do you believe in aliens?

[ruderalis]

Saying that Earth is the only life harboring spot in the universe is like saying...

there's only one grain of sand in America stuck on the bottom of a cows hoof.

[Hippie3]

repetition
is not proof.

saying it
doesn't make it true.

show me this 'other life';
hell even a fossil is more than you've got.

the basic question is plain as day-
where are the others ?

if it's so obvious that the universe is full of life
where are the radio signals ?

surely, by the same 'logic' you use,
we cannot be the only species to ever
modulate electromagnetic signals [radio/radar/lasers/microwaves].

by your 'logic' there should be hundreds of developing civilizations out there
but how is it that not one can be detected ?

[Calaquendi]

...I found one...
dmt_bong_pk.png (490.6 KB)


Manage Attachments

[dimension traveler]

Originally Posted by TVCasualty

Whaddya mean "we?"

Seriously, if a kind of travel is truly possible that's based on conscious Intent instead of physical movement of matter, then it would be accessible to any who develop the requisite level of awareness. Being entirely based in consciousness, it would be a method of travel capable of being developed independently from any physical technological progress within a society. If anything, excessive focus on technology only makes discovering and developing what we might call shamanism even harder since the material world draws our attention in the opposite direction.

So, IF (and this is a big IF) shamanic journeying is real, then people on Earth may have been routinely communicating with extraterrestrial intelligences for thousands of years. Granted, it's a subtle kind of communication for the most part, but I would expect a Universal internet of consciousness to be low-key and easily missed by those not properly attuned.

yep we they have and those others warned us of what they call quantrum cybernetics. for it is possible with technology but we dont want that, technology is our power into tapping into the energy we all live by with ect.. (must be very careful) would you want to be robot like.

we must understand the underwoven side of the fabric and have a foot in both doors.

[SilvrHairDevil]

Hip said:
"..by your 'logic' there should be hundreds of developing civilizations out there
but how is it that not one can be detected ?"

Our own radio signature is only about 100 light years in diameter. For the sake of argument, let's posit an advanced civilization that has had electro-magnetics for 10,000 years.

Their radio signature is still only 10,000 light years in diameter - an insignificant dot in an unimaginably immense universe.

We can, should we choose, posit tens of thousands of such civilizations, all still teeny little dots of radio signature.

Any two of them connecting would be bucking odds that go way beyond negligible.

[Hippie3]

eh, any civilization about 150,000 years after radio would cover its entire galaxy.
even assuming from one tip to the far tip.
even if the civilization perished
its signals would travel on out in an ever increasing sphere.

your 'calculation' neglects to factor in the fact that
stars are not uniformly dispersed
but instead are found in large concentrations
very close together on an astronomical scale.

a civilization a few million years old will have
several other galaxies in range -
billions upon billions of stars.

yet we hear not one single signal.
pretty odd when you guys are so certain it's out there in abundance.

[dimension traveler]

as far as the radio thing goes we don't pick up cause those are different frequencies.

hold up I'll be tuning in soon with a cool link for you guys if I can find it

[Hippie3]

we scan the entire EM spectrum, they even look for laser light. there are no secret radio frequencies. besides a great deal of radio energy is created just by moving electricity, any civilization using electricity would give off radio noise clearly indicating its presence, the pulse of an engine, a generator, etc.

[dimension traveler]

sorry I shouldn't say radio, when i speak of other life form I dont mean in this dimension, another part of the hologram. many different energies must come together to resinate in these other dimensions.

damit i've rambeled to much, sorry, i'l do my best to put more of this together, just got to go for the moment

[Hippie3]

another dimension ?
well hell, why not-
hide your invisible ETs in 'another dimension'
and undetectable 'energies-
can't argue that.

[tenjin]

Well it's true there is no hard evidence but I'm going to indulge in speculation again : what about this hollow earth theory? Like some of the things Admiral Byrd talked about. Aliens tooling around in a spacecraft from far reaches of the universe seems kinda far fetched. The hollow earth theory seems a little more believable IMO especially since the more we look out into the cosmos the more alone we feel. These 'greys' may be ancient human or semi-human civilizations which fled underground a very long time ago. And these underground bases and cities are joint human-alien endeavours (Area51), where governments are aware of these people and have cooperated with them. These 'greys' may have evolved to the point where they have large black eyes and pale skin due to the conditions inside the Earth. Thinking of the Earth as a apple, as we only occupy the skin and there is this huge amount of space underneath where maybe the core acts as a mini-sun. The flying discs or cigar shaped craft seem perfect to fly in and out of cracks in the earth, like Mount Shasta, Tibet, the North Pole, etc. These crafts can maneuver sideways downward through cracks and are very fast to reach the inner earth. Maybe they came above to visit ancient civilizations like the Maya, Egyptians, etc. descendants of Atlantis maybe?

[red_lenses]

Another Good one.

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

if it's so obvious that the universe is full of life
where are the radio signals ?

surely, by the same 'logic' you use,
we cannot be the only species to ever
modulate electromagnetic signals [radio/radar/lasers/microwaves].

by your 'logic' there should be hundreds of developing civilizations out there
but how is it that not one can be detected ?

I think you already addressed that concern:

Originally Posted by Hippie3

also it bears mention that
previous early generations of stars
burned out fast due to massive size,
making odds of life in the early universe
much more unlikely than it is now,
much like the earth itself-
it was here billions of years ago
but it was not habitable yet,
too many asteroid impacts, too many volcanoes, etc. 10-24-09 14:55

Since the early Universe was pretty much just hydrogen and some helium, and current theory holds that all the heavier elements were forged in subsequent generations of stars, it would make sense that physical life could only have emerged after the Universe had reached some minimum age. Enough generations of stars would've had to have been born, gone through their entire life cycle, then exploded or otherwise died before life could exist. It probably takes a long time for the heavier atomic elements that were created in stars to re-form into a nebula and then a new planetary star system that contains all the necessary elements for life, but even though it's a long process it's probably a common one.

Also, with the "where are the radio signals?" question there is attenuation to consider. A radio transmission sent by intelligent life is going to be at least several orders of magnitude weaker than the energy being emitted by the host star of whatever civilization transmits it, plus we can all see how stars and even massive galaxies appear only as pinpoints of light to our eyes and in many cases even to our telescopes due to the distances involved, so I'd be curious to see any research about how well a radio transmission might be able to maintain it's integrity over interstellar distances; we may already be detecting signals transmitted by other life forms but by the time they get here there is not enough of the signal left to discern any patterns that hint at intelligence.

[Doctor D]

We've only been using radio technology for, what, 100 years? We cannot presume to know what means an advanced alien civilization would use for long-range communications. For all we know, the only civilizations that would use radio communications are those around our specific stage of development. I don't know the numbers, but I imagine the odds of us finding intelligent life near our precise state of technology are pretty damn slim. Especially if it turns out that bombardment with radio frequencies does contribute to brain cancer, as the evidence appears to be suggesting at the moment.

Regarding those gold "airplanes" - this is L.Ron Hubbard's proof that Xenu really did drop a bunch of thetans into volcanoes on Teegeeack 75 million years ago! There's no other explanation.

[SilvrHairDevil]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

eh, any civilization about 150,000 years after radio would cover its entire galaxy.
even assuming from one tip to the far tip.
even if the civilization perished
its signals would travel on out in an ever increasing sphere.

a civilization a few million years old will have
several other galaxies in range -
billions upon billions of stars.

yet we hear not one single signal.
pretty odd when you guys are so certain it's out there in abundance.

If there were a 150,000 year old radio-emitting civilization in our own Milky Way galaxy, we would receive their transmissions since the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years at the wide dimension. The question remains though - would we recognize such transmissions amid the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation?

A few million years of transmissions likely would cover several galaxies, as you suggest, and yes - billions upon billions of stars.

But - and it's a big but - the Universe itself, calculating age & speed of expansion, is now estimated as at least 156 billion light-years wide.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ay_040524.html

And - and it's a big and - the Universe is a sphere. The volume can be calculated, if you have enough zeros on your calculator:

Volume = 4/3 (pi)r3

A piddly few billion stars are still an infinitesimal fraction of the whole. And still widely-spaced enough to make chance contact wildly unlikely.

The possibility exists, of course. Provided one accepts also the possibility there may actually be such millions of years old civilizations.

As to your other statement:

"your 'calculation' neglects to factor in the fact that
stars are not uniformly dispersed
but instead are found in large concentrations
very close together on an astronomical scale."

Cite your sources, sir. I believe current thinking is that galaxies (and therefore stars) are indeed uniformly distributed throughout the Universe.

All this is to show why other civilizations (should any exist) haven't been noticed by us.

Which brings us back to the original question: Do you believe in aliens?

The wording is unfortunate. For Aliens, we could substitute God or Ghosts. It is phrased as a question of faith & belief.

If the question were: Do you think that, somewhere at some time, in the vastness of the Universe has there been/is now/will ever be other intelligent life?

My answer would be Yes. But I seriously doubt we will ever find that life.

[Doctor D]

Originally Posted by SilvrHairDevil

Cite your sources, sir. I believe current thinking is that galaxies (and therefore stars) are indeed uniformly distributed throughout the Universe.

This is wrong - galaxies are not uniformly spread throughout the universe. One of the major reasons for the development of the hypothesis of dark matter is due to the irregularities (anisotropy) of the measurement of the universe's cosmic background radiation. The matter in the early universe cooled and condensed to form "bubbles" of matter interspersed un-uniformly throughout the universe.

CMBR

[bbd2]

a civilisation more than a couple hundred thousand years would have to be multi-species
with earlier species designing their descendant later species
to adapt to competitive changes in their planet
and maintain their manner and level of consciousness
and manage the changes that would be inevitably caused by evolutionary forces (genetic drift, mutations) over timescales of 200K or more years

otherwise its like saying we are part of the million year old homo erectus civilization

guess we still use hand tools and fire eh?

given that kind of time for technological development, maybe radio and other electro-magnetic emissions are equivalent to flint stone tools

maybe nobody with enough technical ability to maintain species and/or civilization integrity over 200K years is still using radio, or used radio for longer than a 4-5 thousand years
their technology would have to be well-shielded to reduce mutation-promoting radiation

or maybe they engineered themselves into telepathic photosynthetic birds and dont use electricity

or maybe they wouldnt want to interact with anyone as young as homo sapiens,
itd be like talking to an animal - a chimp maybe
or a fish depending on how advanced their consciousnesses are

[SilvrHairDevil]

Originally Posted by Doctor D

This is wrong - galaxies are not uniformly spread throughout the universe. One of the major reasons for the development of the hypothesis of dark matter is due to the irregularities (anisotropy) of the measurement of the universe's cosmic background radiation. The matter in the early universe cooled and condensed to form "bubbles" of matter interspersed un-uniformly throughout the universe.

CMBR

From your link:
"With a traditional optical telescope, the space between stars and galaxies (the background) is pitch black. But with a radio telescope, there is a faint background glow, almost exactly the same in all directions, that is not associated with any star, galaxy, or other object."

And I can't find a reference to this:
"The matter in the early universe cooled and condensed to form "bubbles" of matter interspersed un-uniformly throughout the universe."

It is late and I may be slow-witted tonight, so could you please explain how anisotropy of dark matter means that galaxies are not uniformly distributed in the Universe.

On second thought, don't bother. It seems like hair-splitting at this moment and it takes nothing away from my explanation.

Which boils down to: There probably are alien intelligences "out there", but we won't likely meet them due to the vast distances and age inherent in the Universe.

[BGB]

OK I wasn't going to go into detail but the night of my first homegrown mushroom trip my father and myself were driving home from town and a spacecraft followed us for 30 miles to our home. We parked the car and ran to the back yard where we witnessed, within a football field away, a orbital space craft hovering up and down for close to an hour.
About 6 months ago myself and 5 friends witnessed the exact same spacecraft for around 5 minutes or so. My friends and my old lady were all on mushrooms, but I stayed sober to trip set for them. There were around a million people at this event and NO ONE ELSE seen the space craft AT ALL! We took pictures, and video but the craft scrambled our video and pictures. I felt every hair on my body tingle with static electricity. There was no excuse for this, it was real, and you can read the report submitted by my friend http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/manage_s...46581257474529

BTW the movie and pictures are on the site here http://www.mufon.com/mufonreports.htm search for kentucky and look for the date 05/21/09 and read and the pics and video are right there. peace

this is no shit, and Im not a quack...peace and respect...BGB

[eatyualive]

Originally Posted by Getafix

I suppose we could never prove that aliens exist but there is a vast amount of Possible evidence to suggest the existence of aliens.
That fact that there are more stars in the universe than there is grains of sand on all the beaches on this Planet, would suggest the existence of many other solar systems that could host Life. even if 1% of the stars have solar system similar to ours means that there could be millions of other planets that could sustain Life


The pics above are of sculptures and cave drawings that are 1000's of years old.
The Sculpture (top right) looks alot like a humanoid in a space suit.
Pics are from Eric von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods"
There is a lot more "evidence" to be found, even in the Bible.

interesting about all those pictures with the matching helicopters, jets and such. lets say some higher government power found blueprints for these types of vehicles while digging for the past. could be that they found those documents and created our own modern vehicles and take credit for something that was already designed. just an idea. but seeing the helicopter carving just made it far to coincidental.

could be that ancient societies actually designed some of our modern vehicles.

[sagiboy]

no disrespect but this is really alien technology...

[Doctor D]

Originally Posted by SilvrHairDevil

It is late and I may be slow-witted tonight, so could you please explain how anisotropy of dark matter means that galaxies are not uniformly distributed in the Universe.

On second thought, don't bother. It seems like hair-splitting at this moment and it takes nothing away from my explanation.

Let me start over - I shouldn't have even mentioned dark matter because it goes well beyond my understanding of cosmology, certainly beyond what I am able to converse about on any intelligent basis. But it is my understanding that galaxies are lumped together into giant collections of galaxies called superclusters. These superclusters of galaxies are uniformly distributed throughout the universe, but each supercluster exists as separate from the other superclusters by vast distances of seemingly empty space.

It's kind of like a chocolate chip cookie. If you measure the chocolate content of the cookie from far away, you can say that the chocolate is uniformly dispersed throughout the cookie. But on closer inspection, it is apparant that the chocolate is located in large clumps called "chips" which are themselves separated by vast distances of cookie dough.

So the question is, is there now or has there been alien life within our "chocolate chip" of galaxies, or not? Might as well not even talk about alien life in other superclusters, as they are so far away they don't deserve mention.

[SpiritMolecule]

From what Ive read and seen and put together in my mind, we have been visited by and been interacting with some form of intelligence for thousands of years. Its my belief and I came to it through a lifetime of reading, contemplation and personal experiences. Its not a fact, and Im not a scientist or physicist, its just a conclusion Ive come to. My opinion.

Also, lets be a bit more concise about what is meant by the word "Alien".
Does "Alien" mean a being from another planet or star system? Or can it mean a form of intelligence that is separate from humanity in some way?

[SpiritMolecule]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

eh, any civilization about 150,000 years after radio would cover its entire galaxy.
even assuming from one tip to the far tip.
even if the civilization perished
its signals would travel on out in an ever increasing sphere.

your 'calculation' neglects to factor in the fact that
stars are not uniformly dispersed
but instead are found in large concentrations
very close together on an astronomical scale.

a civilization a few million years old will have
several other galaxies in range -
billions upon billions of stars.

yet we hear not one single signal.
pretty odd when you guys are so certain it's out there in abundance.

From what Ive read about SETI, unkown signals are intercepted from deep space all the time. The problem is, they are not translatable or coherent as any kind of message at all. Also one must alwo consider that if there were super advanced beings living among the stars, who are we to think that they would be inclined to contact us? Maybe they just dont give a shit enough to travel billions of light years to announce their existence to a bunch apes? Im reminded of Dr. Michio Kaku and his statement that maybe the fact that we exist at all is of little practical significance to a type 2 or 3 civilization. If they are indeed millions or billions of years in advance of us, they probably would not care if we existed or not.

That, together with the distances between stars and galaxies I think it would be unlikely that even if extraterrestrials DO exist, theyre not coming this far out of their way to say "hi".

Thus, if the UFOs are something of substance and if there ARE alien abductions occurring or the Sumerians were praying to "those who from heaven to earth came" , then the entities in question are something other than extraterrestrials. I think Time Travellers or Interdimensional beings would be a more likely explanation.

No easier to prove, though.

[Getafix]

Nice to see this delusional thread is still active
Maybe Aliens don't exist, maybe my great, great, great,,,,,,,,,,grandchildren whom do not yet exist flew back into the ancient past with their Time machine and asked the ancients to carve little golden airplane and pics of helicolopters and shit in stone just to fug with our minds.
it's something i would do if given the power.

Peace

[MushroomJoe]

I believe that life will exist everywhere that the conditions are right for it. And by shear probability alone that means that there is a plethora of life out there. The four most common elements in biological life are Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, and Nitrogen. With the exception of Helium, these are also the four most common elements in the known universe! Life is EVERYWHERE!

Now about the visitors part..... If you "believe" (haha) in special and general relativity, you will know that its impossible to reach the speed of light (which is 671 million miles an hour), but lets just assume that it were true, It would take 4 years just to reach the nearest star which is closest by a lot. (that is traveling at the speed of light mind you) It would take (traveling at the speed of light) 2.5million years to reach the nearest galaxy.

The probability of alien life is high, while the probability of life finding other intelligent life via space travel is pretty low.

[MushroomJoe]

I just wanted to add, that I did NOT say intelligent life, just biological life in general would be abundant......


That, I think, is a very rare thing indeed.

[DanLarkin]

If aliens are out there it hasn't been proven. I believe they are but it's just my belief, and besides if they are and were proven to be, I think the human reaction to them would be far more interesting than the aliens themselves.

[larshroom]

Originally Posted by MushroomJoe

Now about the visitors part..... If you "believe" (haha) in special and general relativity, you will know that its impossible to reach the speed of light (which is 671 million miles an hour), but lets just assume that it were true, It would take 4 years just to reach the nearest star which is closest by a lot. (that is traveling at the speed of light mind you) It would take (traveling at the speed of light) 2.5million years to reach the nearest galaxy.

The probability of alien life is high, while the probability of life finding other intelligent life via space travel is pretty low.

Unless you have the ability to bend space and time.

[SilvrHairDevil]

Let's fan these flames a little higher...

"Will E.T. Look Like Us?

What are the odds that intelligent, technically advanced aliens would look anything like the ones in films, with an emaciated torso and limbs, spindly fingers and a bulbous, bald head with large, almond-shaped eyes? What are the odds that they would even be humanoid?"

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...t-look-like-us

[ruderalis]

I'm not so sure that they would be humanoid..(biped, mammalian structure)

I do believe that the stereotypical characteristics
such as delicate, fragile bodies may have some validity.

We're evolving in the same way due to our technology.
Cave men were certainly tougher, with a higher tolerance to pain.

It's not hard to imagine a super advanced civilization relying
solely on their technology to protect them.

And the large bulbous heads...expanding brain mass, sure why not?


The lack of hair is another trait we see taking effect
in our own evolution.

The large eyes now. If their home planet was located a great distance
from the nearest star, they may have developed these eyes for
low light conditions.

[copelandiaKidd]

found this online. its interesting! http://www.burlingtonnews.net/secretsufo.html

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by ruderalis

We're evolving in the same way due to our technology.
Cave men were certainly tougher, with a higher tolerance to pain.

I've often wondered if a 'cave man' could tolerate our modern lifestyle. I think we're every bit as tough as our ancestors, it's just that the conditions we live under have been changing and the nature of the toughness our lives require changes too.

Put a man born 250,000 years ago into a car that's stuck in rush-hour traffic, then make him sit in a chair for 8 hours a day, day after day. Feed him our modern chemo-industrial diet, make him breathe our polluted air and drink our questionable water, and of course get him drunk every evening on a couch in front of a TV. I bet he can't take it for more than a couple weeks, tops.

And if prehistoric humans experienced more pain than we do then I truly feel sorry for them because I've tolerated an insane amount of physical and emotional pain at various times in my life (and had no recourse to any painkillers most of those times).

[Hippie3]

Originally Posted by copelandiaKidd

found this online. its interesting! http://www.burlingtonnews.net/secretsufo.html

deleted the huge paste job
and left the link.
and might i add-
what a load of crap.

[copelandiaKidd]

lol Hip. i was just gonna leave the link, but i thought you would rather have it on site. Yess I def agree with the load of crap part, but it is entertainment!!!!

[ruderalis]

Originally Posted by TVCasualty

I've often wondered if a 'cave man' could tolerate our modern lifestyle. I think we're every bit as tough as our ancestors, it's just that the conditions we live under have been changing and the nature of the toughness our lives require changes too.

Put a man born 250,000 years ago into a car that's stuck in rush-hour traffic, then make him sit in a chair for 8 hours a day, day after day. Feed him our modern chemo-industrial diet, make him breathe our polluted air and drink our questionable water, and of course get him drunk every evening on a couch in front of a TV. I bet he can't take it for more than a couple weeks, tops.

And if prehistoric humans experienced more pain than we do then I truly feel sorry for them because I've tolerated an insane amount of physical and emotional pain at various times in my life (and had no recourse to any painkillers most of those times).

Yes, but that's more of an overwhelming psychological pain. Ancient man would be scared shitless in today's world.

And think about the dangers they dealt with....predatory mammals were much larger back then. If one was to break a bone during travels, they would have to set it and suck it up....if they wanted to live.

[MushroomJoe]

Originally Posted by larshroom

Unless you have the ability to bend space and time.

"Now approaching warp 7 Captain!"

[MushroomJoe]

One things for sure. If there's life out there, it's gonna be Darwinian life.

[SilvrHairDevil]

Calvin & Hobbes have gone to Mars and seen a Martian who is now hiding from them...

[noosphere]

I think aliens are really what humans are going to evolve into and UFOs are time machines.

[BGB]

Originally Posted by noosphere

I think aliens are really what humans are going to evolve into and UFOs are time machines.

I really like that idea and its the first time Ive ever heard it, I love that so much and I'm going to quote you to everyone I know, very kick ass,

ps did anyone ever read my ufo report and watch the video and pictures?

go to http://www.mufon.com/mufonreports.htm click the state box and highlight kentucky then find the date 2009-05-31 you will see the words "Me and 5 friends were at thunder over Louisville when my girlfriend seen a real UFO in broad day light" also if you look to the right of those words you will see links to the pics and video right next to the date and a few words...peace

[Alasdair]

Id like to believe aliens are real but without proof ALL of this is speculation. that being said saying that they arent real because we cant find them on our radio signals and transmitions doesn't hold any ground. who says they are transmitting on the same wave? and who says they want us to see or hear from them? perhaps we arent ready.
another point. Why the fuck would they want to talk to us? if a civilization has become galactic then there agenda far precedes ours. we are just a speck in the universe they are passing (if they are passing us at all) do you look at an ant hill and immediately think "oh i need to go and tell them about cars, and economics, and airplanes, and space shuttles.
No, most people walk past them, put poison on them, or squish a few and move on. Quoting Michio Kaku if you picture hyperspace as a 10 lane super highway next to an ant hill do you think the ants have any recollection to what that superhighway is? do you think the people traveling on this highway care about the ant hill at all?
It is not arrogant to believe we are not alone, but it IS arrogant to think we are so damn special that these beings need to stop whatever grand thing they are doing to come and share technology with us.
further more, we have only been on earth for a blink of an eye in comparison to the life of our planet. what if these civilizations have been around longer? maybe 10's of thousands to even millions of years longer. the vastness of the universe can explain this. we cannot say wether or not they have even reached our solar system.
And speaking on plants and other living things that exist on our planet, whos to say that the same plants would be on other planets? what if there are plants that could not survive here? our design works because our planet is suiting to there needs, but what if the needs for certain life forms are much greater?
*sigh* once again this is all speculation so i am with Hippie3 in saying I need to see "fact" before i can say either way... but all science starts in theory

[Alasdair]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGeWBiLVn8g

I dont know how to upload the video but it is interesting to me. What do you all think... Hippie3 what do you think?

[Hippie3]

i think it is a deliberate attempt to manipulate the data
[lowering it 5 or raisng it 12 ]-arbitrary human imposition
on the actual signal.

[floppypeter]

imho, humans trying to understand aliens is akin to goldfish trying to understand humans, the environments are so different and comprehension so different that the signals we receive just never quite make sense

that said

[Decon]

I definitely believe in Aliens. However,

-I'm not sure we have been visited yet
The nearest star is 4.2 light years away. You better be fast to get around in the universe.

-But there is an estimated 200,000,000,000 - 400,000,000,000 stars in just our galaxy alone.

-Our galaxy is part of a cluster of galaxies with about 30 others. The diameter spreads nearly 10 million light years.

-Our cluster known as 'The local cluster' is part of a superstructure. This superstructure contains thousands of other clusters just like ours. These superclusters span estimated millions of light years in dia. AND SO ON!

The universe is far to vast for us to be alone. At a scale this large, single cell life could in theory be created merely by coincidence.

"You put a enough monkeys with typewriters in a room..."

Just my thoughts not yours!

[vil3x]

I do believe there's other lifeforms around the galaxies either spiritual or physically.
i do believe there's a greater being. but there's no proof of not even one yet.

hate to bring this up but ever think of the miyans that drew these old "alien" pictures that maybe thats how the miyan calander was recieved?
and maybe december 21st 2012 when earth, sun, and milky way galaxy align that it opens some kind of parallel worm hole, black hole, etc to our planet and thats when these "aliens" will show themselves to us? or maybe even save us from our destructive planet which has number of things going wrong in it including super valcanoes, solar flares (which is suppose to be what is probable in 2012 cause of the magnetic fields being week), or illness.
just a random bunch of thoughts.

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by ruderalis

Yes, but that's more of an overwhelming psychological pain. Ancient man would be scared shitless in today's world.

And think about the dangers they dealt with....predatory mammals were much larger back then. If one was to break a bone during travels, they would have to set it and suck it up....if they wanted to live.

Pain is pain, and the psychological variety is arguably worse in many cases. It's also incredibly stressful on the body to sit around all day; we are built for motion, not sitting around, and even if the stress caused by our lifestyle initially manifests mentally, it quickly spreads to our physical body. We can get hypertension, which can lead to heart disease and kidney failure, among other things.

As soon as humans mastered fire and tools, large predators were not a major threat or selection pressure anymore (one reason we only had them 'back then' is because we killed 'em off in many cases). Even today people occasionally get eaten by other critters, but such cases are statistical outliers. Also, there is a lot of evidence that ancient peoples had quite a bit of medical technology; human remains that are thousands of years old have been found with clear evidence of a mended broken bone, or scars from brain surgery where a hole had been drilled in the skull but had subsequently healed (indicating the person lived for years after the surgery). All modern docs really do is set and splint a broken bone too, and 'back then' if they were lucky they had opium poppies growing nearby.

[Hippie3]

apples and oranges,
two types of humans well adapted to their own respective earth-version.

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by Alasdair

And speaking on plants and other living things that exist on our planet, whos to say that the same plants would be on other planets? what if there are plants that could not survive here?

We have plants growing on parts of this planet that can't grow on other parts of it, so I'm sure alien plants would be similarly constrained to a given set of parameters and all we have to do is meet them to grow the plant (like our mushroom terrariums).

Two things that would hold to be just as true on another planet with life on it as on Earth are the effects of latitude (though not necessarily seasons) and the physical properties of water. Those constraints narrow the possibilities in terms of what form alien life may take, and would probably make for some striking similarities with Earth life. Check out some epiphytes; they look like plants designed by Dr. Seuss and grow in a completely different way than 'normal' plants, and we have other species that tolerate extreme heat, cold, drought, flooding, and other pressures that would likely be no different than the pressures found on other planets. If the plants, animals, and microorganisms that have evolved here are the most successful adaptations to the conditions, then I would expect similar conditions elsewhere to produce similar forms if given sufficient time, and 'similar' is subjective since there's already a vast amount of variability among Earth's life forms.