Do you believe in aliens?

[Devil King]

No, not illegal aliens. Aliens as in extraterrestrials from other planets whizzing around in UFOs. Little green men with big ears.

Do you believe?

[Matron]

Yeah. It just seems silly to expect us to be the only sentient beings in the universe(s). I don't know if they will ever come here, or that they haven't already for that matter, but I think there is more out there than we have seen thus far.

[Indigo]

I have no doubt that there are populations like our own somewhere out there.

And I'm obsessed with the clich? design of an alien (you know with the antennas and the big eyes)

[Electric Banana]

Yes, but they aren't necessarily bipedal lifeforms like is often depicted...

[Devil King]

I believe. I was abducted by them at age twelve. They probed me and stuff, so now I have splitting migraine headaches that radiate all over my body. Damn ETs.

[Indigo]

They probably fingered you. With their glowing fingers.

[Devil King]

Ah.

That explains my glowing fecal matter. They must have left some glowing residue in my anus when they fingered me.

[Tenacious P]

I do because there's no reason not to. Aliens are awesome.

[Powerslave]

Eh, I dunno about the little green men. I'm sure there's something else out there, just because the universe is so ****ing huge. I mean, if there's nothing else out there, what happens when we're gone? There'd be no one else to see it! It's kind of a sad thought, really.

[Indigo]

http://emany-delis.deviantart.com/

Most of the stuff there is aliens I doodled.

[Jarrid]

Yes. There could be (or had been) intelligent lifeforms out there and also small cellular lifeforms as well. The numbers are staggering when you really think about it.

Here is a little thing out of the book I am reading by Ervin Laszlo:


Just how many potentially life-bearing planets there are is not known with certainty; the estimates vary, but are periodically revised toward higher numbers. Taking a conservative tack, Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapley had originally assumed that only one star in a thousand has planets and that only one of a thousand of these stars has a planet at the right distance from it. He further supposed that only one out of a thousand planets at the right distance is large enough to hold an atmosphere, and that only one in a thousand planets at the right distance and of the right size has the right chemical composition to support life. Even then, Shapley found there should be at least 100 million planets capable of supporting life in the cosmos.

The astronomer Su-Shu Huang reached an even more optimistic estimate. He considered the time scales of stellar and biological evolution, the habitable zones of planets, and related dynamic factors, and came to the conclusion that no less than 5 percent of all solar systems in the universe should be able to support life. This means not 100 million, but 100 billion life-bearing planets. Harrison Brown came up with a bigger number still. He investigated the possibility that many planetlike objects that are not visible exist in the neighborhood of visible stars--perhaps as many as sixty such objects more massive than Mars. In that case, almost every visible star possesses a partially or wholly invisible planetary system. Brown estimated that there are at least 100 billion planetary systems in our own galaxy alone--and there are 100 billion galaxies in this universe!

-- Ervin Laszlo's Science and the Reenchantment of the Cosmos


All theories and such, but it is interesting to say the least. Laszlo like other cosmologists, metaphysicists, and physicists believe in not just one universe but a shit load which are all in what is called the metaverse. The saying goes is that there was just not one big bang, but several thousands of them in the metaverse that harbor intelligent scripts and seeds that make everything not sound so random (considering the fact that the probability of our big bang and the way everything is comes out to be 10 to the 10th to the 123rd which is ****ING ridiculous), which all run off of a field that is termed the Akashic Field, or it is called the quantum vacuum. A lot of the new theories are actually old ones that are based off of Hinduism (Akasha), Greek (Aether), and so many other philosophies and religions that have existed for so long. A lot can be explained (and not) with the Akashic Field when it comes to life, death, information, psychology, universe, metaverse, etc., but that is for another time.

[Devil King]

Or the multiverse, or omniverse.

[Atlas]

The real question is this: do aliens believe in us?

DEEP.

[Phakiel]

Yes I believe in aliens. There is gotta be life out there.

[Cyrus the virus]

I believe. Care, not so much.

[Devil King]

*bump*

[Polygon]

Of course. I don't see how anyone could be so pretentious to think they we're the only living things in the universe. It's simply too damn big to not have other beings like us.

Now, have they abducted people from Earth. No, I don't buy that for a second.

[Devil King]

Now, have they abducted people from Earth. No, I don't buy that for a second.

Why not?

[jerubal]

I used to believe anything was possible, but now I don't really care much either way.

There may or may not be, it doesn't really matter. I'm going through a low cycle, though, so I'll post back in a few weeks about my obsession with the endless possibilities the Universe presents, and how amazing it would be to see any of them...

I'm going to go and mindlessly flick through threads I've already posted in, and to find something vaguely engaging to watch until I fall unconscious...

[twerp]

While one part of me is excited to think that there are intelligent lifeforms other than ourselves (Assuming humans can be considered intelligent). The other part is terrified that if we ever came in contact with a race or civilization capable of interstellar travel that they would blow us up Death Star style.

[jerubal]

Well, if the TV is any guide (and God knows it's never steered ME wrong) they definitely definitely will try to destroy mankind. It'll then be up to one (or several) plucky but unlikely heroes to possibly (but with million to one chances, quite definitely) save mankind.... .. .. against all odds... and by 'odd' we mean alien-types... .and/or communists...

[twerp]

What about alien communists?


Scary...

[jerubal]

I bet all aliens are communists. They work like ants in a hive, right!? Remind you of anything!? It reminds me of something.... that the U.S.A. won the space race!! U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.... etc...

[LataKali]

Yes, I'd say I do. I think it to be a rather self-centered notion that we are the only "intelligent" (and I use the word loosely) beings.

[jerubal]

A class 0 civilization, if you believe the hype.

[bingo]

The universe is a huge space out there with thousands of galaxy and billions of planets. I do believe in alien because logically speaking there is just the possibility that there is another living planet out there.

[jerubal]

*nods* Where God lives...

[moogle]

I'm not convinced one way or the other on matters of the existence of aliens. We can use the Drake Equation, but there are too many unknowns for it to mean anything. We really don't know how likely it is that life occurs. We don't even understand how we get life from non-life.

I'd like to believe we're not alone as far as intellegent life goes, but realistically it doesn't matter. Even if life were relatively common, the distances are too vast.

[twerp]

We don't even understand how we get life from non-life.


You see moogleman, when a Mommy and a Daddy love each other very much...

[jerubal]

Oh if you really look at it, there's lots of stuff we don't know. We don't know why gravity works, we just have a working theory... we don't know what's at the core of our planet, we don't know what consciousness is... pretty much all we can say with any certainty is the distance between shit, and how fast it's going... and we get that wrong too often to be more than guesswork.

[Ryujin]

What if Earth is actually a prison colony where some alien civilization dumped all the organisms that weren't cool enough to be a part of their vast interstellar empire?

Like, what if we're the Milky Way's Australia?

[Jarrid]

An article from Physnews.org: http://www.physorg.com/news143699130.html

"British defence ministry releases UFO files"

Among the recorded incidents was a letter dated March 1990 from a woman who claimed she was an alien whose spaceship landed during World War II and was recovered by the British military.

"The crashed vehicle contained two males from Spectra, a planet orbiting the star Zeta Tucanae, and a female from one of the two inhabited planets in the Sirius system, Amazon the planet of warrior women," she wrote in the letter, which also included sketches of herself and of Spectrans.

"That female was me," she wrote.

Yeah, sounds crazy. . . however, the Sirius, also known a the dog star, has a lot of nice background concerning myth and folklore legends throughout history dating back farther than written history to John C. Lilly's experiments through the 70's-90's. It is quite interesting if you are not reading something like, "OMG THIS IS IT!!11" Nice to keep somewhat of an opened mind towards things like this even if you have the reality-tunnel of there is nothing out there compared or greater than humans. I enjoy bits here and there.

Here is an okay summary of it on Wikipedia.com: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius

---------

Aaannndd. . . another article I read today from TheSun.co.uk features a retired British RAF pilot that flew a F-86D Sabre fighter back in 1952 was told to shoot down an UFO with all arsenal the plane had, and you can find it here: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/ufos/article1830693.ece

Aliens or not, it still is something to glance over. I believe he is not telling a lie about what happened, but of course, it all depends on what in the hell he was intending on shooting in the first place. Now, I have not read any other articles and documents on the account, but from what he had said in TheSun.co.uk article, he mentioned nothing of the sorts of an alien, but just an object that obviously was not a plane, however, I am not going to completely side with TheSun.co.uk.

UFOs are seen all around the world almost everyday. Most hoaxes, some questionable, others unexplained, which happens to be the problem, unless there is actually some sort of actual evidence out there, but then again, I find myself believing more of a possibility in finding another intelligent alien in the universe than finding a 'god' when it comes to proof or evidence.

I have never witnessed a UFO, but I see UNFO (Unidentified Non-Flying Objects) all the time. For instance, I woke up in the middle of the night a few weeks ago to use the bathroom. Suddenly, I found a dark moving object slowly coming my way. I went into 'survival-mode' for a mer few seconds only to find it was my grandfather getting some water. Heh. :p

[Atlas]

The Drake Equation!111

[moogle]

Oh if you really look at it, there's lots of stuff we don't know. We don't know why gravity works, we just have a working theory... we don't know what's at the core of our planet, we don't know what consciousness is... pretty much all we can say with any certainty is the distance between shit, and how fast it's going... and we get that wrong too often to be more than guesswork.
Just like I don't know that you exist. You could be a new advanced AI bot infiltrating web forums. "Know" can have different meanings depending on how it's used. Scientific understanding, like you said, creates a working model of how things are. The model evolves, we make changes in a theory, but that doesn't mean it's all guesswork (I'm not sure if that's what you were saying, exactly, so I apologize if I'm a bit off).

Determining the likelihood of extraterrestrial life is different than other scientific endeavors because it's based mostly on pure speculation. You'd have to start with an understanding of abiogenesis first (as I mentioned earlier). We just don't understand how this comes about, or how often.

[Void]

I do believe in aliens.

I've also seen something I can only describe as a UFO. Not claiming it is of alien origin, though. I wasn't the only person to see it either.

And I had not discovered the joys of intoxication at the time!

[drunken monk]

Yeah I do believe in aliens. I just find it hard to believe that we are the only forms of intelligent life when there is all that space out there.

When you look at the time line of the galaxy which dates back farther then we will ever know, humans have only been around for a blink of an eye. Are you telling me that the whole galaxy was around for billions of years just waiting for us to arrive?

[jerubal]

Just like I don't know that you exist. You could be a new advanced AI bot infiltrating web forums. "Know" can have different meanings depending on how it's used. Scientific understanding, like you said, creates a working model of how things are. The model evolves, we make changes in a theory, but that doesn't mean it's all guesswork (I'm not sure if that's what you were saying, exactly, so I apologize if I'm a bit off)...
No, that's about the cut and thrust of it. As I've said before, I'm a scientific type, but I don't like the certainty with which scientific 'fact' is put forward in the media, or by people in general. Theories, treatments, whatever... they're challenged and altered or proven wrong by whoever wants their name to go down in the next spate of books, or a newspaper. Mankind, as ever, unwilling to admit we're blind apes fumbling in the dark. Like you say, how can you be sure I exist? This might be a dream, you might already be dead, you might simply be typing into a reactive database.

On the other hand, that wasn't really my intended point... I was just saying that there's plenty more science can't prove either way, and a great deal of it more important than aliens.

EDIT: Oh, and the 'guesswork' thing was just flair, don't go hinging anything too big on that. =D