Poll: Are we alone in the Universe?

Are we alone? (please watch clip before polling)

  • Completely: God created this world alone for us

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Completely: We are a freak accident of chemistry

    Votes: 1 9.1%

  • Life is very rare but each time is the work of God for His purpose

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Life is very rare. The chance chemistry to get it started happens once in a billion years

    Votes: 1 9.1%

  • Quite common: God loves to create life

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Quite common: Life is resilliant and finds a ways to persist

    Votes: 2 18.2%

  • Life is abundant: God infused all creation with life

    Votes: 3 27.3%

  • Life is abundant: Life exists in some form everywhere

    Votes: 4 36.4%
  • Total voters
    11
T

Tao_Equus

Guest
Given the nature of this site the poll is not simply yes or no but attempts to take religious beliefs into the fold. Before taking this poll I would ask that you watch a short clip just to remind you of scale. You can find it here: YouTube - The Hubble Deep Field Video with narration cleaned up

My own view is that life is abundant throughout the universe but that intelligent life capable of the level of study we are is incredibly rare.

Thank you all for taking part.
 
There simply must be life elsewhere and I want to go there, if only to get away from that bloody pan pipe music :p.

(the Floyd was nice though)

s.
 
Yes 99.5% of me says we are alone...

Someone talking of Nebularghs?

Omega Nebula rules all..... ;) The good ol' M17

17thnebula.png
 
I love the space pix....and the micro stuff as well....

of course we aren't alone...

the big question are we only (and by we I don't mean humans or life I mean right 'now' you and me) in this universe...or only in this space and time...
 
We are not the only ones:cool:

Quite common: Life is resilliant and finds a ways to persist

I want my own planet....no, galaxy...PLEASE ?!..............I mean......... 17th has a Nebula !
 
Our solar system is around 5 billion years old. The universe could be as much as 20 billion. Intelligent life, us, has existed on this planet for an upper window of around 100,000 years. If intelligent life is common in the universe it should have popped by to say hello by now. This leaves us with only a few alternatives.

1) Life is not common.

2) Intelligent life is not common.

3) Travel between solar systems is effectively impossible in any humanly achievable time scale.


So I voted for life is rare because it seems like the lesser evil.
 
spiderbaby said:
1) Life is not common.
2) Intelligent life is not common.
3) Travel between solar systems is effectively impossible in any humanly achievable time scale.
Click to expand...

Hi spiderbaby and welcome to CR :)

I can think of at least one other option: Life elsewhere has taken a look at this place and decided to keep themselves to themselves.

.......I would;)

s.
 
spiderbaby said:
it should have popped by to say hello by now. This leaves us with only a few alternatives.

1) Life is not common.

2) Intelligent life is not common.

3) Travel between solar systems is effectively impossible in any humanly achievable time scale.
Click to expand...
Namaste spiderbaby (hey i thought our firewall kept the spiders from registering...)

Life being common and life evolving to the point of space travel in terms of light years do not appear to be incongruent. Given the vastness of space it could be that we have not been found. Or that we have been found and they don't wish to be known, or that we are offspring from another system....
Snoopy said:
Life elsewhere has taken a look at this place and decided to keep themselves to themselves.
Click to expand...
Or could they be using earth as proof intelligent life does not exist on other planets??
 
Maybe we're just a speck of grime in someone's Petri dish. And we're just about to be washed clean...

s.
 
spiderbaby said:
Our solar system is around 5 billion years old. The universe could be as much as 20 billion. Intelligent life, us, has existed on this planet for an upper window of around 100,000 years. If intelligent life is common in the universe it should have popped by to say hello by now. This leaves us with only a few alternatives.

1) Life is not common.

2) Intelligent life is not common.

3) Travel between solar systems is effectively impossible in any humanly achievable time scale.


So I voted for life is rare because it seems like the lesser evil.
Click to expand...

Hi Spiderbaby and welcome to Cr!! Always nice to have another ...erm...mammal on board :)

Analysis using spectrography shows us that the universe is abundant in both water and the basic building blocks of carbon based life. Looking at life on Earth we see how tenacious it is, life exists from high in the atmosphere to deep within the continental crust. I think it common everywhere. But to have the stability to create the right conditions for evolution to proceed long enough for a space faring civilisation to emerge is another matter. On Earth for example we not only enjoy being in the goldilocks zone around the sun where water can exist as a liquid. We have a moon of just the right size and distance to drive plate tectonics/volcanism that sustain the availability of the essential minerals over time. Without this alone life on Earth may still exist but it would be sparse indeed compared to what we see. Additionally our solar system is sufficiently uncluttered by debris left over from its creation that we are not continually facing meteorite impacts that knock evolution to the floor every few 1000 years.
A planet much bigger than ours would present huge problems in achieving the velocity required to escape its gravity. One much smaller than ours could not support the kind of rain bearing clouds we are absolutely dependent on. The balance required for all the conditions we find here must be pretty rare but not impossibly rare. And of course it would be naive to assume all intelligent life is anything remotely like us.
We have been sending a beacon of our existence for a very short time. And in truth even our most powerful radio signals once they leave the solar system and hit the interstellar radiation become just noise. If nothing has been to visit it is no surprise. The universe is pretty big after all.
As you pertinently mention interstellar travel presents huge technological problems. We have difficulty providing effective shielding for our current toe dip into the vast ocean of space. Aside from the constraints of relativity the hostility of interstellar space presents us with problems we do not yet have the ability to meet. Leaving our atmosphere for orbit is small change compared to leaving the balmy comfort of the Heliosphere protecting us from radiation found in the interstellar void. Thank god we have star trek!!

Tao
 
As someone who distinctly believes that my ancestry was originally "off world", I opted for the life is everywhere choice.

A six eyed mouse ? Spiderbaby, you are sure welcome here at CR even if your avatar is a bit misleading. If you find two more like you...pass them by. Who knows where THAT might lead. Are you a genetic engineer perchance ? Some of my ancestry's best friends were genetic engineers.

Tao...I could have sworn that you really talked, and not just practice talked, c**p here...and if you don't, where do you really do it pray tell ? Really nice post however !

flow....:p
 
flowperson said:
As someone who distinctly believes that my ancestry was originally "off world", I opted for the life is everywhere choice.

A six eyed mouse ? Spiderbaby, you are sure welcome here at CR even if your avatar is a bit misleading. If you find two more like you...pass them by. Who knows where THAT might lead. Are you a genetic engineer perchance ? Some of my ancestry's best friends were genetic engineers.

Tao...I could have sworn that you really talked, and not just practice talked, c**p here...and if you don't, where do you really do it pray tell ? Really nice post however !

flow....:p
Click to expand...

Ty Flow!! Nice to know that folks don't confuse my ramblings for anything meaningful :)
 
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