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What ya think UFO’s
- Thread starter mike o
- Start date
If you can accelerate a ship fast enough to get to Earth you have the technology to destroy the planet. Slowing down takes a lot of energy. I don't think there's much to fear because death would be pretty quick so I think knowing would only be reassuring. I certainly hope there are aliens. That makes things more fun.
I'm gonna go against the grain of scientist opinion that seems to feel that alien life (including intelligent life with advanced civilization) must be plentiful in the universe for the simple reason that stars with planets are so ubiquitous.
The majority view can be summarized by the Drake Equation.
Drake equation - Wikipedia
My feeling is that it may be that primitive life might be abundant in the universe, but that it becomes exponentially more difficult for complex life to evolve.
I'm speculating of course, but it seems to me that the odds against humanity evolving on Earth and developing civilization is such an incredible long shot that the odds of this happening might be one chance in trillions.
Over the past 4.5 billion years, there were countless extremely unlikely events that took place, which were all necessary for intelligent life to evolve into civilization.
When the Earth first formed, another planet collided with it in a glancing blow and this resulted in the creation of the moon.
Many scientists argue that the presence of the such a large moon orbiting the Earth stabilizes all types of conditions on our planet and may be necessary for complex life to evolve in the first place.
If that giant collision hadn't happened, there might never have been any life at all on Earth. Or it may have started and then stayed as primitive archeobacteria.
The majority view can be summarized by the Drake Equation.
Drake equation - Wikipedia
My feeling is that it may be that primitive life might be abundant in the universe, but that it becomes exponentially more difficult for complex life to evolve.
I'm speculating of course, but it seems to me that the odds against humanity evolving on Earth and developing civilization is such an incredible long shot that the odds of this happening might be one chance in trillions.
Over the past 4.5 billion years, there were countless extremely unlikely events that took place, which were all necessary for intelligent life to evolve into civilization.
When the Earth first formed, another planet collided with it in a glancing blow and this resulted in the creation of the moon.
Many scientists argue that the presence of the such a large moon orbiting the Earth stabilizes all types of conditions on our planet and may be necessary for complex life to evolve in the first place.
If that giant collision hadn't happened, there might never have been any life at all on Earth. Or it may have started and then stayed as primitive archeobacteria.
I wouldn’t be surprised; I’ve had first hand experience with NYC parking patrol.
As in the Drake equation, a lot of this revolves around whether you think any given needed variable for life is one in ten thousand or one in ten million.
People have always seen things in the sky they couldn't explain or identify. In ancient and medieval times they would have called them "portents" or "marvels." Once we started contemplating space travel ourselves, they became "UFOs" and "aliens." Maybe in some other era of history we'll call it something else. As with ghosts, I think it has a lot more to do with our own culture than anything real out there.
The other issue, for me, is what does "life" or "intelligence" even mean in a completely non-terrestrial setting? Why should we presume that our earthly categories of such things even apply elsewhere? What would motivate an extraterrestrial being to travel? Would its motivations even be recognizable to us?
People have always seen things in the sky they couldn't explain or identify. In ancient and medieval times they would have called them "portents" or "marvels." Once we started contemplating space travel ourselves, they became "UFOs" and "aliens." Maybe in some other era of history we'll call it something else. As with ghosts, I think it has a lot more to do with our own culture than anything real out there.
The other issue, for me, is what does "life" or "intelligence" even mean in a completely non-terrestrial setting? Why should we presume that our earthly categories of such things even apply elsewhere? What would motivate an extraterrestrial being to travel? Would its motivations even be recognizable to us?
It used to be that people saw angels, fairies, ghosts, pixies, etc..
That changed in the 1950s in the earliest days of the cold war and the space race. Sightings of angels and fairies turned into sightings of flying saucers and space aliens.
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As a life-long amateur astronomer, I've spent much of the past five decades 'looking up' at the night sky. Seeing what's visible to the naked eye, the substantial increase of objects visible with small telescopes, and then the exponential increase of objects through space-based telescopes such as the Hubble and Webb, makes one wonder what the next generation of observational instruments will bring to our knowledge base.
I absolutely believe there are countless life forms and even civilizations among the cosmos. Out of those numbers, let's say 0.01% could develop space travel, and an even much smaller percentage would perfect interstellar or intergalactic travel. Minuscule possibility, but remotely possible nonetheless. However, I do not believe for a moment that any of them would pick our little blue dot as a destination.
I absolutely believe there are countless life forms and even civilizations among the cosmos. Out of those numbers, let's say 0.01% could develop space travel, and an even much smaller percentage would perfect interstellar or intergalactic travel. Minuscule possibility, but remotely possible nonetheless. However, I do not believe for a moment that any of them would pick our little blue dot as a destination.
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The major flaw with Drake is it assumes mankind is not primitive.
Yes I do. I have seen one near the Newark Airport back in the 80's coming home from a gig in PA.
Many cars were pulled over and people were pointing, I thought maybe a Jet was having issues, but when I glanced to my left I saw it and pulled over myself. It something you can't unsee. Told a few close friends and waiting for to be on the news and it wasn't. Would it change things I believe people in all walks of life believe it is and if they tell us it is real, the question is what do they want, to help, to take over? Not sure how we as humans would deal with it, most liking poorly.
Many cars were pulled over and people were pointing, I thought maybe a Jet was having issues, but when I glanced to my left I saw it and pulled over myself. It something you can't unsee. Told a few close friends and waiting for to be on the news and it wasn't. Would it change things I believe people in all walks of life believe it is and if they tell us it is real, the question is what do they want, to help, to take over? Not sure how we as humans would deal with it, most liking poorly.
I'm in the we can't be alone camp. I also agree that we are very primitive.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" - Carl Sagan
To quote some science guy " If we are all alone in the universe it would seem like a massive waste of space" I think there is other life out there somewhere but its a long way to where they might live. Could be primitive or as intelligent or more so then ourselves, who knows really. Even the closest possible star system to have anything remotly humanoid is an impossible distance from here and would require advanced engineering we cant even begin to fathom. Even if "they" were able to traverse those distances, they would already know or have some idea about us and then would they even find us "primitives" worth there time and effort to come here ?.... long story short, I'm going to say they probably have more interesting stuff to explore in there own neighborhood.
As for UFO's or whatever there calling them these days, most likely Gov't skunk works projects and testing. I've never seen a credible or varifiable photo of a real flying saucer, I would like to think real aliens would be a bit more creative in there interstellar spacecraft design anyway.
but as always.....I could be wrong
As for UFO's or whatever there calling them these days, most likely Gov't skunk works projects and testing. I've never seen a credible or varifiable photo of a real flying saucer, I would like to think real aliens would be a bit more creative in there interstellar spacecraft design anyway.
but as always.....I could be wrong
Produce incontrovertible evidence of extraterrestrial life and I'll believe it exists. Until then, there is no rational basis for belief, regardless of vociferous testimony to the contrary. Do I think the Earth is the only planet with life in the universe? Probably not - that seems statistically unlikely - but probably is not sufficient grounds for belief. Belief must be proportioned to the weight of the evidence, regardless of what one might prefer, desire, or suppose. Given that we live in an era where billions of people have high definition cameras with them almost all of the time, it seems odd that UFO/UAP photos/videos are not improving and increasing exponentially....
On a related note, I see UFOs frequently through my telescope eyepiece, and gather that most of them are satellites. But you NEVER KNOW!!!! Could be aliens from another dimension.
On a related note, I see UFOs frequently through my telescope eyepiece, and gather that most of them are satellites. But you NEVER KNOW!!!! Could be aliens from another dimension.
