Are we alone in the universe?

[oz]

Hey, guys & gals, I'm curious regarding what you all think about our place in the universe.

Do you think we are all alone, or do you believe there are other beings out there?

If you think there are others, do you think any of them have visited earth in the past?

Please remember, there is no room in the discussion for politics and/or religion (violates forum rules).

Thanks in advance for your input.

[carlosponti]

of course we are not alone in the universe where do you think Elvis went?

probability states that we cant be alone if the universe is as big as we think it is. If life started here even by accident then the accident would have happened else ware just probably not at the same time maybe.

[minthaka]

If we look at the large ( almost infinite) number of stars and galaxies, it gives us a question: what is the possibility to have life on just one planet ?
It is hard to exclude religion from this discussion, since all we know are our beliefs. I can only say: " I believe, there is somebody or something living out there".
But practically I have no scientific evidences. And it is damn hard to believe, that the life on Earth is the consequence of accidental meetings of the material particles (Coacervates, lightnings, bacteria... - ... humans).
But what are you counting as living beings ?
Something we all must face is order in the space. Everything is well designed, defined. And if there was life in the space we would be only hear about "them", because there are and shall be no possibilities to visit even the nearest star, the Proxima Centauri.

[bigtomrodney]

I doubt very much that we're alone. Maybe the life isn't what we'd expect but I expect that we will see other life. On the other hand I can't imagine we were visited by them.

Maybe temporal visitors on the other hand...

[Thrillhouse]

I don't know and there's no way I would pretend to. There's so much that is unknown that it would be difficult to even postulate.

It's questions like these that make me think of what Socrates said:
"The only wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

[carlosponti]

that is another good point about the life question. there is no doubt that life exists on other planets because of rocks that have returned from planetary missions like mars the moon etc that have fossilized bacteria in them. the Jupiter moon IO is reputed to have life according to scientists based on conditions that are apparent there. its got a liquid layer with a frozen surface and the core having volcanic activity. its quite entirely possible when they send a probe there that there is bacteria thriving under the ice and maybe even life as evolved as fish. There was also a mission this last year to study a comet and actually grab material from it. whats the possibility that there is life there to that gets spread across the solar system in some way. intelligent life on the other hand according to what we think of it might be so sparatic that it indeed exist but is so far away that they would be gone by the time we traveled there.

[techieMoe]

I'm pretty sure life existed at some point in the outside universe, but I'm not entirely sure we're not the last ones standing, so to speak. Sure, we've found evidence of ancient bacteria and things of that nature, but nothing near what we here on Earth consider "intelligent" or even "borderline autistic."

I figure we'll eventually develop faster modes of space travel and mine the crap out of the universe, all the while realizing the sad reality that we really are alone. Or maybe I've just read too much Grant Naylor.

[Oxygen]

For certain there's be life out there, just not what we'd expect... infact maybe as some point there was life, but didn't evolve as we have, and have become extint, or maybe they have the equivilant of a certain US president, and blown themselves off the map.

[fingal]

That's a big question! I think there's almost certainly life out there, given the sheer size of the Cosmos. Actually, I think it's likely that there is more than one Universe (I read this as scientific theory).

After all, we are here so why not others?

[Vergil83]

but nothing near what we here on Earth consider "intelligent" or even "borderline autistic."

That also brings up the question, would be recognize intelligent life if we saw it. It is one thing to see how a bird behaves and assign some sort of intelligence to it. An alien life form is mostly likely going to be completely different. Maybe they can't move, are extremely small, and communicate using some form not obviously apparent to us.

I would have to think yes on life, but Fermi's paradox does look good from some angles.