Do you believe in life on other planets? (1 Viewer)

[Danny R]

a lifeform exsists on a planet with a much different atmosphere than this one, and is adapted to live in THAT particular environment.

Earth has plenty of lifeforms on it already that would die if ever exposed to our general atmosphere. We've developed creatures that never see the light of day, living off of the heat and other chemicals generated from lava vents on the ocean bottoms.

Highly toxic places to most earth species, such as nuclear reactor cores, boiling hot sulphur springs, etc, have bacterium that survive there.

Seems pretty plausible to me that if there is energy and a rudimentary supply of complex chemicals around, there can be life.

 

[Max Leung]

Some interesting links from the bottomquark science news site:
The Stuff of Life in Space (crap, dead link...why do most of the US media sites not archive important stuff? geez, BBC is much better for that)
Hubble Detects Atmosphere Around Extrasolar Planet
Eight Planets Found
Primordial Soup On Saturn's Titan Moon
Simple Sugar Found in Space (great news for space-faring coffee addicts!)
Scientists Claim to Revive Meteorite Bacteria (This is a weird one, which I believe is now considered inconclusive and hence why you don't hear about it in the news)
Probing Lake Vostok
Giant Hydrothermal Vents in Atlantic (a rare case where life was NOT found swarming the vents)
NASA Says Liquid Water on Mars (I think most scientists agree the evidence is still inconclusive)
Heat-loving Bacterium Sequenced
I also strongly suggest picking up a copy of Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, which discusses the different theories of how life may evolve in other systems and how frequent life may be. Very well-written and the pictures in the book are spectacular!

 

[Julie K]

Before people start flaming me to a burnt crisp, and brandishing me as "unreasonable" as Julie K did,

My statement had the severe misfortune of falling next to yours. My beliefs on the 'unreasonable-ness' of people thinking we are unique are long standing and were in no way a response to your post. (Max Leung has listed several good reasons and those, and others, are what I base my reasonable/unreasonable boundaries on.) I would have said the same thing had your post not been there. I hadn't even really read your post when I made my reply. Stop thinking you're unique.

 

[Kevin Alexander]

Julie, please accept my apology for calling you out by name. If we were face to face, instead of trying to communicate our feelings on this matter through a keyboard, you would see that I meant no harm. Obviously my opinion is in the very miniscule minority here, but when I hear people say that it is "unreasonable" and "silly" that those (not necessarily those on this board) w/ differing views opposite the majority are implied to be close-minded and silly - that's wrong. Some may defend their choice of words, but really, "silly" and "unreasonable" shouldn't be used as neither applies to differing views.

Actually, anything outside of a civilized discussion of this matter will yield very little fruitage, if any at all. The majority w/ no proof whatsoever from science, history, and even theology wants to believe that surely there must be something out there, and those who hold views in the minority cannot convince you otherwise.

 

[Julie K]

Kevin,
I think you're taking "unreasonable" in an entirely wrong manner. At least in the manner I was using it, it did not mean "silly". No one has called those with differing opinions in this thread silly or closeminded and frankly, it smells a bit like a strawman...
But in order to clarify a bit, let me turn it around and say it in this manner:
Given what we know and are still learning about life in extreme environments on this planet, and the planets that are being found in large numbers, and the presence of elements required for life being found in space and on planets in this solar system, I think it is entirely reasonable to believe life exists on other planets.
And sure, we have no proof yet. That proof may well not be found until we reach Europa, although I do have high hopes for Mars.

those who hold views in the minority cannot convince you otherwise.

Does anyone really expect to change anyone's mind on the internet? Really, I want to know.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I think its highly propably there is life on other planets...what makes us (the earth) so special?

Space is a very large place with nearly infinate possibilities and the chances that we are unique among all those possibilities makes absolutly no sense at all...

Besides "Life will find a way"

 

[Kevin Alexander]

No one has called those with differing opinions in this thread silly or closeminded and frankly, it smells a bit like a strawman...

Read 6 posts up from your last post.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Kevin, just relax, this is just a freindly discussion that's all. Your referring to my post, I said nothing to him that I wouldn't have said if we were sitting across a table from one another having this discussion.
I'm sure he knows what I meant, which was nothing offensive in the least. Just let it go, I mean afterall, we're just shootin the shit here.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Think of the massive amount of time no intelligent life existed on earth

Some would question whether any exists yet...
I find it implausible that life exists only on one planet in the universe. Even the Bible, which I don't prescribe to, states (Genesis 26) "Let us make man in our own image." Gideons refers to Gods (plural) in the same verse. Even Gods have to live somewhere.
As for whether or not contact has already been made, that falls into areas that we are discouraged from discussing here, but if I were a sentient being from another planet, able to traverse space to get here, I would be hard pressed to find a reason to make contact with a narcissistic, aggressive and destructive race of beings.

 

[Luuk Vos]

Anyhow, I refuse to believe that this all is it. Earth. Humans. Nope, I believe that the truth is out there! :alien:
Luuk

 

[tyler O]

I prefer to think of it in this way:

-What is life?

-A process that uses biologically based machines so that we may create or destroy energy. In its basest form it provides the impetus for creating or destructing habitats which will make the organism either adapt to its surroundings or attempt to exert itself upon its surroundings. There are such pursuits available in life such as: art, love, procreation, work, understanding, habitation, contemplation, and all the various and sundry forms and manifestations that may or may not occur. These pursuits, while they may cause positive or negative reactions based upon pre-programmed routines based in organically stored neurons and other energy based systems (including but not limited to digestion, nervous, cardiac, et. al); ultimately these pursuits and organisms have no function other than to provide as an arena for the creation or destruction of energy.

-So to answer the original question without going off on a ridiculous tangent about life, the universe and everything (42); Do you believe in life on other planets?

-Yes, but we may not recognize it as such, be it non carbon based, or inert such as a rock, but the process exists everywhere throughout all of what we may percieve as being the universe.

-What's your favorite color?

-Blue. No Purple.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH

 

[Kevin Alexander]

Quote:

Kevin Alexander's response to this thread's question: Personally, I don't believe that life exists on other planets. I feel that the earth is a special and unique place like no other in all the universe known and unknown, and that the life contained on it is just as precious and unique........Hey, you asked.

 

[Liam S]

-What is life?

-A process that uses biologically based machines so that we may create or destroy energy. In its basest form it provides the impetus for creating or destructing habitats which will make the organism either adapt to its surroundings or attempt to exert itself upon its surroundings. There are such pursuits available in life such as: art, love, procreation, work, understanding, habitation, contemplation, and all the various and sundry forms and manifestations that may or may not occur. These pursuits, while they may cause positive or negative reactions based upon pre-programmed routines based in organically stored neurons and other energy based systems (including but not limited to digestion, nervous, cardiac, et. al); ultimately these pursuits and organisms have no function other than to provide as an arena for the creation or destruction of energy.

Quoting from Snatch: "Did you understand one word of what he just said?"

Anywho, as Tyler said we have to define what we mean by life. On Earth, we think of life as either plants or animals. Plants as life that takes CO2 and water and converts it to sugar and O2, and animals as life that takes sugar and O2 and converts it to CO2 and water. But on another planet, life may take methane and nitrogen to make something else. So, the question really is, are there other planets? And we know now that there are other planets. Personally, I think that life can develope on other planets, even if they are strange compared to Earth (or even compared to the other planets in our solar system).

 

[Kevin Alexander]

Within the context of this discussion, it seems easier if we limit the definition of "life" to animals on the same level of man.

 

[Brad_W]

Again, I like to reiterate my Human Superiority Complex idea that most humans think that we are the center of the universe, that we are alone because if we weren't the center of the universe then we wouldn't be the all powerful we like to believe that we are, that most people think that even the creator of the universe is human looking ("created in own image"). This is why it is hard for some/most people to believe that there is life beyond our existence.

There is life elsewhere. Just because we haven't seen them does not mean that they don't exist.

It's hard to give up our place in the universal heirarchy.

And no, we cannot destroy the Earth as so many people love to believe (another piece of proof of the Human Superiority Complex).

 

[Danny R]

And no, we cannot destroy the Earth as so many people love to believe

We can't? I guess it depends on your definition of destroy. We certainly do have the ability to make Earth's environment totally inhospitable to human life.

 

[EugeneR]

And no, we cannot destroy the Earth as so many people love to believe

I think you're wrong. Theoretically, I believe that if you dug a deep enough, big enough hole and stuck all the nukes we have in it, you'd likely have enough energy to break the planet apart if you detonated them. It's probably only a matter of time before we have weapons that can destroy the plantet without going to all that trouble.

As far as life on other planets, given the existence of life on Earth in the most hostile environments this planet has to offer, I believe that it almost certainly exists in some rudimentary form, such as microbes, on other planets. Intelligent life is probably an exceedingly rare occurrance, although no one knows for sure, since we have examined only the tiniest portion of the universe. But even if the chance of intelligent life is one in a hundred billion, or a fraction of that, if you have infinite chances, who knows? Now, that intelligent life may have existed a billion years ago on a planet a hundred billion light years away, so if it is that rare, we're probably never going to know. If it's much more common than we think, who knows, maybe all those rednecks really are getting anally probed on lonely country roads by aliens with a weird fetish...

 

[Brad_W]

I think you're wrong

Well, what you described is actually trying to destroy the planet and that may or may not work, but that's not what I was talking about. I'm talking about when people say things like 'we'll destroy the Earth because of what we do to it.' That sort of thing. No, we cannot destroy the Earth.

The Earth has survived much worse than us. Cometary Evolution comes to mind, etc. We can make the planet uninhabitable for us, but that would only kill us because after millions of years (and like with anything else we do to the planet) the Earth will heal itself or change for itself. Again, this is where the Human Superiority Complex comes into play. People may think we destroyed the planet because we can no longer live on it, but what are we to the Earth?

Our short existence is only a paragraph in the timetable/diary that has been written by Mother Nature.

And on that note... we cannot be alone.

 

[Brad_W]

By the way Scott,

You have created yet another great thread for discussion. Thank you. I love this stuff.

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

And no, we cannot destroy the Earth

Tell THAT to Dr. Evil!

Bruce