I have been for many years! :cheers:
K.W down to population 1?
I have been for many years! :cheers:
If there were advanced civilizations as we understand the concept, and our radio waves and such have reached into the Galactic neighborhood as I understand they have, then it does not look promising in hoping and wishing that intelligent beings resembling us even exist. If so, we would have substantial proof already of their activities as well. Another point to ponder is the chance that even if it were so, they might by very much like us in that they are not perfect. that in itself is not good news. I think of the Spanish finding the Incas, after sailing across the ocean. Disaster may await in the wake of our heart's yearnings.
New study suggests there are thousands of alien civilizations in our galaxy alone.
Hope we can contact them soon. Though it is unlikely...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7891132.stm?lss
Advanced technological aliens aside, I think it would be just as fascinating, if not more, if life is found to be abundant everywhere we look in the universe. I don't think the double helical is strictly an earthbound entity. It is probably a natural occuring process, possibly originating from a star or from a hot early universe, who knows?
Well, DNA vaporizes at a few hundred degrees celsius, so both of these possibilities are probably not right. Two things are working against this view is that 1.) we haven't synthesized anything that looks like DNA in a lab (correct me, of course, if I am wrong), and 2.) there is no solid definition of life, and it certainly doesn't require DNA.
Sorry, I didn't mean DNA gets cooked up at millions of degrees celsius. The process like anything else began in the early universe, assuming it was quite hot then. DNA needs ingredients.
This means that the ingredients for "life", however ill-defined, must be formed on a planet, using some sequence of chemical processes which we haven't quite figured out yet.
Of all the elements there are about 6 or 7 that are noticeably more present. Oxygen would be #1 in ppm I would think.
New study suggests there are thousands of alien civilizations in our galaxy alone.
Hope we can contact them soon. Though it is unlikely...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7891132.stm?lss
For example, silicon forms a lot of the same compounds as carbon does (the chemistry is very similar), except that it is much more massive. So, can we form silicon based life forms? Probably.
Not only that, but we get to help it evolve and watch. When well developed a century or two from now, they probbly will not need the carbon based forms that were their creating gods.*... can we form silicon based life forms? Probably.
It's a good possibility that if an alien race was around in our galaxy millions of years ago and had reached the level of radio signal technology, some of those ancient alien radio signals probably should still be bouncing around somewhere in the galaxy even today, and with our current crude radio signal reciever technology, we should have been able to pick some of them up by now. But so far it's 'not' been the case. With the exception of planet Earth, It appears that our galaxy is a very quiet place, and probably has been for a long long long time. At least in terms of ancient 'alien' radio signals that is.
BillyT:
Rather reminds me of a sci-fi novel I read:
A spaceship crash-landed on a planet that had only computer-sentient beings [derived from space-probes that over time learned to become self-replicating]. The occupant of the crashed space-ship kept asking for oxygen, which of course was an indication of some defect, because oxygen is corrosive to metals. The computer-sentient beings elected to heat the crashed space-ship to drive off remaining oxygen to 'cure' the system. Then they quit getting responses from the crashed space-ship. When they opened it up, they found a sticky, gooey carbon-based residue, which they presumed was some kind of faulty insulation. They never could get the crashed space-ship to talk again, though.
Who says alains will have radio? Just because we do means nothing. We always build alains that in some way are like us, but I think they would be nothing like us. They could be looking for us in the light bands instead of radio. Or some other technology we havent even thought of.
For example, life has to form where there are sufficient concentrations of elements other than hydrogen, helium and lithium present, which means a generation 3 star. (Intelligent) Life probably forms after several billion years, which means that the star has to look a lot like our sun.
Well, you can estimate the time it takes a species to colonate the galaxy, and it takes on the order of a million years. Probably you have to assume that the resources on every planet are more or less the same, and that there exists suitable planets for colonization, etc. etc.
I tend to think we sometimes underestimate though, just how unique this planets circumstances are regarding orbital dynamics, solar environment, galactic environment and most importantly the ratio of liquid water, frozen water and water vapour are.
I would think that even when applying pseudo infinity to the proposition of other intelligent life out there universally we would find that intelligent life sustainability is a lot less than is often speculated as being the case.
It would appear, based on the wet-lab 'experiment' of planet Earth, that carbon works for life, silicon almost certainly does not, and would routinely be out-competed with carbon-based life.