caf, I think along the same lines in terms of what kind of life is out there. Some type of bacteria seems very, very likely to me. And technically it would be an "alien."
Just a little bit of talking points and food for thought
I would bet my life savings on there being extra terrestrial life in the universe. It is almost an impossibility for there not to be. The question is, what type of lifeform is it? Is it biological? Is it self aware? Is it just a bacteria of some sort? Who knows.
Now the question posed here assumes some type of sentient life that has visited Earth in the recent past. I would bet my life savings against it. Let me give you guys a good mental experiment on just how difficult it would be to locate life on Earth. Go to a beach and paint one grain of sand orange. Bury it and leave. Find Earth would be harder than a friend finding that orange grain of sand.
And that is just referencing the spatial improbability. There is also the temporal improbability. The universe is extremely old, and we are extremely young. Our presence has been but a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things. So now take that orange grain of sand, and have your friend try and find it. However, this time the grain of sand is only orange for less than one second during the course of the day. Pretty difficult proposition isn't it?
Nowhere have I mentioned the impossibility or improbability of extra-terrestrial life in the vastness of time and space, only the absurdity of alien abduction stories and UFO accounts.
This statement is totally false and you have zero factual backing to it
"The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth."
First off, no it isn't false. Secondly, science is one of the few subjects where everything is based on facts. I am actually very offended by your post. You directly imply my posts lack credibility. If you are going to sit here and call me a liar 'with zero factual backing'. I am going to sit here and call you an ignorant douche.
My premise is based on Carl Sagan's famous quote:
A well respected astronomer (see link) wanted to do a quick estimation of this claim. And in this case an estimation is more than sufficient because we are dealing with large orders of magnitude. He estimated that there are 10^24 (a million billion billion) grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. He also estimated that there are 10^22 (ten thousand billion billion) stars in our universe.
http://www.astro.utu.fi/~cflynn/sand.html
So there are roughly 100 times more grains of sand on all the Earths beaches than stars in the universe. I only reference one beach on Earth which is vastly smaller than the Earth's combined coastline. I also reference planets (which out number stars). So I am right.... by a wide margin actually. It would be much much much harder finding the Earth than one orange grain of sand on one beach.
A more direct comparison would be finding one orange grain of sand on all the beaches of the Mediterranean Ocean. But I think my point was made with one incy wincy beach.
first, there could be more than one person searching that sand. Second, the ones searching could have a billion years or more to search. ALso, the numbers change dramatically if you limit yourself to the milky way. 200 billion stars. Allow for the possibility that there could be a single civilization that is a billion years more advanced than we are within our own galaxy and they've had more than enough time to find our planet and send a ship here.
It does leave the question of why hasn't SETI found any evidence of a civilization this advanced.
You guys are taking a simple mental experiment illustrating the vastness of space and have convoluted it into something it isn't.
To prove my point, let's have a race... I'll search for an orange grain of sand on the beach, and you can search for life on other planets. Who do you think will finish first? Why do you think that person would finish first? Is one of these tasks easier than the other task?
Actually, this explains a lot about the lack of common sense in the world today.
first, there could be more than one person searching that sand. Second, the ones searching could have a billion years or more to search. ALso, the numbers change dramatically if you limit yourself to the milky way. 200 billion stars. Allow for the possibility that there could be a single civilization that is a billion years more advanced than we are within our own galaxy and they've had more than enough time to find our planet and send a ship here.
It does leave the question of why hasn't SETI found any evidence of a civilization this advanced.
It depends on the methodology used. If all I have to find said grain of sand is a shovel, or all I have to find alien life is a magic telescope which lets me see any planet at random, then yes, your premise is valid.
However, technology changes everything. The way we are "searching" for alien life now is all through computer scans of stars in our galaxy for signs of other planets. As those planets are identified, we take a closer look to analyze size, distance, and composition of those planets. Right now, the best we can do is compare our results to our own solar system, as it is the only reference we have, and determine if a planet is potentially "viable" for life. It isn't a significant stretch of the imagination to believe our ability to identify and analyze planets for these qualities will significantly improve in even the next 100 years, much less the next 1000.
If we accept that life is not only possible, but probable, as Carl Sagan pointed out and is supported by the controversial Drake equation, it is also fair to assume that life will have evolved at different rates, and certain traits will have been enhanced in each unique situation. As such, we're very unlikely to be the most advanced civilization in the universe, and a more technologically advanced race would be far more likely to identify life throughout the universe.
I still agree with your premise though that the existence of UFOs coming to Earth is most likely 0 for a multitude of reasons. Life is highly likely, and as such, there should be a near infinite number of habitable planets in the universe. Our existence bears no significance, so why choose Earth? If another life form possesses technology that superior to ours, and harnesses the power to travel immense distances in short periods of time, why bother to stop here? We have nothing that would interest them. In such a scenario, we'd be less significant than an ant hill here on Earth.
If another life form possesses technology that superior to ours, and harnesses the power to travel immense distances in short periods of time, why bother to stop here? We have nothing that would interest them. In such a scenario, we'd be less significant than an ant hill here on Earth.
why does it matter which would be easier, with advanced technology and a billion years, you could quite clearly do both.