To find aliens, we must think of life as we don’t know it

Aeon ^ | Ramin Skibba

[LibWhacker]

Lol, that’s true. Black goo might be a problem, but those little black gooey thugs would have to carjack our spacecraft and drive it back to earth, when they don’t have a clue how to drive a manual transmission. And there isn’t enough gas in the gas tank anyhoo.

[freedomjusticeruleoflaw]

Here we go again... Do the math:
The universe is billions of years old. There are billions of “Goldilocks” planets. If, IF, life evolved on some of these, say 2%, then that would mean that there are millions of planets with life, certainly hundreds if not thousands IN OUR GALAXY. Some, SOME of these must certainly have begun the evolutionary process MILLIONS of years before our EARTH.

This means that there should be hundreds if not THOUSANDS of life forms in our galaxy that are MILLIONS of years more advanced than US....

WHERE ARE THEY?

[TADSLOS]

[blueunicorn6]

I’m just afraid that Edgar Winter would write a song about it.

[LibWhacker]

I like my answer to Fermi best. I haven’t seen it anywhere else; namely, in the multiverse, why should an advanced civilization stay here and fight over this universe with aliens who are potentially much more advanced and dangerous than you are, when you can just slip over into another of an infinite number of unoccupied universes, close the door behind you, and set up shop there?

[adorno]

If, IF, life evolved on some of these, say 2%, then that would mean that there are millions of planets with life, certainly hundreds if not thousands IN OUR GALAXY.

But, your math is very incomplete, because...

Those "goldilock" planets would have be located in the favorable region of their "sun", and then, it would have to be protected from all kinds of life-ending or life-preventing events, such as "we" are via the protection that "our" outer-planets perform by preventing asteroids/comets/meteors/moonlets, etc., from colliding with "us". Then, your math would have to include enough water and enough self-created heat from the planet. Then your math would have to consider how many of those planets would have enough water and sun-heat in order to produce enough cloud vapor to create enough "cloud" material to produce the necessary lightning to produce the spark required to "start" the initial stages of the most primitive of life-form. Then, you'd have to calculate the best environment that would sustain that most basic of life-form. Then, you'd have to calculate what kind of evolution factors are needed in order for that most primitive of life-forms to continue to advance into other more advanced life-forms.

Basically, there might not be any mathematical formula that could take in the thousands or perhaps millions or billions (trillions?) of factors needed in order to arrive at the totality of conditions that would favor "life as we know it" here on Earth.

We just might be "unique" in the universe.

But then, we're talking about "life as we know it", and not life-forms that we can't imagine yet.

Then, "intelligence" might not be based strictly on carbon-based/water-needing/sun-required life forms. Perhaps there is "other" types of intelligence that we can't ever imagine. Suppose, for example, that, intelligence can exist without having to be occupying the body of a "life-form"?

Then again, we Earthlings could be unique in the whole universe, and we were "engineered" by the most magnificent of engineers, or what we often call "the intelligent designer".

[wyowolf]

Screaming Trees is known as one of the “Godfathers of Grunge” along with the Melvins, Mudhoney, U-Men, Skin Yard, Soundgarden, Green River, Cosmic Psychos, and Malfunkshun.[citation needed] Screaming Trees rose to fame as part of the grunge movement of the early 1990s, along with bands such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden and was one of the most successful underground music acts of the 1990s. The band achieved one top ten single on the Modern Rock Tracks charts. Screaming Trees were plagued by extended inactivity due to their problems with making a follow up to Dust. This led to their official breakup in 2000.

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[sparklite2]

A friend of mine at work did some studio work with Alice and Chains. Other than going to high school with Terry Stafford (Suspicion) that’s the closest to glory I ever got. LOL

[Noamie]

I think there may be several planets out there with living animals like, say, squirrels.

But semi-intelligent life? Extremely rare. Advanced intelligent life? Unheard of. Uncommon, if not totally nonexistent.

Check this out: How many species on planet Earth are there? Now, how many species have mastered the wheel?

One.

One species has mastered the wheel out of millions. The freaking wheel. That’s a circle, y’all. (Billions if you count insects and fishes.)

We are probably alone.

[adorno]

Now, how many species have mastered the wheel?

Yeah, but, how many of those other species have a need for a wheel?

If one were to examine the "design" of every species of animals and even plant life, one would see a "perfect" design in every one of them for what they do (and that includes the lowly viruses and germs).

[Moonman62]

I like how ALF screams in return.

[Moonman62]

Casting a wide search for ET won’t be easy and it won’t be cheap,

...

Somebody wants my money.

If life does exist elsewhere, it’s probably carbon based like our own. I don’t think it does, though.

[Ozark Tom]

Argue the issues with Isaac Arthur.

[Ozark Tom]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiAW5mg_wCc

[Noamie]

Yeah, but, how many of those other species have a need for a wheel?

---

Cracka, you talking nuts. Everything needs a wheel. Otherwise it’s just a dumb, no wheel knowing, animal.

Truth.

:)

[adorno]

What about the roly poly bug?

They used the “wheel” before any human.

[Noamie]

I can roll into a ball and then roll around on the floor. Like a champ.

That would make me a floor-rolling clown, however, not an advanced species.

When one of your precious rolly Pollys masters mechanical flight and Chuck Yeager’s the sound barrier, then get back to me. Howboutit.

We are utterly alone in the universe.

:) :)

[trebb]

Why can't trees be sentient/conscious? Back in the late '60s L. Ron Hubbard claimed tomatoes screamed when poked/cut....something to do with an electrical charge generated during the "injury process"....

After watching the Wizard of Oz and one of the battle scenes from the Hobbit series, I'm convinced trees have feelings.......

[Deplorable American1776]

I have to Photoshop a Sombrero onto a space alien, because I thought it was about ILLEGALS... 😀

[adorno]

We are utterly alone in the universe.

That is precisely the message I "inferred" with my first post in this discussion.

However, the "wheel" or "roundness" is in just about every living species on Earth. It's all part of the "big design".