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There are around 30 billion planets in our galaxy , and there are...

badabing106

... over 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe

Do you think it's more likely or less likely that this planet has the most intelligent species in the cosmos

Does anybody else ever look up at the sky and see that vast dark sky with twinkling stars and think...how unimportant and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things..

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GMSA

I wonder do they have the same type of loonies that think their planet is flat, as we have here.

Junkyard Tom

The earliest episodes of 'Glenroe' will soon be arriving at the star 'Beta Virginis' in the Virgo constellation.

foxatron

Isn't there a dark skies heritage centre in Kerry. Id say if you got the weather be a great place to have a look

Zorya

Fairly regularly on the way back in from the shed at night, I put down the firewood and lean back on the car and have a look up. There is very little light pollution here, and the skies can be marvellous. It is such a spacious, uplifting feeling one gets looking up at the moon and stars. I don't really think about the possibility of other intelligent life out there, we may never find out, so that is dwelling in the unknown and perhaps even the unknowable. What we do know is we are here, you and I - each a mortal human being temporarily alive and acutely conscious amidst incredibly complex nature on a goldilocks planet that is spinning insanely fast and hurtling speedily though an unimaginably vast cosmos. It's mad, Ted. Mad and brilliant.

begbysback

If the universe is unobservable then how can the galaxies be counted?

judeboy101

badabing106 wrote: »

... over 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe

Do you think it's more likely or less likely that this planet has the most intelligent species in the cosmos

Does anybody else ever look up at the sky and see that vast dark sky with twinkling stars and think...how unimportant and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things..

As more and more planets are discovered it confirms Fermi's paradox. We are truly alone in this galaxy (and possibly this universe.

Sirius Boner

The chances of us being completely alone would be almost zero.
The chances of us being the most advanced life forms are much, much higher.

judeboy101

Sirius Boner wrote: »

The chances of us being completely alone would be almost zero.
The chances of us being the most advanced life forms are much, much higher.

Of course they are zero, there a millions of other species living with us on this planet. But there have only been ~6 documented sentient species in the known universe all hominids and all from the same planet. With our currently tech we could seed every planet in the galaxy with bacteria/virus and probes in less than 15 million years. We could bombard the galaxy with a constant stream of daniel o Donnell within 50k years.

Melodeon

I can't believe this hasn't been posted here yet!:

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

Pay particular note to the last line.

runawaybishop

judeboy101 wrote: »

As more and more planets are discovered it confirms Fermi's paradox. We are truly alone in this galaxy (and possibly this universe.

It confirms nothing. There are plenty of reasons that Fermi's paradox is incorrect. Not least that we have been looking for a negligible amount of time at a negligible section of the universe.

Franz Von Peppercorn

archer22 wrote: »

Well if we are the most intelligent...then it must be one dumb Cosmos.

It’s mostly bacteria and pidgins.

Franz Von Peppercorn

runawaybishop wrote: »

It confirms nothing. There are plenty of reasons that Fermi's paradox is incorrect. Not least that we have been looking for a negligible amount of time at a negligible section of the universe.

Of the galaxy you mean. If life were statistically as likely as the Drake equation suggests, that would be enough.

(and most refutations of the Fermi paradox are really refutations of the Drake equation. Fermi just asked “ok. Where is everybody”?)

EdgeCase

We're very limited in what we can look for too. For example we're assuming that an advanced civilization would use loud and powerful radio waves for communication and that it would be noisy. That's largely based on what we were doing in the mid 20th century with simple, analogue, mass broadcasting. Even following our own development over 50 years, we became quieter with more sophisticated, low power transmission systems focused much more locally and not giant single very loud broadcasting towers. We've also moved to fibre optics etc etc.

We have no idea what technology might have evolved somewhere else. We could for example be unaware of some other 'obvious' phenomenon that could be being widely used for very long distance, real time communication. Radio waves aren't great over long distance as they're too slow.

There are all sorts of weird and wonderful phenomena like quantum entanglement etc etc there are time distortions and we don't even fully understand gravity other than by observation of what of does.

Even look at our own technology evolution over a century. A 1930s scientist with the latest radio gear from that era likely wouldn't even see or hear the digital signals from a 2018 4G mobile phone. Even if they heard the signals they'd probably think that they were random background noise because of the complex way they encode vast amounts of data.

We are a very, very long way away from concluding anything about the existence or non existence of life beyond Earth. We are literally only beginning to scratch the surface of exploration.

runawaybishop

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Of the galaxy you mean. If life were statistically as likely as the Drake equation suggests, that would be enough.

(and most refutations of the Fermi paradox are really refutations of the Drake equation. Fermi just asked “ok. Where is everybody”?)

Yeah but the drake equation was purely a vehicle to drive discussion. There are any number of solidly constructed refutations of it, not least the time we have spent observing is absolutley teeny tiny .

realitykeeper

badabing106 wrote: »

... over 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe

Do you think it's more likely or less likely that this planet has the most intelligent species in the cosmos

Does anybody else ever look up at the sky and see that vast dark sky with twinkling stars and think...how unimportant and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things..

There are many lifeforms on earth, only humans have made it to space. The planets that have been detected so far are all inhospitable to life relative to earth, although some may be home to bacteria.

Who is to say we are not the only life in the universe by intentional design by the creator? What if the big bang theory is false? Why this desperate search for the so called "God particle'' - this quest is costing billions and all to prove a theory to help atheists sleep. Even if the elusive particles are found to have the critical mass to make the big bang theory possible, the agnostic belief is correct - one cannot prove or disprove the existence of God. It`s all about faith you see.

EdgeCase

It's nothing to do with helping anyone sleep at night. Humans have a brain that's evolved to explore and figure out what's beyond the horizon and then what's beyond the next horizon.

Pretending that you know everything based on a nice story and trying to shut down exploration, be it through creationism or other dogmatic beliefs eg that flat earth nonsense is a bit like sticking fingers in your ears and blinkers on your eyes.

If there's a question or a mystery the fun bit is having a brain that's actually able to contemplate it and explore.

Thinking about the possibilities of what's out in the universe or what's in a subatomic structure doesn't keep people up at night. It's what makes for great dreams!

It's not about having all the answers. It's about asking all the questions.

Franz Von Peppercorn

runawaybishop wrote: »

Yeah but the drake equation was purely a vehicle to drive discussion. There are any number of solidly constructed refutations of it, not least the time we have spent observing is absolutley teeny tiny .

That’s not a refutation of the Drake equation.

If technological civilisations were plentiful then many would be billions of years older than us, and have time to populate the galaxy with probes.

Signore Fancy Pants

badabing106 wrote: »

Do you think it's more likely or less likely that this planet has the most intelligent species in the cosmos.

I was going to say "yes", then I looked at your other threads.

Now, I hope we are not.

uck51js9zml2yt

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

Thats a fact

We are 12 billion light years from the edge

Thats a guess

Considering light can be slowed down and speeder up in laboratory conditions we're in fantasy land saying how big it is.

Are there really 9 Million bikes in Beijing

Atoms for Peace

N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • L

arctictree

judeboy101 wrote: »

Of course they are zero, there a millions of other species living with us on this planet. But there have only been ~6 documented sentient species in the known universe all hominids and all from the same planet. With our currently tech we could seed every planet in the galaxy with bacteria/virus and probes in less than 15 million years. We could bombard the galaxy with a constant stream of daniel o Donnell within 50k years.

On the other hand, live on earth has only evolved once. Every living thing on this planet is descendant from one microbe. Proof is in our DNA. There is no other life on earth.

Mad_maxx

badabing106 wrote: »

... over 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe

Do you think it's more likely or less likely that this planet has the most intelligent species in the cosmos

Does anybody else ever look up at the sky and see that vast dark sky with twinkling stars and think...how unimportant and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things..

I often wonder are these number's picked out of thin air, maybe I'm too dumb to imagine some people are smart enough to know these things.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • L

Where are they?

Franz Von Peppercorn

I actually don’t think we can say anything about the cosmos in general. The galaxy seems empty though.

DeanAustin

Larbre34 wrote: »

We're not even the most intelligent species on the f****** Earth.

Who is?

893bet

If the aliens come

1) where will we house them?
2) how long do they need to be here before they can claim the children’s allowance?

suicide_circus

Larbre34 wrote: »

We're not even the most intelligent species on the f****** Earth.

yes we are. by an enormous margin.

Avatar MIA

DeanAustin wrote: »

Who is?

The lizard people, d'oh!

Avatar MIA

suicide_circus wrote: »

yes we are. by an enormous margin.

Not by example, check the auld forum you're in.

Avatar MIA

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Where are they?

They nipped out to the shops, back in 5*

* million years. Sit down, relax, have a coffee. Time will fly by.