Quote:
Originally Posted by PiKA2001
(Post 1970455)
I don't think it's too far off. You can't assume that any sort of alien life is on the other side of the universe, they could well be within our own "neighborhood". Any sort of alien species could have thousands to millions of years on us in the sense of bio and technological evolution, who knows what sort of technology they have developed during that time.
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I agree with you, PiKA, but I don't believe it's within our own solar system. It's just that I think it might have already been done, if it has been done. I mean, I definitely don't believe that we're the only intelligent life in the entire universe. I mean, I don't even think we're the only planet with intelligent life in our entire galaxy. I think that would be really arrogant to think that we are. I would really be surprised if we were. It's just that in order to look for intelligent life forms, you kind of have to ask how life could ever evolve in the first place? Is basic life common? Is it mostly water and carbon based? And based on what you said about bio and technological evolution, does it need billions of years to develop like Earth needed, or can it develop in a fraction of time? I mean that is if the conditions are optimal. Those kinds of questions are what we need to be asking ourselves before we even can guess what kind of planets and/or moons to explore. You're right, we don't know what technology they've developed, it's just that if any intelligent alien life forms have tried to communicate with us, I just think they may have already tried. How do we know they haven't? We don't. Like, let's just say for the sake of debate, that humans are the only species in the history of life on Earth to evolve high-level intelligence. If life on Earth offers any measure of life elsewhere in the universe, then intelligence has to be rare. And I'm just giving an estimate, but there's probably been more than 10 billion species in the history of life on Earth. And with that, I would expect no better than about 1 and 10 billion to be as intelligent as we are, not to mention the odds against the intelligent life having an advanced technology and a desire to communicate through space. And I know you are aware of how vast space is. It's huge, and growing as I type. So, on a chance that such a civilization exists, radio waves would probably be the communication band of choice, I mean there could be another way, it's just that I'm sayig that way because of their ability to get through all of the gases and dust clouds. But humans on Earth have only understood how this is done for less than a century. More depressingly put, for most of human history, had aliens tried to send radio signals to us, we would have been incapable of receiving them. It's just that for all we know, the aliens have already done this and concluded that there was no intelligent life on Earth. So, I would think, right now, that they would be looking elsewhere, if they're looking at all.
I mean, think about it. Our life on Earth, intelligent or otherwise, requires us to hold the existence of liquid water as a prerequisite of life elsewhere. I mean, a planets orbit shouldn't be too close to its host star, otherwise the temperature would be too high, and the planets water content would vaporize. Nor should the orbit be too far away either, or else the temperature would be too low and the planets water content would freeze. It's just that conditions on the planet have to allow the temperature to stay within the 180 degree F range of liquid water. I like to compare our search for ET intelligent life forms to Goldilocks and the three bears, the temperature has to be just right.:p But seriously, while the distance from the host star is so important for the existence of life as we know it, other factors matter too, such as a planets ability to trap stellar radiation. Venus is a perfect example of this. PiKA, I know what you mean, it's just that I think it's a lot more to it than just that. I don't believe we're anywhere near being close, simply because we're barely advanced enough to leave Earth's atmosphere, and I'm not talking about space probes. If we consider the possibility that we might be somewhat primitve among the universe's other intelligent life-forms, (if there is any) however rare they might be, then I just think the best we can do at this point, with the technology we currently have, is to keep alert for signals sent by others. It's just that it's far more expensive to send, than to receive them. And if we do discover other intelligent life forms, or they discover us, we won't be around to see it. I don't think we will.:( Space is much, much too vast.
Sorry so long, but I really get into this. I just love astronomy.:p
eta: holy crap, after I pressed submit, I was like "this is long" lol