Do you believe there is life other than on Earth?

The odds against life on other planets are pretty bad. The universe is not a friendly place. It's hostile. You need just the right combination of a friendly sun, an atmosphere that absorbs harmful rays, just the right distance from the sun so that humans can survive, and there are extremes in temperature and we only live where the temperatures are favorable. Many place on Earth are uninhabitable. And the most important of all. Liquid water. Not ice.

We are limited to living in a zone. Go up too high and no oxygen and you die.

They keep looking and looking and spending tons of money on exploring space. I think they should give up and look after our own.

And it's really unique when you think of it but there are no two people exactly alike on this Earth.

So why should there be two Earth like planets.?

I agree that there has been TOO much time, energy , and money wasted on what seems by all accounts to be a futile search for other ''earth-like'' planets, when said resources should be directed in fixing up the many problems on THIS planet. Doesn`t mean to say that there is no other civilisation out there somewhere, though. The mistaken assumption is that ''they'' should look a lot like US...which doesn`t make much sense, as other beings have probably evolved in a completely different way than humans...depending on their particular environment. They could be situated thousands of light years away. so, forget about ever trying to find them. Leave them alone...and begin focusing on fixing up things here on ''Terra Firma''...
 
I agree that there has been TOO much time, energy , and money wasted on what seems by all accounts to be a futile search for other ''earth-like'' planets, when said resources should be directed in fixing up the many problems on THIS planet. Doesn`t mean to say that there is no other civilisation out there somewhere, though. The mistaken assumption is that ''they'' should look a lot like US...which doesn`t make much sense, as other beings have probably evolved in a completely different way than humans...depending on their particular environment. They could be situated thousands of light years away. so, forget about ever trying to find them. Leave them alone...and begin focusing on fixing up things here on ''Terra Firma''...

I agree. At this moment we are closer to our own extinction than we have ever been.
 

If you are not alive you won't feel pain. Machines don't feel pain. Something to do with a brain.
How do you know that machines don't feel pain? Many animals do not have, what you think of as a brain, but they will react if you burn them. See, the problem with the definition of life can be very difficult. We call an atom an atom but we have no idea what it really is. We can never know the essence of a thing. A definition of a thing is not within itself. We assign a meaning thru language. Try to think without language. You can[t. You can say the evidence for life is breathing, feeling pain, eating, working, thinking, but at each stage you must define. In short, we construct reality through our language. We do not know what a tree really is. But, we can eat its fruit and stand in the shade. Buy the way. Thanks for calling me out on the evidence issue. You were right about that.
 
How do you know that machines don't feel pain? Many animals do not have, what you think of as a brain, but they will react if you burn them. See, the problem with the definition of life can be very difficult. We call an atom an atom but we have no idea what it really is. We can never know the essence of a thing. A definition of a thing is not within itself. We assign a meaning thru language. Try to think without language. You can[t. You can say the evidence for life is breathing, feeling pain, eating, working, thinking, but at each stage you must define. In short, we construct reality through our language. We do not know what a tree really is. But, we can eat its fruit and stand in the shade. Buy the way. Thanks for calling me out on the evidence issue. You were right about that.

You are going far afield with topics that are not relevant to the key discussion. You should start a thread on it. My contention is that Earth is a fluke in the universe, that the universe is a hostile place and we at the present time are the only living creatures at this time.

I'm pretty sure that machines don't have a brain other than computer chips and I doubt very much that they feel pain. I think pretty well all creatures have some type of brain to control their functions.
 
You are going far afield with topics that are not relevant to the key discussion. You should start a thread on it. My contention is that Earth is a fluke in the universe, that the universe is a hostile place and we at the present time are the only living creatures at this time.

I'm pretty sure that machines don't have a brain other than computer chips and I doubt very much that they feel pain. I think pretty well all creatures have some type of brain to control their functions.

What I was attempting to show you is in the realm of the metaphysical. There is nothing I could say that would provide evidence that the universe is a hostile place, etc. On the other hand you have no evidence that the universe is hostile accept your opinion. In this case, I guess we just have to agree to disagree.
 
I agree that there has been TOO much time, energy , and money wasted on what seems by all accounts to be a futile search for other ''earth-like'' planets, when said resources should be directed in fixing up the many problems on THIS planet. Doesn`t mean to say that there is no other civilisation out there somewhere, though. The mistaken assumption is that ''they'' should look a lot like US...which doesn`t make much sense, as other beings have probably evolved in a completely different way than humans...depending on their particular environment. They could be situated thousands of light years away. so, forget about ever trying to find them. Leave them alone...and begin focusing on fixing up things here on ''Terra Firma''...

Here is a link to an interesting article on the cost of SETI. It's 2.5 million a year. That's the same as 5 Tomahawk cruise missiles, and probably less than one Batman movie.

Don
 
What I was attempting to show you is in the realm of the metaphysical. There is nothing I could say that would provide evidence that the universe is a hostile place, etc. On the other hand you have no evidence that the universe is hostile accept your opinion. In this case, I guess we just have to agree to disagree.
Howard Smith, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard, made the claim that we are alone in the universe after an analysis of the 500 planets discovered so far showed all were hostile to life.

Dr Smith said the extreme conditions found so far on planets discovered outside out Solar System are likely to be the norm, and that the hospitable conditions on Earth could be unique.

“We have found that most other planets and solar systems are wildly different from our own. They are very hostile to life as we know it,” he said.

He pointed to stars such as HD10180, which sparked great excitement when it was found to be orbited by a planet of similar size and appearance to Earth.

But the similarities turned out to be superficial. The planet lies less than two million miles from its sun, meaning it is roasting hot, stripped of its atmosphere and blasted by radiation.

[h=2]Related Articles[/h]
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For people worried about "wasting" money etc. be advised of the following:

Funding for SETI Institute programs comes from a variety of sources. Contrary to popular belief, and their Form 990, no government funds are allocated for its SETI searches[SUP][/SUP]– these are financed entirely by private contributions. Other astrobiology research at the SETI Institute may be funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, or other grants and donations. Team SETI is the SETI Institute’s worldwide membership and support organization.
source
 
April 17, 2014
NASA's Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The 'Habitable Zone' of Another Star
https://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/na...-planet-in-the-habitable-zone-of-another-star

Life as we know it is one thing but life in some form I think is possible. Our earth has some pretty amazing life forms when you actually think about it.
http://listverse.com/2009/01/03/10-weird-and-wonderful-oddities-of-nature/

NASA has used technology to come a long way. Who can really say for sure that our concept of life is the only form?
 
April 17, 2014
NASA's Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The 'Habitable Zone' of Another Star
https://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/na...-planet-in-the-habitable-zone-of-another-star

Life as we know it is one thing but life in some form I think is possible. Our earth has some pretty amazing life forms when you actually think about it.
http://listverse.com/2009/01/03/10-weird-and-wonderful-oddities-of-nature/

NASA has used technology to come a long way. Who can really say for sure that our concept of life is the only form?

Thanks for the link. It's not an easy task.

"We know of just one planet where life exists -- Earth
. When we search for life outside our solar system we focus on finding planets with characteristics that mimic that of Earth," said Elisa Quintana, research scientist at the SETI Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and lead author of the paper published today in the journal Science. "Finding a habitable zone planet comparable to Earth in size is a major step forward."

Kepler-186f orbits its star once every 130-days and receives one-third the energy from its star that Earth gets from the sun, placing it nearer the outer edge of the habitable zone. On the surface of Kepler-186f, the brightness of its star at high noon is only as bright as our sun appears to us about an hour before sunset.

"Being in the habitable zone does not mean we know this planet is habitable. The temperature on the planet is strongly dependent on what kind of atmosphere the planet has," said Thomas Barclay, research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames, and co-author of the paper. "Kepler-186f can be thought of as an Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth."
 
I think there is life in the Universe other than ours.
I also think we have been visited by such beings reaching back many years. There seem to be lots of things pointing to this in history.
As for the fact that its impossibly far to travel, it is for us, but our visitors could have the ability to travel through space and time.


Ok I have had my say, so I will go now if someone will pass my jacket to me. Its the one over there with the very very long sleeves with buckles on that fasten round my back. 😀
 
I think there is life in the Universe other than ours.
I also think we have been visited by such beings reaching back many years. There seem to be lots of things pointing to this in history.
As for the fact that its impossibly far to travel, it is for us, but our visitors could have the ability to travel through space and time.


Ok I have had my say, so I will go now if someone will pass my jacket to me. Its the one over there with the very very long sleeves with buckles on that fasten round my back. 

If you want to see something suspicious about potential galactic visitors look no further than the book of Genesis. Genesis had to have been written as the result of oral tradition which was passed down from generation to generation and may have gone back as far, or farther than 100,000 years. What the bible reports in Genesis is the time when men were becoming sentient beings. A written language was not likely older than 10,000 to 30,000 years ago. So where did the description of the beginning of the universe come from. Early man, even with the beginnings of sentience would not have any way to deduce the the big bang from knowledge they possessed. Yet, "Let there be light." describes the big bang just about perfectly. All you have to assume is, if not God, who?

I wish I was smarter then the average oyster.
 
Campy habitable in terms of the kind of life we have here on earth may not be what some form of life exists out there.

I think it's possible for some form of life to adapt to an environment the same way life does on planet earth. As an example

What Lives At The Bottom Of The Mariana Trench?


Lying off the eastern coast of the Philippines is an underwater canyon so deep that you could hide Mount Everest in it with more than 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) to spare. In perpetual darkness, and faced with incredible pressure, it’s easy to imagine that the Mariana Trench is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. And yet, somehow life still manages to not only cling on, but flourish, forming its very own unique ecosystem.


From the cold to the never-ending darkness and the unimaginable pressure, life in the deep is by no means easy. Some creatures, such as the dragonfish, produce their own light in order to attract prey, mates, or both. Others like the hatchet fish have evolved enormous eyes in order to try and catch as much of the scarce light that makes it that deep. Some creatures simply try and be avoided, which normally means either becoming translucent or red, because this absorbs any blue light that has managed to make its way down to the depths.
http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/what-lives-marianas-trench/

I'm not saying in human form or having superior intelligence. Just pointing out that I don't know but believe it is possible.
 
Well anything is possible. But is it probable?

Don't forget here on Earth we have an abundance of water with our lakes and oceans.

But once again what we are really looking for is a twin Earth supporting the type of life we know.

I notice that not one poster supports my point of view. But I do have a scientist on my side who sees it the same why I do.
 
Campy habitable in terms of the kind of life we have here on earth may not be what some form of life exists out there.

I think it's possible for some form of life to adapt to an environment the same way life does on planet earth. As an example

What Lives At The Bottom Of The Mariana Trench?


Lying off the eastern coast of the Philippines is an underwater canyon so deep that you could hide Mount Everest in it with more than 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) to spare. In perpetual darkness, and faced with incredible pressure, it’s easy to imagine that the Mariana Trench is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. And yet, somehow life still manages to not only cling on, but flourish, forming its very own unique ecosystem.


From the cold to the never-ending darkness and the unimaginable pressure, life in the deep is by no means easy. Some creatures, such as the dragonfish, produce their own light in order to attract prey, mates, or both. Others like the hatchet fish have evolved enormous eyes in order to try and catch as much of the scarce light that makes it that deep. Some creatures simply try and be avoided, which normally means either becoming translucent or red, because this absorbs any blue light that has managed to make its way down to the depths.
http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/what-lives-marianas-trench/

I'm not saying in human form or having superior intelligence. Just pointing out that I don't know but believe it is possible.
I think you are right on. There is one measure of intelligence that I agree with. Still not sure this is a true measure. What organism, or kind organism has existed the longest on this planet. It is likely some form of bacteria. No matter what happens to this planet some form of microbe will exist here until the planet burns up.
 
Well anything is possible. But is it probable?

Don't forget here on Earth we have an abundance of water with our lakes and oceans.

But once again what we are really looking for is a twin Earth supporting the type of life we know.

Comets are made of water. There is liquid water floating around in space. Tardigrades are a microscopic animals that can seal itself off from its environment and survive for hundreds and I think a few thousand years. Extremophile bacteria can get frozen in rock and come back to life when they warm up. All the life on earth may have come from some other part of the galaxy. All the rocks that made up this planet came from somewhere else. This planet is nothing new in the univers.




















I notice that not one poster supports my point of view. But I do have a scientist on my side who sees it the same why I do.
There are many scientist who support the idea of panspermia. There are few who believe that this is all there is. The odds and probabiltiy are favored in the other direction.
 
My 2 cents: I think we are alone in the universe. If others are out there we'll never find them. And if others are out there, they're probably more advanced than we are. taken one look at us and said, UGH!, we don't want to know them, don't want their land, they've already ruined it. Pass 'em by.
 
My 2 cents: I think we are alone in the universe. If others are out there we'll never find them. And if others are out there, they're probably more advanced than we are. taken one look at us and said, UGH!, we don't want to know them, don't want their land, they've already ruined it. Pass 'em by.

So you won't be happy to converse with a one-eyed mushroom?:)
 
There are many scientist who support the idea of panspermia. There are few who believe that this is all there is. The odds and probabiltiy are favored in the other direction.

I look at the evidence. Nothing so far shows anything close to civilization out there. As far as odds and probability. It only takes one person to be right and all the others wrong as per Gallileo and other skeptics.

I'm also a skeptic on this global warming scare tactics.

I need evidence. I looked up the historical temperatures for the city I live in. Hardly any change at all in 100 years. Less than one degree which is to be expected. But if you talk to people they all insist it's getting warmer. I wish it would. Winters here are brutal.
 
Of course. They favor it. That's how they get paid.
All scientists, working, get paid. That is not necessarily criteria for bias. Einstein got paid. Another thing is that all scientists have some sort of theoretical bias. You and at least one other scientist favors the "earth only habitable planet" idea. Hell, some scientist probably still believes the earth is flat. Its OK because we have all the time in the world to locate the truth. By the way, the only habitable is rapidly moving toward a mass extinction event. This is because we continue to fill our air, land and water with poisons.
 
I look at the evidence. Nothing so far shows anything close to civilization out there. As far as odds and probability. It only takes one person to be right and all the others wrong as per Gallileo and other skeptics.

I'm also a skeptic on this global warming scare tactics.

I need evidence. I looked up the historical temperatures for the city I live in. Hardly any change at all in 100 years. Less than one degree which is to be expected. But if you talk to people they all insist it's getting warmer. I wish it would. Winters here are brutal.
You looked at one city where cold winters are common and decided you had enough evidence to speak for the whole planet? You seem to be working awfully hard to convince me of the rightness of your position. Why do you think that is?
 
You looked at one city where cold winters are common and decided you had enough evidence to speak for the whole planet? You seem to be working awfully hard to convince me of the rightness of your position. Why do you think that is?

Why do I think that is? Well it's obvious. You are trying to convince me of the rightness of your position. It's your opinion against mine.

I look for evidence to convince me. If global warming affects the whole Earth it should affect me as well.

See here's the difference between me and you. You work on speculation and probabilities. I work on hard evidence before I'm convinced.

I think that's because I probably am older than you. I'm 84. I've been there and done that.

I lived though the era where doctors were promoting smoking, at least the ads did that. I was only 12 years old but I knew smoking had to be harmful. It just didn't make sense that sucking smoke into your lungs wasn't harmful.

I convinced all the kids on my baseball team to quit smoking if we wanted to be a winning team and we did.

Now for instance. The claim is that the hottest year on record was 2016. When you examine that claim, the amount is so insignificant it's not worth talking about.
 


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