Do you believe in Aliens?

[Dumbfish1]

Yes and no.

While it is pretty much a logical certainty that aliens exist in the universe, sentient or not, the idea that any lifeform with the will and technological advancement to travel the vast distances between planets for thousands of years would do so to abduct yokels?

 

[Callate]

If you search enough of the universe, you will probably find life beyond Earth.

If you search an even bigger section of the universe, you will probably even find intelligent life.

But it seems like every time someone tries to suggest that intelligent alien life has visited Earth, they end up shooting their case in the foot by say, to cite one prominent example, writing a cash-grab sequel to their "non-fiction" first account. The satirists who have joked about aliens purposely only visiting only people who the rest of the human population will never believe have a point.

It's not impossible that in the multi-billion year life span of Earth aliens have visited at some point. However, if I had a means of travel that was capable of crossing light-year spans at even double the speed of light, I'm pretty sure I would find better things to do in the universe than visit Earth more than once. We show little sign of getting to such a point ourselves, and beyond that, we're as notable for our capacity for self-destruction as anything.

If aliens visited tomorrow, I would be happy to eat my words. I'd be delighted to know we weren't alone in the universe, even if their intentions were less than "let us give you the cure to cancer". But I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Orks da best]

yes and I seen them

The universe is too large for us to be the only life forms out there.

One time at a dog park, when one of our dogs was running back to us, there was a lite grey cicule under him following his postion, I looked up, the sky was cloudy and no sun was visable, also saw nothing that would have made it, on Earth anyways. but how does one explain it, a lite grey cicule following a dog with pin point accuracery?

Also if aliens have been to Earth, they have had to advance technology beyond how understanding of physics.

 

[Bvenged]

HAve aliens visited Earth? No.
Do Aliens exist on a world that is theoretically possible to travel to? Almost certainly, yes. whether that be simple organisms or complex life, just yes.

 

[Gramzies]

The first, life on other planets is likely due to mathematical probability, and the second, that another society from another planet came to earth is extremely unlikely for partly the same reason.

Perhaps there have been meetings between other planetary colonies but it's only guess and imagination.

The only thing that counts is what actually is, not what people believe

 

[Gmans uncle]

The probability of us being the only intelligent life in the universe is pretty much zero, anyone who says otherwise is either way too religious or just afraid of reality.

 

[Stainlesssteele4]

How can you not? To believe that human life (and all other terrestrial life by extension) is the only life in a possibly infinite universe is just ridiculous.

 

[DanielDeFig]

I believe we are not the only life-form in the universe. I do not believe said life forms have ever been to earth.

I base my belief on statistics. Considering how massive the universe is, it is statistically less likely that we are the only life-forms in the universe, than there being thousands of planets with life (despite the statistical improbability of life occurring on any given planet at all. The universe is simply too big).

 

[otakon17]

Well, it's probably been said before but I do. The universe is simply too mind-staggeringly immense beyond all rational thoughts on dimension for their not to be alien life out there. As for if their advanced enough to travel here and observe us? If their that far ahead of us technologically then we'd probably never notice them at all.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Mathematically speaking, the universe couldn't give less of a shit about your bullshit statistics and either has or has not got life on other planets. This isn't a logical thing that can be worked out mathematically.

OT: I don't care, it doesn't matter what I think on this matter because they either do or don't exist.

 

[Tiamattt]

Yeah there's no way there's nothing out there in the extremely vast universe. As for visiting earth, I'm not as certain as the last question but yeah going say no they haven't been here. Considering that just the ability to get here would require them to have technology way superior then ours then chances are they would've shown up and kicked our asses with ease by now. Unless of course we did such a good job screwing the planet up that they wouldn't want it at all.

 

[CODE-D]

Its weird that at one time we considered Russia our equal.
Thats some spot on investigative science there Russia, its slightly different but similiar therefore aliens.

 

[-Deadeye]

"In an infinite universe, every event that has the remotest chance of happening is guarunteed to happen." So yes. I think.

 

[tkioz]

Of course I do, it's a mathematical improbability that they don't exist in our galaxy, let alone the universe.

But I think the question here is "do you believe in Aliens that have visited the Earth while humanity has existed?" In which case, no, because we're still here.

 

[DracoSuave]

Statistically they are guaranteed to exist in some form, whether intelligent or just bacteria.

When you have a sample size of 1, statistics is the wrong word to use.

The term you're looking for is 'hypothetically speaking' because you're working with a hypothesis, not a statistic

However, looking at it hypothetically:

The sun is not the only star of its type in the local area of the galaxy, and not the only one with planets. All we need to do is observe a planet in orbit with the same temperature range as earth, with the same hydrogen/oxygen/carbon/nitrogen mix. It'll be the same age as earth, more or less, because the sun will be the same age as the sun. Thus, we can see if similiar conditions yield similiar results through abiogenesis.

Hypothesis can be tested, and is falsifiable; just... we don't have the technology to do so yet.

 

[FrostyChick]

Reasonable logic =/= physical evidence.

Until we have both, I shall remain on the fence.

 

[Varrdy]

On that evidence, I wouldn't say aliens existed.

However I believe that life must exist on another planet. Be it a fully sapient species or a mere microbe, I cannot accept that in a galaxy - a universe! - as big as ours, ours is the only planet with life on it.

I find it incredibly arrogant to even suggest that we inhabit the ONLY planet with life. Granted, the conditions have to pretty damn specific and thus likely to be uncommon but out there, somewhere, there HAS to be life.

Do I believe that extra-terrestrial life has visited our planet before? Tricky one, that...

While I'm quite happy to chalk down every redneck's "experience" as a result of foetal-alcohol syndrome, if another sentient species were aware of us, they're in no hurry to show it. It could be that they saw our planet and went: "Oo! That looks nice...oh, bugger! It's taken!" and moved on. It's also equally possible they took one look at us, as a species, and thought: "Fuck me, what a bunch of c*nts!"

Short version: I believe but I also think they're nothing like what we expect them to be.

Wardy
PS - If, by some squillion-to-one chance the Asari really do exist, I would like to apply for the post of official Asari-Human liason officer right away!

 

[LarenzoAOG]

Considering that there are a zillion planets out there that we know of and gillions more we don't, I'd say the possibility of their being no other life out there is very, very, low.