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So a whistleblower claims the US has actual UFO parts and even complete "vehicles".
The natural sceptic in me says this is clearly fantasist bollox....thoughts?
Bollox, bet he has a book coming out
Yeah most likely. I'm with the people who say the chances of advanced civilisations developing are almost infinitesimally small, and the chances of them overlapping with uneven smaller, and the chances of them coming here even smaller again....so, yeah, bollox
Erm… just in case it’s true….i for one welcome our reptilian overlords!
I'm sure there are aliens out there, but I suspect faster than light travel is not going to be practically possible, so we probably will never meet them.
It’s impossible to keep anything of this scale secret in the modern era. Evidence would’ve been leaked and posted on Reddit by now.
There are millions of ways in which life on a planet could develop, most would probably not end up in space exploration. There are also thousands of species on earth, only one of which cares about this stuff (the rest could happily carry on without us).
We probably look at this from the point of view of space explorers thinking if we've done it so could anything else. Add in galactic timescales, in which we as a civilization are a microblip, then the maths will tell you how vanishingly tiny the chances of co-existing are.
If alien life arrived on this planet, the chances of it only being known by NASA in the Space Age is laughable.
Take it all with a pinch of salt.
Yeah most likely. I’m with the people who say the chances of advanced civilisations developing are almost infinitesimally small, and the chances of them overlapping with uneven smaller, and the chances of them coming here even smaller again
TBH, the most thorough study i've seen says that the existence of dozens, or even hundreds of advanced civilisations existing, or having existed, or likely to exist, is almost a dead certainty. The universe is a really really really big place.
The rest is accurate, they're unlikely to exist at the same point in time, or even within striking distance of earth, or even any other advanced civilisations. If you can even call humanity advanced. Or civilised.
Tomorrow, Suella will be releasing plans to deport them all to Mars, just as soon as they get here.
Seems a bit shortsighted, all those extra arms should be excellent for fruit picking.
It's OK, if we are visited by aliens, Braverman has the answer.
There are millions of ways in which life on a planet could develop, most would probably not end up in space exploration. There are also thousands of species on earth, only one of which cares about this stuff (the rest could happily carry on without us).
We probably look at this from the point of view of space explorers thinking if we’ve done it so could anything else. Add in galactic timescales, in which we as a civilization are a microblip, then the maths will tell you how vanishingly tiny the chances of co-existing are.
If alien life arrived on this planet, the chances of it only being known by NASA in the Space Age is laughable.
Take it all with a pinch of salt.
He said with a Richard Burton accent
Drake equations and the Fermi [paradox
Myself I believe the zoo hypothesis - that there is an advanced civilization out there and they know about us but are waiting for us to "grow up / become civilised" before they reveal themselves
It’s impossible to keep anything of this scale secret in the modern era. Evidence would’ve been leaked and posted on Reddit by now.
And been roundly mocked and not taken seriously.
Makes you think.
Myself I believe the zoo hypothesis – that there is an advanced civilization out there and they know about us but are waiting for us to “grow up / become civilised” before they reveal themselves
Why do all alien civilisations act as one? Is space travel strictly regulated so that only the planetary government (and it is always one whole-planet government) can do it?
I subscribe to the Douglas Adams 'Teaser' hypothesis:
“Teasers are usually rich kids with nothing to do. They cruise around looking for planets that haven’t made interstellar contact yet and buzz them.” “Buzz them?” Arthur began to feel that Ford was enjoying making life difficult for him. “Yeah,” said Ford, “they buzz them. They find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul whom no one’s ever going to believe and then strut up and down in front of him wearing silly antennas on their head and making beep beep noises.”
I do like the Douglas Adams one 🙂
There are millions of ways in which life on a planet could develop
I thought that wasn't actually the case and that the way life can develop is actually more limited than you might expect?
Don't the basic ingredients give you hugely variable possibilities but nevertheless not in realms of millions?
Why do all alien civilisations act as one?
I actually know the answer to this, I think. It's analogous to seafaring in Earth history, where empires and countries would rule cities or ports, which were the places people went. The empires or states are equivalent to races, and their planets are like cities. Although in Star Wars it's more directly analogous to the Wild West where you'd travel to a town and find the thing you were looking for. When Luke goes to find Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back he goes to 'the Degobah system' to look for someone. In an entire star system. And somehow he finds him straight away. Even if you knew the planet, and it was developed that would be a monumental task - imagine landing on Earth randomly from another planet and going 'right, I'm looking for Steve Roberts, where can I find him?'
"infinite" as we simply do not know everything.
Someone worked out a series of chemical reactions based on significantly different chemicals to that which earth based life uses ie silica based or ammonia based. There is also the potential of supercooled helium, crystals and magnetic fields. We have no idea how many ways of life under which conditions could arise.
TBH, the most thorough study i’ve seen says that the existence of dozens, or even hundreds of advanced civilisations existing, or having existed, or likely to exist, is almost a dead certainty. The universe is a really really really big place.
Sorry I should have added "within reach of us" (even allowing for faster than light travel....)
I'm trying to find the Brian Cox view of it (no, not that Brian Cox), it seemed well argued.
TBH, the most thorough study i’ve seen says that the existence of dozens, or even hundreds of advanced civilisations existing, or having existed, or likely to exist, is almost a dead certainty. The universe is a really really really big place.
... is the right answer, really.
The chances of us being the only populated planet in the universe is vanishingly small, because big numbers. It's a near certainty. The chances of a flying saucer crash-landing in Nevada is even less likely, because big numbers.
Consider all the grains of sand on Earth. What do you suppose the odds are that one of them is a particular Pantone shade of blue? Reasonably likely? Great, now go find it.
significantly different chemicals to that which earth based life uses ie silica based or ammonia based.
But different chemicals can't exist according to our physics....
I thought that wasn’t actually the case and that the way life can develop is actually more limited than you might expect?
This is true, in my understanding also. Life is hard to define, but if you consider it as organisms that will intrinsically self replicate by consuming resources from their environment, then you need matter that can store complex information and make complex shapes and substances from simple atoms. Due to the characteristics of the periodic table there is basically only one atom that can do this easily - carbon - which we know is very common and widespread in the universe. It's so good at creating complex structures that it has an entire branch of chemistry devoted to its study which is as big as the rest of chemistry combined. We know that atoms are going to be the same everywhere so other planets with liquid water are quite likely to have the same setup as we have with cells and membranes and all. They'd need something to perform the function of DNA, but it might not be actual DNA.
The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one. But still…
But different chemicals can’t exist according to our physics….
Misunderstanding - earth life is carbon based - almost all earth life is based around a carbon cycle . There are other potential cycles for the energy exchange needed for life ammonia based or silica based are two oft quoted examples but plenty of other possibilities as well
Due to the characteristics of the periodic table there is basically only one atom that can do this easily – carbon – which we know is very common and widespread in the universe.
Ammonia and Silica can do this as well or low temp life using helium base etc etc
Where are all the complex silicon based polymers on Earth?
Silicones, but how common are they compared to carbon based?
Somewhere between 100 and 400 billion stars, just in the milky way, and we're already discovering "earth like" planets just in the little bit of it that we can see with any sort of detail (which is really not that much).
And that's one of 20 odd galaxies in the local group.
Then they estimate somewhere between 100 and 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe.
There's probably a dozen duplicate STW websites across the universe right now. All arguing about the best tyres for wet roots, and wondering why they can't index their gears.
It fascinates me TBH, the whole astronomy thing.
And which tyres for wet roots. Indexing i can do in my sleep...
Thats no reason why it could not work. Its a workable cycle that has been suggested
Ammonia and Silica can do this as well or low temp life using helium base etc etc
Think ammonia was the most probable, with others several orders of magnitude less likely.
Thats no reason why it could not work. Its a workable cycle that has been suggested
But nature isn't going to create all possibilities just for the hell of it - the simplest and most effective method based on the most abundant ingredients is the one that will prevail.
silica is highly abundant. So are the nitrates for an ammonia cycle
Silicon is highly abundant on Earth and yet we don't see much complex silicone chemistry here. Why is that, and why might that be different on another planet?
EDIT I'm no chemist, but the Wikipedia article says that silicon is more electropositive than carbon, which would mean it's more likely to end up bound in ionic solids i.e crystals which means minerals here on Earth. Which is what we see.
There are lots of carbonates too, but aren't they more likely to be water soluble and hence water is more likely to have carbonate ions floating around in it than silicate? I can't think of water soluble silicate compounds?
in an infinite universe the improbable becomes certain
If you can even call humanity advanced.
We must be, we think digital watches are really cool technology…
I love sitting looking up at the night's sky.... That is until I have this feeling of pointlessness and what's the point.... Just one dot amongst millions.
Space is bigger than anything I can comprehend.... We're just here floating about at random. All these stars, galaxies.....
And yet I still have to deal with letters from the tax office.
It's bollox
We must be, we think digital watches are really cool technology…
Well, we think they're a pretty neat idea.
That is until I have this feeling of pointlessness and what’s the point
Whatever you want it to be.
The night sky is actually the normal everyday universe, it just gets obscured by a blue glow when we get spun around to face our local star.
Also - Alpin, check this out. Those are all galaxies. That's what's out there, in a tiny piece of the sky.
@tjagain the Universe is finite.
the Universe is finite.
That's the sort of bold unsubstantiated claim that starts religions.
Well you know there was a big bang, right? Where everything started at a point and then started expanding outwards? That was a finite amount of time ago. Therefore, the universe must be finite, in that model.
Where everything started at a point
I didn't think there was a "point', I thought the Big Bang created space and time?
If beyond the universe there is no space and time doesn't that mean there is nothing other than the universe, therefore the universe has no edge and is therefore infinite?
No, things can be finite and have no edges. Look down, you're standing on one such thing. The surface of the Earth (2D) is finite but unbounded because its curved in the third dimension. Space might be curved in a fourth dimension.
But the surface of the Earth has an edge.
The earth has an edge in three dimensions, or rather a boundary. But the surface of the earth does not have an edge.