Australian Politics Forum - Are we alone in the Universe?

John_Taverner

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #60 - Feb 8^th, 2016 at 9:52pm

issuevoter wrote on Feb 8^th, 2016 at 7:49am:

As people keep repeating the same tired old statistical certainty of life elsewhere, I will repeat the one thing about life they are not taking into account; irony. It would be ironic should we poison this planet when we do not have an alternative.

Yeah. Another group of researchers made the point that life could be a transient phenomenon.

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Emma

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #61 - Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:17pm

Could be, might be, perhaps.. fact is we don't know. All your responses are based on our own historical and empirical knowledge, but it only applies in this tiny part of space.

No matter how one chooses to extrapolate from our knowledge, we just do not know. BUT we do know, as I tried to point out earlier, that WE exist. As do the billions of life forms currently extant on mother Earth.

To even consider we are unique here on Earth just sounds like the biggest example of 'head in the sand' I can think of.

If Stephen Hawkings is warning us against seeking alien contact, where does it leave you.?
I know he is a lot smarter than me.!! Roll Eyes

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Bobby.

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #62 - Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:33pm

Emma wrote on Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:17pm:

Could be, might be, perhaps.. fact is we don't know. All your responses are based on our own historical and empirical knowledge, but it only applies in this tiny part of space.

No matter how one chooses to extrapolate from our knowledge, we just do not know. BUT we do know, as I tried to point out earlier, that WE exist. As do the billions of life forms currently extant on mother Earth.

To even consider we are unique here on Earth just sounds like the biggest example of 'head in the sand' I can think of.

If Stephen Hawkings is warning us against seeking alien contact, where does it leave you.?
I know he is a lot smarter than me.!! Roll Eyes

But it's more likely that aliens exited & long since died out.
In that case we could still be alone.
The problem is that the time factor is so long that only a small window of opportunity
in time could allow 2 intelligent beings to meet.
We've only had radio communications for 100 years or so -
we could have been wiped out by nukes only 50 or so years after discovering radio.

The better question is -
did intelligent life evolve somewhere else even if it's long gone now?

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Bobby.

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #63 - Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:49pm

As an example -

the Earth is 4.5 billion years old.
We only developed intelligent life after 4.5 billions years that could transmit a radio message
& in only 50 years after that we could have easily been totally wiped out by nukes.
You're looking at a 50 year window in 4.5 billion years.

The Universe is 13.7 billion years old - &
let's say it takes 4.5 billion years to develop intelligent life.
Life could have developed on a planet 13.7 - 4.5 = 9.2 billion years ago
& wiped itself out in only 50 years.

In that case they have been dead for 9.2 billion years.

That's the problem - it's the enormous amounts of time.

What's the chance that we would have met such a civilisation?

zero.

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Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #64 - Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:54pm

I believe we are not - but have no proof..

I have a Rhesus negative blood group - A neg and about 6% of population - even though both my parents were positive, one an A and the other a B....and it is impossible for them to have created an RH- child...... some suggest that means I'm a direct descendant of aliens.... crazy that, though.....

I guess I'm a ring-in..... had me a Trooper once who was A neg - I said stick close in case I need you...

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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
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Emma

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #65 - Feb 8^th, 2016 at 11:54pm

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:54pm:

I believe we are not - but have no proof..

I have a Rhesus negative blood group - A neg and about 6% of population - even though both my parents were positive, one an A and the other a B....and it is impossible for them to have created an RH- child...... some suggest that means I'm a direct descendant of aliens.... crazy that, though.....

I guess I'm a ring-in..... had me a Trooper once who was A neg - I said stick close in case I need you...

I have a friend with the same strange blood type. There is only one other person in her extensive family with the same type, and that was her grandfather.!

she IS unusual, but hey .. I feel like an alien sometimes, and I'm A+.

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Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #66 - Feb 8^th, 2016 at 11:59pm

Emma wrote on Feb 8^th, 2016 at 11:54pm:

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:54pm:

I believe we are not - but have no proof..

I have a Rhesus negative blood group - A neg and about 6% of population - even though both my parents were positive, one an A and the other a B....and it is impossible for them to have created an RH- child...... some suggest that means I'm a direct descendant of aliens.... crazy that, though.....

I guess I'm a ring-in..... had me a Trooper once who was A neg - I said stick close in case I need you...

I have a friend with the same strange blood type. There is only one other person in her extensive family with the same type, and that was her grandfather.!

she IS unusual, but hey .. I feel like an alien sometimes, and I'm A+.

Anyone with more than a modicum of intelligence and intellect feels like an alien here... now....

Characteristics that could be scientifically proven or observed:

larger than average head size
low blood pressure
low pulse rate
extra vertebrae or rib
high IQ
heightened senses, including vision
uncloneable blood
light-colored hair, mostly red or reddish,
light-colored eyes (blue, green, or greenish brown eyes)
sun and heat sensitivity
tendency toward healing professions
body scars that cannot be explained
frequent empathetic illnesses

I'd easily fit eight or nine of those without even trying.... not sure about the extra bones, head size and uncloneable blood or the 'empathetic illnesses'.. not sure what they are....

My grandson has the biggest head..... and is super smart.... his head is more proportional as he grows...

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« Last Edit: Feb 9^th, 2016 at 12:05am by Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM »

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
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Emma

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #67 - Feb 9^th, 2016 at 12:09am

Bobby. wrote on Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:33pm:

Emma wrote on Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:17pm:

Could be, might be, perhaps.. fact is we don't know. All your responses are based on our own historical and empirical knowledge, but it only applies in this tiny part of space.

No matter how one chooses to extrapolate from our knowledge, we just do not know. BUT we do know, as I tried to point out earlier, that WE exist. As do the billions of life forms currently extant on mother Earth.

To even consider we are unique here on Earth just sounds like the biggest example of 'head in the sand' I can think of.

If Stephen Hawkings is warning us against seeking alien contact, where does it leave you.?
I know he is a lot smarter than me.!! Roll Eyes

But it's more likely that aliens exited & long since died out.
In that case we could still be alone.
The problem is that the time factor is so long that only a small window of opportunity
in time could allow 2 intelligent beings to meet.
We've only had radio communications for 100 years or so -
we could have been wiped out by nukes only 50 or so years after discovering radio.

The better question is -
did intelligent life evolve somewhere else even if it's long gone now?

I really find your position that any other intelligences are much more likely than not to be long dead a bit mystifying.

As you point out, time has a role in what we know... we are short - lived. IE we don't know much.

Why this means to you that we are the most recent incarnation of life totally escapes me. It is not logical.
Sounds more like whimsy to me..

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Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #68 - Feb 9^th, 2016 at 3:34am

X larger than average head size - Not really
low blood pressure
low pulse rate
x extra vertebrae or rib -never checked
high IQ
heightened senses, including vision
x uncloneable blood - no idea
light-colored hair, mostly red or reddish,
light-colored eyes (blue, green, or greenish brown eyes)
sun and heat sensitivity
tendency toward healing professions
body scars that cannot be explained
x frequent empathetic illnesses - not sure at all.....

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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
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Richdude Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 8457 NC Gender:	Re: Are we alone in the Universe? Reply #69 - Feb 9^th, 2016 at 4:59am Think of the odds. If one in a thousand suns in the Milky Way had a planet with the right conditions for life to evolve - that means that there could be several million planets with life. The Milky Way is one in a billion galaxies. So what are the odds? One in a trillion or a trillion to one?
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Bobby.

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #70 - Feb 9^th, 2016 at 6:18am

Emma wrote on Feb 9^th, 2016 at 12:09am:

Bobby. wrote on Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:33pm:

Emma wrote on Feb 8^th, 2016 at 10:17pm:

Could be, might be, perhaps.. fact is we don't know. All your responses are based on our own historical and empirical knowledge, but it only applies in this tiny part of space.

No matter how one chooses to extrapolate from our knowledge, we just do not know. BUT we do know, as I tried to point out earlier, that WE exist. As do the billions of life forms currently extant on mother Earth.

To even consider we are unique here on Earth just sounds like the biggest example of 'head in the sand' I can think of.

If Stephen Hawkings is warning us against seeking alien contact, where does it leave you.?
I know he is a lot smarter than me.!! Roll Eyes

But it's more likely that aliens exited & long since died out.
In that case we could still be alone.
The problem is that the time factor is so long that only a small window of opportunity
in time could allow 2 intelligent beings to meet.
We've only had radio communications for 100 years or so -
we could have been wiped out by nukes only 50 or so years after discovering radio.

The better question is -
did intelligent life evolve somewhere else even if it's long gone now?

I really find your position that any other intelligences are much more likely than not to be long dead a bit mystifying.

As you point out, time has a role in what we know... we are short - lived. IE we don't know much.

Why this means to you that we are the most recent incarnation of life totally escapes me. It is not logical.
Sounds more like whimsy to me..

My logic is based on reading the book "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan.

It's worth a read if you are interested in this subject.

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John_Taverner Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 2217 Gender:	Re: Are we alone in the Universe? Reply #71 - Feb 9^th, 2016 at 12:03pm Watched the story of Carl Sagan on Drunk History the other day. Maybe it's sign of immaturity on my part, but it was funny.
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issuevoter Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 9200 The Great State of Mind Gender:	Re: Are we alone in the Universe? Reply #72 - Feb 9^th, 2016 at 1:33pm Back in the days of chemical photography, UFOs were turning up all over the place. Now that everyone has a video camera in their smartfone, the little green men are getting camera-shy.
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hawil

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #73 - Feb 9^th, 2016 at 2:29pm

Yadda wrote on Jan 27^th, 2016 at 9:02am:

Emma wrote on Jan 27^th, 2016 at 2:30am:

Just wondering what people think about the probability of other intelligent species existing out there.

To kick off, I think we have been ''watched'' for a very long time.

Being effectively confined to this small planet, .....almost always in conflict with each other [throughout our recorded history], .....and, we [mankind] barely understand anything about our own [real] circumstances, ....and yet you credit mankind with being an intelligent species. !!!!!

Emma,

I like a to read a little humour in the morning. Wink

Mankind.

Clever, and inventive, YES we are!

But an intelligent species ???

As a species, man is brutal, ignorant, proud, vain, driven by motives of self interest and pleasure seeking.

Often rapacious, and ruthless.

A species which will casually disregard [and try to suppress] any truth which threatens its own interests.

e.g.
Barely 170 years ago, the medical establishment in Europe practically ostracized a doctor [Ignaz Semmelweis] for suggesting that doctors examining pregnant women and delivering babies, ought to wash their hands between examining each patient.

He was derided for suggesting that doctors themselves [because of cross-infection], could be the cause of the very high mortality among women who were delivering children, in European hospitals, in those times.

Quote:

Semmelweis proposed the practice of washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions in 1847 while working in Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic.....
Despite various publications of results where hand washing reduced mortality to below 1%, Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. Some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and Semmelweis could offer no acceptable scientific explanation for his findings. Semmelweis's practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death,

Google

Mankind.

An intelligent species ? Cheesy

Yes, we are being watched.

Quote:

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding

In all of the directions it can whizz

As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,

Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.

So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,

How amazingly unlikely is your birth,

And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,

'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

- Monty Python's Meaning of Life

Could not agree more; and knowledge does not seem to improve kindness.
Human beings might have built many things and are technologically very advanced, but otherwise are very little above the instincts of animals.
Semmelweiss case is a point in kind.

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Richdude

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Re: Are we alone in the Universe?
Reply #74 - Feb 9^th, 2016 at 2:48pm

issuevoter wrote on Feb 9^th, 2016 at 1:33pm:

Back in the days of chemical photography, UFOs were turning up all over the place. Now that everyone has a video camera in their smartfone, the little green men are getting camera-shy.

Perhaps.
Have any of you noticed that those grainy old photos of flying sauces in the 50's were clunky, riveted, with ships port holes? Whereas the 80's they were sleeker and streamlined like they were made of fiberglass.
Recent photos and descriptions are triangular, sharp edged and mat black surfaces - like stealth aircraft.
Maybe the ET's technology is evolving, becoming more fashionable or flying saucers are a terrestrial product.
What do you think?

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