Do you think we are alone in the Milky Way?

[alfa015]

So.. recent estimations for the Drake Equation (Maccone, 2012) suggest that there could be around 4,600 civilizations in our galaxy that are able to release detectable signals.

I find this number a little bit excessive, so I plugged some of the values of our Solar System into the equation and I obtained a smaller yet more realistic result, in my opinion: 50 civilizations.

Just in case someone is interested, I made a video showing the values I used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2AIWIcn7Ig&t=5s

Do you think 50 is a more realistic number?

[xelasnave]

I am interested but not enough to look at your youtube...sorry.

The Drake equation is neat but it is of little use really given it requires inputs that are mere opinion.

Are we alone. ..yes but there is presumably other life out there...but we must remember that we dont know and speculation is meaningless.
Alex

[The_bluester]

I think it is vanishingly unlikely we are alone in the milky way, let alone the universe, to think that we are is to think that this planet is somehow unique in all of the galaxy or cosmos, a tough sell given how many exoplanets that are known to exist.


I also think it is vanishingly unlikely that we will find proof that we are NOT alone.

[KISSMAD]

To quote Carl Sagan
“The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”

[mental4astro]

I struggle to see the significance of the whole are we alone or not.

If intelligent life did/does exist outside our solar system, is it still present parallel to our own? It may have existed long before us, or may long after us. The constant expectation is that we will be able to communicate, in real time. Bugger all good this is if they are extinct or not even crawlled out of the primordial soup...

And if there is, so what? Are we going to expect Them to have a solution for problems we've created and just refuse to fix things on our own? Or fear Them? Or impose ourselves on Them?

This speculation is so pointless. The question posed as the title of this thread is no different from "do you BELIEVE in aliens". Based on what to have such blind faith?

And humanity is hardly in a position of unity and common knowledge to have this question answered. We cannot accept some wretched soul trying to escape persecution today but feel entitled to think of them as a criminal, and we reckon we are ready to welcome ET? And having the question answered is not going to change anything between us.

Are our lives so empty that we demand that someone or something either confirm our existence, or worse still expect them to fix our cock ups?

If ET is out there, we are still on our own to look after our little blue planet. We only have ourselves to help us or see the place burn.

[leon]

Simple answer without lots of text, :) yep it is just us, do the math :shrug:

Leon

[RyanJones]

I think any number other than zero is not only possible but likely. Repeating Alex (m4a) the likelyhood of them co-existing at an equal level of evolution as us and further more being even something similar enough to us to be able to communicate and have the desire to is equally unlikely and yet still possible.

The fact is that regardless of what we do to this planet, the sun will remove us from exsistance anyway when it starts to run out of fuel or when another massive meteorite hits earth etc. This is the same for any exoplanet. What are the chances that any civilisation including our own will be developed enough to be able to collectively remove itself from this danger in order to be in the position to survive long enough to equally discover each other at an equal point in time ?

[xelasnave]

Paul being alone does not exclude the possibility of there being other life...I am alone but there are other humans☺.

I think contact with another intelligent species would be disastrous. .. look how divided we are within our species...no one imagines that an alien species may be absolutely revolting by our standards...for example canabalisism may be the way they do things. .. now wouldnt that make a dinner function difficult...they may kill weaklings ...

However I think we should look for life in our solar system ... maybe we can eat it☺.

Alex

[mental4astro]

I hadn't thought of it that way! :drink:

[Wavytone]

Watched fish die ? Chickens ? Cows ?

You know the answer. We are more likely the food of alens, starting with something as simple as a virus or bacterium for which we have no defence.

[skysurfer]

Remember
H.G. Wells : War of the Worlds
or Independence day (resurgence)

[mental4astro]

Interesting you say that Wavy.

I find it hard to think that an alien civilization would trample halfway across the galaxy just to wipe us out.

Think about this: they will not be able to breathe our atmosphere, nor us their's - even if tthe oxygen was the same, bacteria will kill us/them. We/they may as well try to breathe Martian air.

With this, if it is all about resources, then it would be just as easy, actually EASIER for them just to mine planets around them rather than go out of their way just to wipe us out. Even for power crazy empires, we would just be nuclear armed bugs, not worth bothering with.

To think that they are hostile and hell bent on knocking us off just shows how arrogant we are. As for food, I'm sure They already have Maccas,.. Tramping across the galaxy for a feed already means they have solved their food situation.

[sharpiel]

Alex you gaze into the dark and ponder the mysteries of the universe all the time.

Knowledge is always worth having. And the answer to this question has profound implications towards how we see ourselves. And how we look towards the future.

Go sit in the corner and re-write your essay... :D

[mental4astro]

:lol:

[Wavytone]

Plenty of bugs here pose a greater threat ... MRSA, staph, soil-dwelling bacteria... meningococcal... Ebola, plague, even anthrax...

[sn1987a]

I want to see their porn! :D

[AndyG]

Oh Lawdy, there's always one in the crowd (judge, snigger, judge more)... :innocent:


...:question:


...Hook me up, brother ;)

[Ukastronomer]

Too many to read but you ask

"Do you think we are alone in the Milky Way?"

Yet do not specify by alone do you mean greater or lesser evolved life.

I think only Humans would be so arrogant as to believe we are the only life in the galaxy however evolved

[Tropo-Bob]

What is the criteria for no longer being alone?

Are we no longer alone, if we find bacteria elsewhere, or does it have to be plants, or insects, or dinosaurs, or mice, or apes? At what level of life does it have to be before we are we no longer .... alone?

[julianh72]

In one of his TV documentaries, Brian Cox said something like:

When we ponder the question of whether there is other intelligent life "out there", there are two possible answers. In one scenario, there is no other intelligent life anywhere in the universe. Alternatively, there is at least one other intelligent civilisation somewhere in the cosmos. The implications of either scenario being true are equally staggering for humanity to contemplate.

[Ukastronomer]

I just said that

[Tropo-Bob]

Agreed; it was so recent that I had not seen it when I was compiling my post.

[Slawomir]

Really like that quote :thumbsup:




So true. And to assume that we are fully evolved and around the top of what's possible would be a mistake IMO. Regardless of whether intelligent life is spread throughout the Cosmos or not, what if we have just made the first few small shaky steps along potentially infinite, but not guaranteed, journey as evolving species?

[gregbradley]

I recall an article on Astromart not that long ago where yellow dwarf stars like our sun are far more common than originally thought. As many as 10% of stars.

Given the estimates of how many stars there are in the Milky Way continue to rise with the last one I saw saying 1 trillion stars then 10% is a pretty big number.

How many of those yellow dwarfs have a planet like ours would be another %.

No matter how small a percentage it still would be a huge number.

How many of those have life like ours would be another unknown variable but even if a small % again its still a huge number.

Greg.

[Slawomir]

Just came up with an alternative to Brian's outlook at intelligent life in the Universe:

Humanity will either continue infinitely increasing in intelligence, or, as all living and non-living things in nature, will reach, or have already reached, a point of maximum (possible intelligence) and will start devolving.

The implications of either scenario being true are equally staggering for humanity to contemplate :hi:

[sjastro]

Brian Cox also has an interesting take that intelligent life in the Universe could be extremely rare.
If we assume we are an intelligent life form that took 4.5 billion years to evolve and given the Universe is around 13.8 billion years old, it has taken around 1/3 of the age of the Universe for us to evolve.

If this time frame represents a "norm" in the evolution of intelligent life then the Universe is not old enough to be teeming with intelligent life.

[skysurfer]

Well, we are not intelligent enough for not polluting our own nest, talking about migrating and terraforming to other bodies, while we are de-terraforming ouw own Earth.

[Sunfish]

Well quoted.
The night is yet young.

We could speed things up with a few biological projectiles but our descendants may not thank us.