Do you think we are alone in the Milky Way?

[Ukastronomer (Jeremy)]

Originally Posted by 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?

I just said that

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

Originally Posted by Ukastronomer

I just said that

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

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

Originally Posted by 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.

Really like that quote

Originally Posted by 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

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 (Suavi)]

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

[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 (Ray)]

Well quoted.
The night is yet young.

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

Originally Posted by 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.