UFO -- How many of you believe aliens exist?

[Rickwell]

I think that there's life elswhere in the cosmos.I don't think any alians live among us.As far as the UFO's go,I'll believe it when I see it.Not those blurry artifacted tapes made by some Dude playing with his Mom's camcorder.Maybe we don't exist at all.Are we just some super software running it the back ground waiting to be upgraded ?

[BoWevil_abx]

Yep. I believe other life forms exist in the universe. I am not at all sure that any alien civilizations have visited earth.

[k0NG0]

Originally Posted by ctal

Actually Woody Allen had a good line just like that in his film "Hannah and her Sisters," set in New York. He was referring to an un-named rock musician that his date had just taken him to see.

-- Al

I've always believed that Woody Allen looks up to me.

[Sir Skully]

UFO's and extra-terrestrials, no **** illusions, yes ****

[Joe Public]

I do believe that life on extrasolar planets exists. Obviously, since those planets also exist. Though we have yet to prove that life can exist outside a terrestrial environment such as our own, I have no doubt that we will find it eventually. As for UFOs, it would require us to think ahead of our own theories and limitations (such as FTL travel and such), but who knows. That may become available to us some time in the future as well. So my answer is, i keep an open mind, but I've never encountered anything like an UFO in my life, so I can't really say "yes". Perhaps I'll be so fortunate one day to experience contact with alien life myself.

[Baud]

I don't believe in UFO's and extra-terrestrial visit on Earth, but I think the universe is big enough to contain gazillons of life, whatever the meaning of the word life. It's not a question of faith, just the product of a rational reflection. Our vision of the universe is infinitely too narrow, too human-minded (after all, Martians were said to have a humanoïd - and uggly - body).
This vision is not rational, and some are in the same position as others where not so long ago (Earth is flat, geocentric vision of the universe).
It's true that from our point of view, the Earth might be considered as the center of the universe; but it is also true that when we are sitting on the train, it's the station that leaves the train and not the opposite.

[maxidius]

Let's take the opposite view: Earthlings are coming to an alien world, whatever planet it might be, so for those life forms there, we are an UFO. If their technologies are superior, then our coming is probably very much like an army of ants coming to the kitchen !!! Then what ??

The first difficulty will be communication. We don't have dictionary, translators, interpreters, etc. Even on this earth, among countries, and domestically among different groups, there are enough "misunderstandings" that create wars, damages, sufferings. The encounter is not expected to be smooth and easy. Discoveries of unknown species on earth are good examples of what we don't know -- the human knowing often implicitly assumed to be what we can documented.

[ctal]

Originally Posted by maxidius

Let's take the opposite view: Earthlings are coming to an alien world, whatever planet it might be, so for those life forms there, we are an UFO. If their technologies are superior, then our coming is probably very much like an army of ants coming to the kitchen !!! Then what ??

The first difficulty will be communication. We don't have dictionary, translators, interpreters, etc. Even on this earth, among countries, and domestically among different groups, there are enough "misunderstandings" that create wars, damages, sufferings. The encounter is not expected to be smooth and easy. Discoveries of unknown species on earth are good examples of what we don't know -- the human knowing often implicitly assumed to be what we can documented.

It's a moot (not mute, as is often mis-said) question. If we make the apparently safe assumption that there is no intelligent life elsewhere within this solar system, then the simple fact is that space is far too big, stars are too far apart, travel times are far too long, and the energy required to attain relativistic speeds (which would still be too slow to be practical) is far too great. Not to mention that there are way, way too many stars to be searched. We won't get there, and they won't get here, in any conceivable future, in my opinion.

That said, I don't remember the specifics, but I recall that the artifacts that were in the space probes we sent up that left the solar system contained drawings that drew upon basic mathematical and physical principles that presumably could be universally understood. Not that there is much hope of their ever being found.

IMO the best and perhaps only hope for detection of intelligent life elsewhere is via radio-based methods such as SETI.

Regards,
-- Al

[WhiteEclipse]

Originally Posted by Rickwell

Maybe we don't exist at all.Are we just some super software running it the back ground waiting to be upgraded ?

Dude, all of you are just figments of my imagination. If I stop thinking, you disappear.

[ctal]

One of the more fascinating books I read as a youth was "Profiles of the Future," a non-fiction work by Arthur C. Clarke (who wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey," among many other things). It was published in 1963. One of the chapters was entitled "Space: The Unconquerable" (he meant unconquerable in the sense of exploration, not battle). Its fundamental point was that even on a theoretical basis (not to mention on a practical basis), space was unconquerable due to two things: The unimaginable distances involved, and the unimaginable number of stars that are out there, separated by the unimaginable distances.

It was estimated that the number of stars in what were then the observable parts of the universe was 10 to the 20th power (a one followed by 20 zeros). That number is undoubtedly far greater today.

If there is intelligent life somewhere out there, that is capable of space travel, these two reasons easily explain why they haven't been here. They are too far away, and even if they could somehow cover the distance there are too many possible destinations for them to try to go to.

The chapter concludes, referring to the relatively nearby and bright star Vega (26 light-years away, meaning it would take 26 years to get there traveling at the speed of light, which literally requires infinite energy to reach), "Past this blue-white beacon ... we may send our minds and bodies, but never our hearts. For no man will ever turn homeward from beyond Vega to greet again those he knew and loved on Earth."

The same holds true for those who may exist elsewhere, relative to their home planet.

Regards,
-- Al

[maxidius]

Ctal, thanks for the reference. The explanation makes sense, at least in the face-to-face encounter. But, if communications only are to occur, then somehow some kind of contact still may be made, even in the very tiny probability. I think that if there is another civilization out there, they would cherish the same question as ours as to whether there is another alien in universe. I hope there are future discoveries which may help us to understand with more probability what might exist there.

[Sola1280]

Considering theres a ton of galaxy's that we cant see or even know about its logical to assume that there is intelligent life on other planets outside of our own.

Now based on that assumption i think its possible that another lifeform has evolved enough to have more advanced technology that allows them to travel millions and millions of light years in an instant. its possible that they could have been here, but have they been here?? probably not.

[ctal]

Originally Posted by Sola1280

Considering theres a ton of galaxy's that we cant see or even know about its logical to assume that there is intelligent life on other planets outside of our own.

Agreed 100%.

Originally Posted by Sola1280

Now based on that assumption i think its possible that another lifeform has evolved enough to have more advanced technology that allows them to travel millions and millions of light years in an instant. its possible that they could have been here, but have they been here?? probably not.

Technology cannot overcome the laws of physics and nature. "Time warps" and "warp drives" and other phrases dreamed up by science fiction writers notwithstanding, unless modern understandings of physics and cosmology are fundamentally wrong, nothing can go faster than light.

And even if they are fundamentally wrong, and millions of light years could be covered instantly, as Clarke put it there are vastly more stars out there than there are grains of sand on the entire Earth. The chances that we would be singled out for visit would seem to be nil.

Regards,
-- Al

[Cogar]

Aliens exist--both legal and illegal--but they are all earthlings.

Regarding extraterrestrials, none have ever been found and I am placing my bet that they will never discover any. They have searched for over a century with telescopes of various types (optical, radio, etc.) and a wide variety of increasingly sophisticated equipment built to detect some form of life. The net result has 100% unsuccessful.

[Sir Skully]

We are here in the now............I told ya'll, but no, ya wouldn't listen....