space to develop in. I simply refuse to believe that we are alone

[Knottetron]

I simply refuse to believe that we are alone

Me too. I feel it is one of the most selfish thoughts to think that we would be alone. It holds within it an idea that we would be so bloody perfect and unique(unique in the wrong way) that it makes me sick. Same thing goes with the thought that life should be like us.

Still waiting for the ewoks to come and take me home.

[Gemini Prime]

Nice to see some movements in our decaying forum (at least it seems that way on occasion). Everything regarding this topic is hypothetical. The likelihood for alien life is high but until we find some we are alone in the universe. Likelihoods and probabilities are not the same as proven and verified facts.

When it comes to how life may be out there or what it´s made of we must again speculate. I am not so sure that alien life will be as different as we may think. They may (and probably would) look very different on the surface but if you look deeper in the organisms I wouldn't be very surprised if we where to find out that we are very similar. I think (but dont know) that the mechanisms that govern life could be a universal law. Life is chemistry, they should have DNA or some equivalent (perhaps even with the same proteins we have) and they should be subjects of evolution by natural selection.

Upon reading some of the entries I see that my love for sci- fi is indeed shared but at the same time I think some of the ideas are a bit improbable. I am not sure that a being without a physical form, made of energy could function. Life needs some mechanisms in order to work, strip those mechanisms away (like a body) and I have a hard time seeing how something could still be alive. I cant see how an evolutionary process that only tinkers and adapts life could adapt itself to the point where the very thing being adapted could disappear. The fact that a body made of energy should take on mass over time (since neither can be destroyed only transformed) also presents a problem for me.

I would also be very disappointed if aliens would come and invade us as Stephen Hawking suggested. It would mean that life is as full of itself as we tend to be. I think it´s more likely that our fear of alien invasions comes from our ego. Of course aliens would want to invade us. We are the best, center of the universe and they want our stuff, jobs, women while living a life in luxury on welfare.

I dont think we matter that much in the grandness of the universe. But everything is speculation. We dont know after all.

[SureShot]

There are flooding oceans beneath the ice capes on Europe (moon of Jupiter), so I'm positive there some kind of bacterial life.

Life is defintely out there - but as we know it from earth, probably not in our near solar systems.

This post has been edited by SureShot: 27 September 2010, 20:10

[Stolpen]

Not only Europa but also other moons in the solar system such as Io and Titan should be able to sustain bacterial life. Titan is also very interesting since it lies at a distance that gives it liquid methane and who knows if that combined with something else could spark some more advanced life. Otherwise I really think that both Venus and Mars should have some kind of bacterial life as well. Life on the gas giants is a bit harder to imagine but who knows.

I really believe that there is intelligent life on other planets, in some cases more advanced than us as well as less advanded. Planets dominated by dinosaurish creatures, with hive minded bugsish creatures and on and on. It would really be disapointing if we are alone in this grand universe.