Comment by Marc Poulin on May 26, 2012 at 8:44pm

I have no doubt in my mind that somewhere out there are extra terrestrial creatures. I'm not saying they are humanoid or have flying saucers, but with over 1000 earth-like planets in our galaxy alone, how can there NOT be anything else among the 30 billion trillion stars's planets? I don't think we'll ever contact them, or even be able to prove it, but if we're here why can't anything else exist?

Comment by Morgan Matthew on May 26, 2012 at 8:58pm

I would say 100% yes. Problem for now is the vast distances. Even light speed is impractical. I have always made this example. Say we get in contact with another life form 40 light years away from earth The text messaging would go like this,"hi!" we would send back, "hi what's up?!" Them, "Ah not much hanging out watching the game drinking a bud." we would respond back with, "lol! :P" total round trip would be 160 earth years :(

Comment by Morgan Matthew on May 26, 2012 at 9:02pm

Check out the drake equation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

Comment by Jaret on May 26, 2012 at 11:23pm

Just in the stars in our known universe, the odds of their being alien life is astronomically high. Then if you take into account that this big bang may not be the only one, meaning 1 billion to the 10 billion power light years away from us, there could be another big bang and we will never know. There could be an infinite number of big bangs in space. I will not say with certain until we have evidence to support it, but I think there has to be billions of other planets that have life out in space with beings pondering the same thing. 

Also I find the way you worded your question a little odd. It is a very intellectual topic. Finding life, especially intelligent life, somewhere out there would be the greatest scientific discovery ever. Some of the greatest minds throughout history have spent a lot of time pondering over this very question. 

Comment by James Cox on May 27, 2012 at 12:18am

Dear Folks:

I was suprised to have this topic rejected during a philosphy club discusion once.

Sadly the 'issue' of alien life exists without good examples at present. The discovery of numerous extreamophiles does/can increase the probability of a larger number of nitchs for life even in our solar system. I think there is a web-vid at the Stanford site concerning this.

There is a significant history of scientific and SF speculation concerning types of alien probes, and propagation of alien civilizations. Worth a web-search.

   

Comment by archaeopteryx on May 27, 2012 at 12:28am

There's been one less since Michael left the board.

But absolutely - it would be ever so arrogant to believe that out of all the billions of planets in our galaxy alone, and the exponentially higher number beyond that, that this would be the only planet that had ever evolved life.

Comment by archaeopteryx on May 27, 2012 at 1:10am

@MichaelM - RE: "worthy of regard" - or as prey --

Comment by archaeopteryx on May 27, 2012 at 1:27am

I can go along with the first part, but once you get to the non-corporeal part, it's starting to sound a lot more like gods than beings. I can certainly understand advanced intelligence, but every entity needs an energy source, and ours begins with digestion - what would power a non-corporeal being? (Not making fun of you Michael, just curious as to what you envision.)

Comment by Donald S. Chase on May 27, 2012 at 1:49am

Just consider that 12-1/2% of the planets orbiting this star have intelligent life.

Comment by archaeopteryx on May 27, 2012 at 1:56am

DS Chase - and then there's GW Bush and Rick Perry --

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