Poll: Do you believe in aliens?

[Condor219]

The chance of any planet housing life, let alone intelligent, evolved ones, is unfathomably low. But there are so, SO many opportunities for those chances to be overcome that it's also crazy to think there aren't other sentient races.

Let me put it into an analogy. The chances of winning the lottery are terrible. But if you own every lottery ticket in existence, you're bound to have a winner. Earth had a winner. To say that we were the only ones to win in 6 billion years is unfathomable.

 

[EternalFacepalm]

Yes. Isn't it arrogant - and extremely so - to think otherwise?

 

[FenrirsWilly]

Considering aliens are anything from microscopic bacteria to fully intelligent life forms (as long as it is from another planet) yes I believe there are aliens. I hope there are intelligent aliens, not just bacteria, but if they really are intelligent they will have nothing to do with this planet.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Yup i believe in aliens the universe is too big for us to be the only inteligent life in it! And i hope they have less of an ego about there own place in the universe it'd be really depressing to knwo they have the same ego as us and think there the only inteligent life in the universe hell i don't even think humans are the most intelignet species on our own fucking planet.

 

[DanielDeFig]

There are two statistics to keep in mind:

- The likely-hood of life developing on a planet in the universe (far more complex than it needing to be at just the right distance from its sun. But considering how extreme the temperatures can get within our own planet in areas closer/further away, that's unlikely enough).

- The unlimited size of the universe, and thus the enormous amount of matter and energy within it, to provide for life.


As it turns out, when these two astronomical statistics are put together we still get tens, of not hundreds of thousands of possible chances of life developing in the universe.

So yes, I believe there is life outside earth, based purely on the statistical probability of us being alone being so much less likely (however unlikely life may be to develop, even on earth-like planets, the sheer amount of planets like that in the universe, makes it almost impossible that ONLY ours developed life).

Intelligent life? Even less likely, but still far more likely than our planet being the only one with intelligent life.

EDIT:

Considering Earth exists on the outskirts of the Milky Way, I've always suspected/dreamed that if our galaxy is structured like the Star Wars Galaxy, we would be in the Uncharted Territories (beyond the Outer Rim, the furthest reaches of charted hyperlanes). Which would explain why we are not involved in the greater struggles of the Galaxy: because no-one could be bothered to check if there is life all the way out here (always makes me lol, considering how most humans consider themselves, the human species, and earth as the most important things in the universe)

 

[Double A]

I believe some sort of extraterrestrial life exists. I have no idea what they'd look like, or if they're been to Earth (incredibly minuscule chance), or if they even live on planets. But the universe is basically infinity big, so logically there's a high probability that something else exists. Hell, our solar system hasn't been around for 5 billion years, and the universe is 2-3 times as old at the very least. So yeah, definitely something.

 

[Hagi]

Some other form of 'life' out there in this big ass universe? Nearly guaranteed.
Some other form of life we'd recognise as such? Very likely.
Some other form of life close enough for us to come into contact with? Possibly.
Some other form of life we'd be able to have intelligent communications with? Unlikely.
Some other form of life we'd be able to relate to as to other people? Nearly impossible.

 

[Rusty pumpkin]

Um... do I believe in aliens? Why did you say 'believe'? It's a pretty damn clear fact that the universe is too big for there to be only 1 life sustaining planet. If you mean do I think that there's some widespread conspiracy centering around aliens, area 15, and some such insanity straight from the X-files, then no.

 

[Eijarel]

I do, is a HUGE universe, however i still believe (until proven otherwise) that these "Aliens" are some sort of bacteria or at very least RNA based

 

[Custard_Angel]

No...

Even though we only know about a small portion of the universe, we have only ever seen evidence of one spontaneous generation of life.

i.e. on a planet perfectly suited to the generation of life, it only ever happened once.

Its impossible to generate any statistics on the likelihood of other instances of spontaneous generation because we only have one point of data to comment on.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Of course I believe in aliens.

You have to be pretty small minded to think we are the only ones in the whole universe.

 

[badgersprite]

I believe alien life exists in the universe, but I don't believe that intelligent alien life would be any better at exploring space or more advanced than we are, and I sincerely doubt that an alien civilisation exists anywhere even remotely close enough for us to ever make contact with them or be aware that they exist.

 

[Giantpanda602]

I believe aliens with our mental ability do not exist. Aliens that are pretty much just different looking animals, sure.

 

[RanD00M]

I find it hard to believe that we are the only planet without any resemblance of intelligent life. I do however also find it hard to believe that if any aliens know of us that they even give two shits about our planet and that it will be a long time before we humans meet any.

 

[stutheninja]

it would be small minded to think that there isnt some form of life in the universe other than whats on our planet, but i dont think anyone can begin to comment on whether or not they would be sentient or if they were like animals, thats just dreamworld fantasy at this point

 

[Dalek Caan]

Yes course there is, too many planets for other life not too exist.

 

[Bobbity]

Bacteria; single cell organisms? Almost certainly.

Intelligent life? I believe that there is a possibility of it.

Either way, it's incredibly unlikely that we'll ever discover either sort.

 

[captaincabbage]

Mathematically, it's quite unlikely that we are the only intelligent life - let alone the only life - in this universe. So I can say that yes, I am convinced that "we are not alone".
Our galaxy, the milky way, alone has up to 300 billion stars. That's 300,000,000,000. Now if only every tenth star has planets, that's still 30,000,000,000 (30 billion). Now if one in every thousand solar systems would have life, that would still be 30,000,000 (30 million) systems. Now if one of every thousand systems with a planet with life sports intelligent life, that would still be 30,000 (30 thousand) systems and thus civilizations.

And that's in our galaxy alone. At the moment 50 billion (50,000,000,000) galaxies are observable from earth, each with several billions of stars in them...
Heck, even if only every millionth galaxy had one single planet bearing intelligent life, it would still amount to 50 thousand civilizations.

On the other hand, I don't believe in the "grays" visiting us and cover up conspirations. As any life form would have to adhere to the same physics as we do, it's just not feasable that they would travel here, or even have remote contact.

Damn, that put the known universe in perspective for me.

Hows about this?

Okay, so if you can imagine a 20c AUD coin (or whatever is of equivalent size in your country), in the exact, pinpoint centre of that coin is earth and, by extension, our galaxy. Now, all the rest of the coin is everything we can see. Every single planet, solar system galaxy and galactic anomaly that is detectable by us is contained within that coin. This is the known universe.
Now here's the mind-blowing part. If you put that coin on the ground, the mass of the entire earth is the theorized size of the rest of the universe.
Everything we can see that is so distant. So far to unreachable is contained in that coin, so what else could there be outside of that?

So yes OP, I do believe in aliens. My own hypothesis about aliens extends to the idea that the universe is so grand, so deeply intricate and possibly limitless, that just about every creature we've ever thought up on earth exists out there somewhere. Every Klingon, every Acklay, every Rancor and Vulcan. Hell, every Spore creature is out there somehwere, and if it is, then god help us all.

 

[A-D.]

I believe that alien Life exists, in some form or another. If we take our own Planet and count the species of Animals on it currently, then we can assume that each planet has at least a form of bacteria or microbe which can survive in its environment. That includes Planets in our own Solar System, at least in terms of dfferent Environments in total. Its possible that there is a Species in our Galaxy that could survive, perhaps even thrive on Jupiter, which is entirely hostile to us given that it has no atmosphere to breathe, at least not for us as well as its gravity itself that would just crush us like ants.

I once talked with a Friend about how our Solar System is actually perfectly designed as a sort of "Kid's first Astronomy Course". We have every concieveable Variation of Gravity, Environment, Atmosphere and so forth in small, manageable doses. Basicly we can learn about whats out there in a safe environment without potentially screwing everything up in the first try. Which just proves the Point that Life can evolve anywhere if certain Criteria are met, hell our own Existence is just that dumb Luck that all those Criteria happened in the first place and then we got even more lucky that its allowed Humanity to even evolve. Roll the Dice again and we might have been Octopus-like People with 8 Legs and a giant Head for all we know.

So yeah, Intelligent Life exists out there somewhere.
Are they aware of us? Probably, with all the Radio Waves we keep sending up its a lucky break they didnt come over already and told us to turn the damn radio off cause they cant sleep and have to work tomorrow.
Have they visited us yet? Most likely. I think that they at least know that there is a Species in this Solar System if they are advanced enough themselves to notice. They might as well be watching us from time to time, to see how it goes along. But i doubt they are abducting us to run experiments on us, or try to integrate into our Society given our rather unhealthy Habit of killing each other, which means if we knew they were here, we'd just go kill them. Anyone watch Doctor Who? The Silence? Yeah, basicly that.