Aliens among us.....

[bluestarultor]

@ lion: Really, though, you do have to think of this. Either there is other life in our nearly-endless universe or there isn't. Either way, it's mindblowing.

I personally think that life is nothing special. I mean, it's special enough to be alive, but statistically speaking, we're on a planet orbiting a medium-sized star that's really not unique in any way and just happen to be in a band where life as we know it is supported, and that band is, quite frankly, a lot wider than people give it credit for. If it weren't for the terrible conditions, life probably could develop on Venus. Some say even a planet similar to Mars. Mars loses out a lot due to its thin atmosphere, really. Pump in enough greenhouse gas and give it a magnetic field so solar wind doesn't constantly blow it away and you're set, speaking entirely out of my ass.

On the other hand, another thing I think is necessary for life, for obvious reasons, is an ecosystem, and in an ecosystem, you will likely always have the basic three items of:
1. organisms who collect energy from outside sources (plants, algae, etc.),
2. things that eat those (cows, fungus, etc.), and
3. things that eat those (humans, wolves, etc.).

That's a basic ecology right there. It's nice to THINK that maybe there's only one and you'll have intelligent plants running around (literally or not), but when you consider that resources are limited in terms of light, heat, etc., it makes sense for some to go cannibal somehow, or at least grow bigger to hog the resources. Out of any scenario, an all-plant world is second-most likely, but once you get herbivores in there, competition over resources is pretty much going to demand some of them start eating each other.

Once you get predators in the mix, you get predatory competition and the basis of war. Simply put, if any alien race is fully peaceful, they'll have had eons to transcend that somehow. Eons in which they'll develop technology beyond our comprehension, for better or worse.

[Bells]

And once again i would like to point you guys to Dr Neil Degrasse Tyson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQhNZENMG1o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfAzaDyae-k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xag3oOzvU68

[BitVyper]

I'm of the opinion that if anything, we'll be the hyper advanced aliens who seed the galaxy with life, and leave stores of ancient knowledge for those who follow us to find after we ascend to become energy beings.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by BitVyper

I'm of the opinion that if anything, we'll be the hyper advanced aliens who seed the galaxy with life, and leave stores of ancient knowledge for those who follow us to find after we ascend to become energy beings.

I'm of the opinion that, quite frankly, life is not going to venture out of its own solar system until it essentially learns to break physics. Space flight sounds nifty until you consider just how far apart everything is and how long it takes even light to travel that distance. Best-case scenario, any crews from even the closest solar systems are born several generations in space and it takes them upwards of six years to communicate one round of back and forth with their home as they approach us. That's not even accounting for fuel, although due to a lack of friction, so long as they're just taking a shot in the dark, once they get going, they don't need any additional impulse. They still need food and heat, though.

Basically what I'm saying is I'm a killjoy and that our best chance is to find a wormhole somewhere, assuming we don't just zip right by it. I'm not sure if those are fixed in absolute or relative space according to current theory, but if it's absolute, it's absolutely useless given the speeds at which galaxies travel.

[Brainmeats]

I'm going to say its possible that there is some form of life on other planets. Whether that be some strange space fern or little green men, who knows. The universe is too big for there not to be something out there.

Will we find it? Doubtful. Best thing we'll find is water on Mars with a microbe in it. Nothing complex.

[Kim]

If there are aliens, I'd like to believe it goes the The Day the Earth Stood Still route. "You better knock this shit the fuck off before you start exploring space, or we will destroy you."

[Amake]

I like The Invisibles' theory where those grey space aliens who star in 90% of all abduction stories are actually time aliens preparing us to become them.

I'm however positive there is no ancient conspiracy like the Freemasons secretly running the world. In this day and age, you could simply not get away with keeping secrets on that scale. All it would take to destroy a secret empire is one fallible human with Internet access naming names and places.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I've had some talks about this at conferences I've been to, common theory banded around is that high intelligence is pretty statisically unlikely when compared to the lifetime of planets (in conditions that would sustain life), basically they break it into a set of evolutionary "leaps" or "hurdles" with a speculated time necessary for that compared to the sun. To develop technology to get away from your sun before it eats you is pretty unlikely.
That aside it's hard to speculate, people have raised idea that civilisations may be likely to destroy themselves before they get there.
Also they all invisible and tentacled.

[Funka Genocide]

Eh, seem to me if we figure out sustainable inter-galactic flight we'd get this whole mortality thing nipped in the bud as well. Then we could just float endlessly looking for new stuff to make friends with/make fun of/eat/have sex with.

I mean conceptually its not that big of a leap. There are discernible factors which lead to the evolution of life, you just recreate those factors using your wonderful galaxy machine as you flit about on your star chariot filled with cheetos and booze. If you get bored, make a kid and eat a bullet.

THE FUTURE!

(Plus everybody goes all apeshit with the tentacle monster plant thing. I get the feeling that life is some form of physical constant in the universe, and barring a few minor variations here and there it probably follows similar trends wherever it arises. Just like planets are roughly spherical and stars are hot, intelligent life is probably endothermic, mostly hairless and possessed of opposable thumbs. They might have weird hairstyles though.)

[krogothwolf]

Originally Posted by Funka Genocide

Then we could just float endlessly looking for new stuff to make friends with/make fun of/eat/have sex with.

You totally forgot make war with and try to systematically slaughter.