Poll: Do you believe in aliens?

[Yoh3333]

Yes, and i think it's foolish to think otherwise. That may sound harsh but i mean it.
The universe is enourmous and we know that species don't need to follow our specific fomular for life (I'm refering to the bacteria Nasa found which included Arsonic i think?)
What should stop somewhere else to have life on it?
I think that the second we find another life form we will have to change the ways we think of life.

 

[roostuf]

oh course, but not in any way people normally depict them as.

 

[Laser Priest]

Of course I do. I work with some.

I can tell you, Martians are pricks.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

It isn't so much an issue of "do other things exist" as it is an issue of what we consider to be "life".

We have a very myopic view (note: I don't mean to say that the view is irrational, it works very well for an earth-bound species) that makes it extremely unlikely that we'd ever run across something that we'd be willing to consider "life".

 

[Biodeamon]

yes but not in the way we imagine them. I don`t know if we`ll ever meet them though, the galaxy`s a big place

 

[babinro]

Absolutely, I'm sure uninteresting bacteria like creatures exist as well as full grown creatures be it animal or humanoid in nature. Considering the size of the universe, it simply feels arrogant to assume Earth is the one and only planet of its kind.

 

[Foxbat Flyer]

Yes, Aliens exist, and although id like to meet some, i dont thinkwe will meet any in my life time

 

[Ensiferum]

Other - Do I believe there is life on other planets? Yes (They've already discovered bacteria on other worlds, haven't they?). However I do not believe we have enough hard evidence to support the existence of other "intelligent" life but I'll fully admit it's possible.

 

[Chase Yojimbo]

I'm going with the fact that... yes... I'm going with good ol' Drake's Equation

N = R* fp ne fl fi fc L

http://www.setileague.org/general/drake.htm

 

[Raregolddragon]

yes I do and I know they are pony's!

 

[SuperNova221]

No. I don't "believe" in them. I don't accept that they exist. I just accept that they likely do/have/will exist at some point given the magnitude of the universe and possibility of multiverse. For all we know multiple galaxy-spanning civilisations could have existed already billions of years ago, before dieing out completely. Alternativley, we could just be the only ones here. So I don't accept the existence of them, and I don't believe that they exist either. But if there is any objective evidence given for it at any point, I will chance my mind.

 

[cornmancer]

The universe is infinite in every sense of the word. It has an infinite amount of space, it has an infinite amount of time, and an infinite number of possibilities for what can occur in it. If we can occur in it, then there's no reason organic life can't occur somewhere else. I just hope that when we make contact it's more along the lines of Mass Effect or Hitchhiker's Guide than finding some bacteria. Though bacteria would be cool too.

 

[Ldude893]

Somewhere in this vast universe there is a planet which happens to have the right conditions to support life. It's just that they're too far away from us.

 

[Innegativeion]

I'm absolutely sure there is life on other worlds, given that the universe is infinite, law of probabilities states statistically SOMEWHERE out there there has to be a world whose conditions favor a system of living organisms.

I don't believe we've ever made contact though, no.

The way I see it, there are two possibilities:

A, we eventually come across a planet with microscopic or extremely simple macroscopic life.

B, an intelligent species finds us.

When we do come across them, I doubt they'll be anything like any beings we've encountered on earth. Maybe they'll be remotely similar, but nothing like the menagerie of creatures we've seen in sci-fi movies/books/games/tv shows.

edit:

Other - Do I believe there is life on other planets? Yes (They've already discovered bacteria on other worlds, haven't they?). However I do not believe we have enough hard evidence to support the existence of other "intelligent" life but I'll fully admit it's possible.

Nope, only signs of it on mars. No living beings yet.

The incredible improbability of life on Earth dwarfs the number of stars in the universe.

I'd assume that such a wildly unlikely event has not happened again.

Is the improbability of earth's environment computable? I'm pretty sure we've found at least one or two earth-like planets with our telescopes. We know mars once had water.

Because if it is computable, then no, it does not dwarf the number of planets in the universe, not by a long shot. That is, there is an infinite number of planets.

 

[AgentNein]

The universe is infinite in every sense of the word. It has an infinite amount of space, it has an infinite amount of time, and an infinite number of possibilities for what can occur in it. If we can occur in it, then there's no reason organic life can't occur somewhere else. I just hope that when we make contact it's more along the lines of Mass Effect or Hitchhiker's Guide than finding some bacteria. Though bacteria would be cool too.

Small nitpick as I mostly agree with you:

While the current cosmological model of the universe seems to support an infinite amount of space, it doesn't support an infinite amount of time available, especially time for life to form. What with entropy and the heat death and the steadily increasing expansion of the universe that would eventually rip everything apart blah blah.

If you were just being hyperbolic it's fair. We certainly do have quite a bit of time for other life to form in the universe (and probably an infinite amount of space which would make it a virtual certainty), even if it's probably not an infinite amount of time.

 

[cornmancer]

It was partly hyperbole and partly me not knowing much physics.

 

[AgentNein]

It was partly hyperbole and partly me not knowing much physics.

No worries!

 

[TheTim]

Yes strongly, the damn universe is too big to not have any other intelligent life, i don't think we'll find them in my lifetime though.

 

[Greatjusticeman]

If we do find aliens that are intelligent, I believe they will look and act like nothing we have ever imagined.

Like, something really weird. Something very hard for us to comprehend. As much as I love the Mass Effect universe, I don't think aliens will all be like that - bi-pedal, think in terms of a united government and such.

 

[AgentNein]

If we do find aliens that are intelligent, I believe they will look and act like nothing we have ever imagined.

Like, something really weird. Something very hard for us to comprehend. As much as I love the Mass Effect universe, I don't think aliens will all be like that - bi-pedal, think in terms of a united government and such.

Have you read Solaris by Stanislaw Lem? I highly recommend it (neither movie does it justice), it's really all about the idea that aliens we might meet would probably be a lot more well... alien than most people realize. To the point where communication might be hopelessly hampered.