General / Off-Topic Do you think we are alone in the Milky Way?

alfa015

A
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&feature=youtu.be

Do you think 50 is a more realistic number?
 

who?

who?
Honestly, I don't think we have any meaningful indication.

We can't really make too many assumptions about how/where civilisations could evolve, and the requirements for each to happen; based on our existing sample size of... 1 planet (ok, we do have data on other planets in our system, but we still can't even say definitively if there ever was life on any of them, let alone anywhere else outside the solar system).

To me it's a bit like a fish thinking "there can't be life outside the water, because how would it move/breathe?". We can't really anticipate the conditions required for life, unless/until we interact with (m)any of them.
 

Chris Simon

Chris Simon
I think life elsewhere in the galaxy is very likely.
100% of the planets we know of that can support life as we know it, do have life on them. (convincing sample of 1) :D

Personally I believe life as we know it isn't the only way life can be, too. So the probability that there is at least one other planet (but more likely hundreds of thousands) with life on it in one form or another is really high.
Now, intelligent life is another matter, but even here I don¨t believe we're "alone".

Will we ever meet another intelligent lifeform from beyond our solar system? Nope. Do they exist (or existed at some point in time)? Yep.
 
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Gortron

Gortron
alfa015 said:
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&feature=youtu.be

Do you think 50 is a more realistic number?
Click to expand...

I don't think we can know. We don't have enough to go on, we are assuming too much and we don't consider time enough.

There are other civilisations out there for sure (it is mathematically impossible there aren't) but until we find some we can't really improving the formula that doesn't work :(
 

Jenner

I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
Jenner
I do think that given our understanding of the evolution of life and its requirements it is very likely that there is/was life elsewhere. That said, given the age of the universe I have to wonder why we haven't encountered any yet. Possible answers postulated are the sheer scale of the universe and the extreme difficulty in travelling between stars, the 'temporal' barrier of civilizations rising and falling before or after our own time, to the chilling idea that intelligent life will invariably destroy itself before it ever gets advanced enough to pay a visit to their neighbors.

We just have no idea what the answer is, these are some of the biggest and most interesting questions that we have as an intelligent species. I hope one day we find the answer.
 

verminstar

Banned
verminstar
I truly believe it would take one of two things to believe we are alone...devout religious beliefs or plain old fashioned ignorance. I can imagine some alien dudes sitting somewhere laughing till it hurts that the silly naive humans actually believe they have the universe all sussed out with their little theories and formulas...

Its a strange irony when ye think about it...I cant prove aliens exist or dont exist and dont care to try either way, but I believe they do...and yet I still poke fun at religion. Then again, I never once claimed not to believe in god...its just religion in general I dont much like. Still...funny when ye do actually sit and think about it...faith is something we cant even explain to ourselves...cant explain or define how ye know, ye just know. Like a 6th sense almost...
 

Han Zulu

Han Zulu
alfa015 said:
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&feature=youtu.be

Do you think 50 is a more realistic number?
Click to expand...
Too many unknowns to really produce any useful number. But yeah, I do believe there's life in other places in the galaxy.
 

Gortron

Gortron
Jenner said:
I do think that given our understanding of the evolution of life and its requirements it is very likely that there is/was life elsewhere. That said, given the age of the universe I have to wonder why we haven't encountered any yet. Possible answers postulated are the sheer scale of the universe and the extreme difficulty in travelling between stars, the 'temporal' barrier of civilizations rising and falling before or after our own time, to the chilling idea that intelligent life will invariably destroy itself before it ever gets advanced enough to pay a visit to their neighbors.

We just have no idea what the answer is, these are some of the biggest and most interesting questions that we have as an intelligent species. I hope one day we find the answer.
Click to expand...

Elite (though a computer game) has helped me understand why we haven't found it yet. I can fly an imaginary spaceship distances radio signals from earth have been traveling since Radio was invented in a couple of minutes. If a civilisation 200 lightyears away developed at our pace at the same time as us we couldn't know they were even there, even if they accidently pointed a signal towards us.
 

Vasco Sapien

Vasco Sapien
Ive posted and recommended Issac Arthur before on this forum. His videos should be catnip for most ED players interested in Science and Science fiction.
he has a bunch of videos about ET civs.

OP.... make a cup of tea. grab some biscuits.

[video=youtube;rDPj5zI66LA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDPj5zI66LA[/video]

[video=youtube;kvXe3_TKP7s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvXe3_TKP7s[/video]

[video=youtube;Z4snQS1QGD4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4snQS1QGD4[/video]

[video=youtube;ZlgyxQJHHcY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlgyxQJHHcY[/video]

[video=youtube;oIva_60l3ww]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIva_60l3ww[/video]

[video=youtube;FOIk4amwptY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOIk4amwptY[/video]

[video=youtube;0xbSHn4Fbu4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xbSHn4Fbu4[/video]

[video=youtube;v9sh9NpL4i8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9sh9NpL4i8[/video]

[video=youtube;aDqjK5vR6hE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDqjK5vR6hE[/video]

[video=youtube;nXIpR_agyl4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXIpR_agyl4[/video]
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
Jenner said:
I do think that given our understanding of the evolution of life and its requirements it is very likely that there is/was life elsewhere. That said, given the age of the universe I have to wonder why we haven't encountered any yet. Possible answers postulated are the sheer scale of the universe and the extreme difficulty in travelling between stars, the 'temporal' barrier of civilizations rising and falling before or after our own time, to the chilling idea that intelligent life will invariably destroy itself before it ever gets advanced enough to pay a visit to their neighbors.

We just have no idea what the answer is, these are some of the biggest and most interesting questions that we have as an intelligent species. I hope one day we find the answer.
Click to expand...

A superior force has created the gigantic universe and partitioned it in order to isolate different forms of intelligent life.

We are microscopic.

Our galaxy is like a CPU. The stars of our galaxy are comparable to the billions of transistors in the CPU. In a transistor is the solar system and the humanity.

And there are billions of CPUs located in billions of different places.

It will be hard to find someone to talk to.

:p
 
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Vedmo

Vedmo
I doubt Earth is the only place in our galaxy that has ever seen or will ever see life, and the while the vastness of size is certainly a great hinderence to us ever observing it, the real enemy is time.

Earth may have well already been home to civilizations completely alien to us, with all remnants recycled back under the mantle long ago.
 

Robin of Spiritwood

Robin of Spiritwood
who? said:
Honestly, I don't think we have any meaningful indication.

We can't really make too many assumptions about how/where civilisations could evolve, and the requirements for each to happen; based on our existing sample size of... 1 planet (ok, we do have data on other planets in our system, but we still can't even say definitively if there ever was life on any of them, let alone anywhere else outside the solar system).

To me it's a bit like a fish thinking "there can't be life outside the water, because how would it move/breathe?". We can't really
anticipate the conditions required for life, unless/until we interact with (m)any of them.
Click to expand...

Our problems are worse than that.

Fish:
"Water? What the heck is water? "
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
If there are no other civilizations in our galaxy but there are other civilizations in other very distant galaxies, the game will be even more difficult for us ... and the others.
 
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