Comments on: If we found alien life, would we know it?

By: MekhongKurt

MekhongKurt — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:55:40 +0000

nightlight, your points are valid, but there’s one you omitted: what if there’s a civilization out there vastly older than us — 1 or 2 million years, say — that has discovered a way to propel a spaceship at some appreciable fraction of the speed of light — 10% or better? — and built an “ark” to explore? They might come to us. Of course, they might give us a miss, but they might let us know they’re in the neighborhood, even if they cruise on quickly.

By: tdw

tdw — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:16:38 +0000

The alien life would annihilate us because we are nothing but predictable germs that care about nothing but power

By: dawn

dawn — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:29:11 +0000

well u will have to consider that what if the alien lifeforms are intelligent and that they dont think we are intelligent enough to contact…thers always that possibilities…or maybe that the distances are so great that they can’t. also what happende to all the wierd symbols that were found on our earth and that we are just not getting there point. there are so many possibilities that it is arrogant to think that we are the only intelligent life forms…

By: nightlight

nightlight — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:21:44 +0000

Due to the great distances between stars it is most unlikely that we will ever encounter life other than our own. Though I am almost certain that life other than our own does exist somewhere, I am not concerned about possible life in other galaxies. Even the milky galaxy is more than we will ever, ever fully explore, assuming that we live long enough to even explore the nearest stars, which are very, very far away. Though it is not absolute, there is a very good possibility that life elsewhere would be carbon based, being that carbon is so abundant throughout the universe and so readily combines to form the basic blocks of life, as we know it. Of course, this does not mean that life elsewhere has to be based on carbon but it is certainly a good and obvious model.
Intelligent, technologically advanced life on other stars is even more unlikely but there are some basic requirements we would recognize. They must have big brains, or some sort of system for thought , storage and retrieval. They would have to have some sort of mobility and some sort of clutchable appendage, in the form of hands, tentacles, suckers, tendrils or something that could clutch, hold and manipulate objects in order to build, construct objects of technology. They would have to have some sort of vision and in some degree of clarity. This would not necessarily have to be of the ocular vision we have. It could be x-ray, infrared or any kind of sight that would allow them to distinguish objects, their environment and so on and so on.
As far as detecting life on other planets, we have the ability to detect the different elements of other galaxies, stars and planets so we could detect oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and gases from industrial production and pollution. I would think that would be a sure sign of intelligent and advanced life.
At any rate, I wouldn’t hold my breath until then and I wouldn’t bet on encountering any life form in many, many generations. It’s not that I’m a pessimist, it’s just that am a realist and understand and comprehend the great distances between the stars. Perhaps by the time we can bridge these great distances we will be socially advanced enough to understand it all, but I have doubt. It is my belief that if we do cross the barriers of time and space it will probably be to make war, probably for profit.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:20:14 +0000

There’s seems no reason to theorize that the incredible choas of accidents that took hold on this planet would do so in exactly the same way, in the identical conditions on any other planet in another similar galaxy. So I doubt we’d have a clue what we were looking at. The “life” I believe exists elsewhere in the universe would confound as it would awe. If this small planet in this one galaxy in such a vast cosmos were the only place life existed, that infers something about life I wouldn’t know how to identify – but I’d be afraid to waste it.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:22:29 +0000

Right you are, Drew.

By: Drew

Drew — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:59:01 +0000

if there was life other than that on earth in are solar system that had inteligence wouldnt it have already tried to contact us also this weird life what if it lives in a way that hasnâ€™t been seen before and it almost bends certain laws of science wouldnt that meen we have to rethink almost every one of our discoveries

By: Sydne

Sydne — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:44:15 +0000

I hope thier not like aliens in the movies because thats creepy!Oh I almost forgot,if we do find any what would happen if we got in a big war like war of the worlds?

By: De'andre

De'andre — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:39:20 +0000

see you later