Are we alone in the Galaxy?

@SolangeloForever said in #40:

what about horseys living in chamland?

yay, someone mentioned horseys

@celinofj said in #31:

3 - Life is not rare, and the events that trigger self-destruction doesn't happen to most species. So, in this case, there are life-forms visiting earth. But they choose somehow to remain silent.

In a way, it's also possible that extraterrestrials no longer wish to visit our planet for hygiene reasons. If human astronauts were to visit an extraterrestrial planet inhabited by a civilization, they would take hygienic precautions and try to study the civilization without causing its destruction through disease. Consider what happened to the Native in the North and South Americans after contact with European explorers.

Therefore, it's likely that an extraterrestrial civilization at our level of evolution, or higher, would be aware of the need for hygienic measures such as quarantines or appropriate equipment for scientists.

@CSKA_Moscou said in #42:

3 - Life is not rare, and the events that trigger self-destruction doesn't happen to most species. So, in this case, there are life-forms visiting earth. But they choose somehow to remain silent.

In a way, it's also possible that extraterrestrials no longer wish to visit our planet for hygiene reasons. If human astronauts were to visit an extraterrestrial planet inhabited by a civilization, they would take hygienic precautions and try to study the civilization without causing its destruction through disease. Consider what happened to the Native in the North and South Americans after contact with European explorers.

Therefore, it's likely that an extraterrestrial civilization at our level of evolution, or higher, would be aware of the need for hygienic measures such as quarantines or appropriate equipment for scientists.

Good point. And it would cut both ways. Just imagine the biohazard safety procedures an alien would have to undergo to visit India.

@BrokenJester said in #43:

Good point. And it would cut both ways. Just imagine the biohazard safety procedures an alien would have to undergo to visit India.

aliens after seing Juhu beach: neeeevermind kowalski we're going back home

In what time? In 436 Mrd. years or before 67 Mrd. years there we're maybe Others.

@celinofj

I did Google revised Drake equation and some have estimated 36 communicating civilisations within the milky way. The key word is estimated.

Ofc there is the question of whether they would want to be found ...

@m011235 said in #2:

Outside of the Earth I'm not sure. There's that famous equation which is a product of conditional probabilties that computes the overall probability of the existence of intelligent life in the universe.

In my view, we don't have to look that far, since dolphins may be way smarter than us:

• they are sufficiently intelligent to have lots a free time
• this allows them to have a rich social life
• they have very few predators
• they don't ruin the oceans by pollution and over exploitation of live resources

Unfortunately, unless you're a staunch Posadist, dolphins have not made it to space yet

@tpr said in #38:

The Universe is 13.8 billion years old, the Earth is 4.6 billion years old and life on Earth is 3.5 billion years old.
Thus life emerged relatively quickly.
Life on Earth survived 5 big mass extinctions due to asteroid impact or volcanic eruptions.
Humans have exploded 2,000 nuclear bombs.
It is unlikely that humans eradicate the human species, or all life on Earth.

Kudos to you for putting things into perspective. I will however put your last statement in perspective.

Humans have exploded 2,000 nuclear bombs.

Nuclear bombs have existed for 80 years. So you are extrapolating your claim that

It is unlikely that humans eradicate the human species

on 80 years of data. Now compare this 80 years to the astronomical ages you were mentioning at the beginning of your post, and draw your conclusions.

🚀 I guess we'll never know.

@tpr said in #8:

It is possible, but unlikely.
Earth is close enough to the Sun to receive enough energy, but not too close so as not to overheat like Mercurius or Venus.
Earth has a Moon to sweep away incoming asteroids.
Earth has a magnetic field to keep us safe from cosmic radiation.
Earth has an ozone layer to keep us safe from ultraviolet radiation.
Earth has water.

Yeah. Apparently Mars had also conditions, but something catastrophic happened.

Anyways, thats 1 planet that we know for a fact that it can hold life.
Thats another planet that might had the conditions to harbor life.

Out of 1 solar system that we have surveyed.

Long range scans are unreliable, the equipment does not have enough detail to say a goddam thing other than it might be a planet and possible composition of it. Other than that, we can say much. We dont even know how many planets our closest star has.

So, it is only 1 actually surveyed solar system out of between 100 and 400 billion systems in the galaxy.

To say it is unlikely its quite the bold statement. We have only surveyed 1 system and it has intelligent life. Looks like the assumption its a bit too rushed.