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Are We Alone in the Universe?

Posted 32 months ago|17 comments|732 views
Written by
While one cannot dismiss the fact that millions of people throughout the world believe that mankind is not alone in the Universe; conversely, there are several millions of people who believe that we are alone, at least in terms of extraterrestrial intelligent life. This article will attempt to review both sides of the debate, allowing you, the reader, to determine if we are truly alone or not.
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COMMENTS
32 months ago: Oh, we are alone all right. Our forefathers had the right idea when they squelched Galileo and his telescopic conclusions. The sun revolves around the Earth, which stands in space because of the giant turtle underneath. All else is simply make-believe.
32 months ago: To Terryeo,

Even bizarre comments are welcomed. Out of curiosity, how were you able to compose & send your comment if "All else is simply make-believe"?

Michael R. Palazzo
32 months ago: ****ING OWNED.
skeptic
skeptic
Canada
32 months ago: Terryeo's bizarre comment is no more bizarre than his actual belief in Scientology.

Interstellar travel or communication would be tremendously difficult due to the great distances involved (making the trip to the moon seem trivial in comparison - even the nearest star to our own is literally over ten million times farther away than the moon). Furthermore, it's a complete gamble. We could spend a thousand years traveling to another star (presumably in a generation ship unless the human life-span is greatly increased, or unless we use some kind of suspended animation) which might prove to be relatively uninteresting when we finally arrive. I honestly think that although there may very well be other intelligent species somewhere in the galaxy (we don't know where), who might be extremely interesting to meet or to talk to, it just isn't going to happen. And if it was going to happen it would already have happened.

It seems that we are just going to have to concentrate on communicating more successfully with our fellow human beings.
32 months ago: To Skeptic

If you contact me at michael.palazzo@live.com I would be more than happy to email you an mp3 audio containing a very interesting 40 minute speech by world renowned Astronomer Dr. Hugh Ross. Your understanding of extraterrestrial intelligent life will never be the same. It's worth the 40 minutes.

Michael R. Palazzo
32 months ago: skeptic, you do not have a very good imagination, otherwise you would be able to consider the possibility of other intelligent life and the possibility of FTL travel or wormhole travel. There are lots of ideas out there that are not just from the minds of SiFi writers, they are actual scientists who have theories that may take decades to prove or disprove and until then, denial isn’t going to make it true.

I get frustrated every time I read an article about life on other worlds; about how the planet they are studying just couldn’t support life because it was different from Earth in so many ways. Who ever said life on our planet and in the conditions we live in were normal for the rest of the universe? We might be the odd balls. Maybe 75% of the other species can live without a spacesuit, who knows, not I. could be there is life on other planets in our own system, and we just can’t detect it yet. It’s like, what is that great big red spot on that gas giant out there? Just a storm? Don’t know.

There is water on Mars, is there life in that water that COULD be in liquid form under the surface? We need to go find out, just so we can stop saying we are the only life in the universe, that or prove that we are.
32 months ago:
For those who adhere to the Creation Theory (or Myth if you prefer), where does it say this was the only planet the creator was working on? Don’t go putting words in the book that aren’t there and don’t jump around citing this verse and that one, I want one single, straight forward quote.

Now let’s go the other way, Big Bang and all that, Evolution Theory (or Myth if you prefer), seems to me that if it happened here, why not somewhere else? There are only a few BILLION planets out there and millions of them are going to be just like this one or maybe a bit different, so there will be a bit of difference in what could be growing there.

Let’s hear from some of you deep thinkers out there, I’m just a poor old country boy and don’t even have a BA, just an AS so I’m only half done as some would say, just had my 53rd B-day so figure I’m more like ¾ done!
skeptic
skeptic
Canada
32 months ago: To sixholdens, you needn't complain about my lack of imagination. I have an excellent imagination and have imagined all sorts of bizarre things. The point of my comment was that interstellar travel is extremely difficult and therefore not likely to happen; I did not say that I can't imagine interstellar travel. It is easily imaginable, but nonetheless, not very likely.

I also did not state that there is no life on other planets, and in all probability there is plenty of life, and even intelligent life, on other planets than our own at various locations in the universe. Again, my only point was that we are not likely to actually meet the inhabitants of other planets, although they probably exist, because interstellar travel is so difficult.

You also refer to "FTL travel or wormhole travel" which are fascinating science fictional ideas. I like Star Trek as much as the next guy, and possibly more. Is it likely that such devices will actually be invented? Unfortuantely, it isn't. How do I know? Well, I have looked into the matter in some detail. I have studied the relevant physics. And although there are all sorts of means by which one can get around the difficulty of traveling faster than light, in practice, they all require impossibly difficult engineering. The math works, but you can't really build these things. Will this change as the human race becomes ever more technologically advanced? Personally, I remain skeptical.

Life on Mars is possible, in some kind of bacterial or rudimentary form. But we have sent probes to Mars, and we have explored Mars, and there is no convincing evidence of life. And if there is life, it may not be very interesting as life goes. We can pretty much conclude, at this point, that there is no Martian civilization, living or extinct, of the sort which Ray Bradbury (among other science fiction authors) liked to write about.
32 months ago: Oh it wasn't a complaint, just an observation. Good to hear you have one just disappointed it doesn't allow for many possibilities in our lifetime.

There is a theory but I can't think of the name, or it might actually be proven, that two particles separated by a distance, will both instantly exhibit the effect of something done to one of them, just can't remember what it is so hard to search it out right now. What I'm getting at is there is a physical link that hasn't been explained yet and it could be a key to FTL or some other technology that will make things possible.

I just think you are a bit too negative on the ability of man to accomplish anything in our lifetimes and that is another thing that tells me your imagination is restricted to very short term ideas. Anyone can imagine fantastical impossibilities, but it takes a real dreamer to imagine it and believe it could happen in their lifetime.

They said we couldn’t get to the moon, and many of those people are still living. Just look at computers, medicine, and many other technologies that we take for granted now that they didn’t have 1/10 the capability to do or even have when I was born 53 years ago.

It could happen, visitors might be here tomorrow or someone might make a trip to the moon and back in a few hours instead of a few days. I’m waiting for my ride, hope it gets here before I get too old……
32 months ago: To sixholdens,

You state:

I just think you are a bit too negative on the ability of man to accomplish anything in our lifetimes and that is another thing that tells me your imagination is restricted to very short term ideas. Anyone can imagine fantastical impossibilities, but it takes a real dreamer to imagine it and believe it could happen in their lifetime.

I state:

I believe that the laws of nature are universal given that every celestial body in the universe originated from the “Big Bang” and it was at that point, that the laws of nature were also born. Based on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, no living being, intelligent or otherwise, could ever approach the speed of light without being destroyed and as such, no extraterrestrials have visited the earth. This is based on accepted scientific principles. I’m not suggesting that extraterrestrial intelligent life does not exist; I’m stating that extraterrestrials, like ourselves, have a common set of phydical laws. Man can dream and in many cases, some of the dreams come true provided that the scientific and proven laws of nature are adhered to.

Michael R. Palazzo
skeptic
skeptic
Canada
32 months ago: To sixholdens, I reply that the phenomenon that you describe, of one particle being instantaneously affected by something that happens to a different particle which is at a different location, is officially known as "quantum entanglement". I am familiar with it. While it is a very interesting phenomenon, it is not going to lead to faster than light travel.

There is an important distinction between imagination and credulity. Imagining things is not the same as believing things. It is quite true that the human race has already accomplished amazing things, such as the moon landings, which previous generations considered to be impossible. It does not follow, however, that everything that I now consider to be impossible will eventually turn out to be possible. Some things actually are impossible.

I do, however, believe that there are spectacular possibilities for the future development of human technology, provided that we don't destroy ourselves first. I just don't expect that these possibilities will include travel to other stars. It's just too difficult. Could I turn out to be wrong? Certainly. But not in my lifetime or yours, so we will never really know.
WmTHawk
WmTHawk
Rapid City, SD
32 months ago: Ya gotta be very egotistical, narrow-minded, have very low-self-esteem to believe that we earthlings are the only beings around. The good scientists (the bad are the ones in the egotisitcal category) estimate that there are millions of galaxies in the universes (there is more than one universe) and trillions of planets circulating around the distant stars or suns in them universes. So who but a simple-minded being would believe they are the only idiots around?
32 months ago: Earth is a second generation planet going around a second generation star. We're newbies. The universe is vast. Of course we all like to think that God exists for us alone, or something. That we are the only begotten of God, or something. But the universe is vast, the universe is old.
32 months ago: "Of course we all like to think that God exists for us alone, or something. That we are the only begotten of God, or something. But the universe is vast, the universe is old."

You fail at syllogisms.
32 months ago: Thanks for the theory clarification, been in too many classes, on too many subjects to keep it all straight in my little brain anymore, unlike you, I believe that it may lead to new understandings of the laws of nature at the sub-atomic level, or at the least, a better understanding of what we already know.

Mankind has had some great thinkers, Einstein was among them, some get proven correct most of the time, some get proven wrong quite often, none are proven correct all the time, not even Einstein. The great man himself even said he wasn’t 100% sure of all his theories, that’s why he published them, for someone to prove or disprove them if he wasn’t able to.

The laws of nature are still being discovered, they are not written in stone, some are written in pretty hard stuff, but to say they are not changeable or our understanding of them is not changeable is pretty hard to swallow. We can not and should not state that something will never be done or that it won’t be done in a certain period of time. There are just too many variables that could change at any moment due to discoveries or the arrival of visitors we know nothing about.
32 months ago: There has always been doubt in my mind about Einstein’s theory that travel faster than the speed of light was impossible. He could have used any other term but that one, impossible, and I might be inclined to support it, unlikely, really, really hard, suicidal, anything but impossible. (Not even sure he said it that way, “could ever” is pretty close to the same but I could get called on my use of the “I” word.)

Quantum entanglement is something that when I first heard about it in an electronics theory class, made me wonder about the speed of light and all the theories about it. If I remember the theory correctly, QE happens simultaneously no matter how far apart the particles are in space. I have no idea how they measure or test it as it wasn’t something we needed to learn to do our jobs of fixing military electronics gear. It gives me hope that something will be discovered someday because we know so little about it.

Maybe it will be centuries before we have manned travel outside our solar system, maybe it will be next week. Who knows? I sure as heck ain’t going to be the one who says it’s not going to happen or even that it won’t happen in my lifetime!
32 months ago: To sixholdens,

In my article, I present case examples from both sides of the coin and let the reader decide which of the two he/she finds more credible.

I am not denying the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life; I'm saying the following:

1. Those that have made claims of having experienced various types of "close encounters" have no hard evidence apart from pictues & videos that are so grainy that they can't be authenticated.

2. I don't necessarily disbelieve that extraterrestrial intelligent life may exist; however, if their technolgy is similar or even slightly advanced to that of ours, they probably haven't developed a propulsion system that would allow them to even approach the speed of light. You also have to wonder why SETI in its 50 year history, has not received one discernabe extraterrestrial signal.

Pehaps, you're right when you say that at some point in time, extraterrestrial travel may be feasible; however, as of today, 2009, there is no proof that we have been visited.

Michael R. Palazzo

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