Food for thoughts.

[markemark]

I would suggest that there will be millions of planets that support life. I would also suggest that intelligent life is far, far less likely. But where it does exist it will wipe itself out very quickly. So given the age of the universe the chance of intelligent life being around at the vanishingly small periods at the same time is pretty much 0. The chances of us funding proof of intelligent life in iur times is as close to 0 as you can get.

But….as above I imagine there’s a reasonable number of planets that support organic life….plants, insects etc. these planets will have identifiable atmospheres. There’ll be chemical signals that are, in all likelihood, the product of organic life. Not a certainty, but a chemical makeup that is unlikely to have occurred naturally without organic life. So what may well happen, as our telescopes improve, is one day they’ll discover a planet that has a high probability of life. And that’s the best we can hope for. I hope this discovery happens in my lifetime.

 

[Drago]

The chances of other intelligent life varies wildly depending on which model or paradox one chooses to follow.

 

[cyberknight]

the drake equation gives you a theory of how many intelligent life planets

 

[stephec]

There's also a restaurant at the end of the universe if you fancy a cup of tea on the way there.

The very last Little Thief in existence, you'd need an Olympic Breakfast if you were travelling all that way.

 

[biggs682]

The chances of other intelligent life varies wildly depending on which model or paradox one chooses to follow.

And I bet they are not discussing how much Brompton made last year or how to clean your chain

 

[Drago]

Outside Space there is a complete absence of anything, ie nothing.

Indeed, nothing at all. No matter, no energy, not even vacuum.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

It is estimated that the Universe is 100 000 light years across so, personally, I think there are thousands of other inhabited planets but so far away that we will never be aware of each other and that makes me feel good, knowing that we are not alone.

It's immeasurably bigger than we realise.

There are 100 billion (10^11) stars just in our galaxy.

There are 100 billion *galaxies* (10^11) in the universe.

So there are very roughly 10^22 stars in the universe.

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

This is so big we can't conceive of what it means.

(And apologies if I've got some arithmetic awryv there, it's possible!)

What we don't know is how likely other technological societies are.

Very simple life started on earth quite early, so it seems likely, but not certain, that there will be life elsewhere.

But complex life came much later, taking several billion years. Technological development has been present really only in the last few thousand years, out of 4 billion.

It could be that the steps from simple to complex, and complex to intelligent, and intelligent to technological societies are all very, very unlikely and we're unique. It's impossible to know.

What we can say is that communication with alien intelligence is almost certainly impossible. The distances are too far, and the speed of light too slow.

 

[markemark]

It's immeasurably bigger than we realise.

There are 100 billion (10^11) stars just in our galaxy.

There are 100 billion *galaxies* (10^11) in the universe.

So there are very roughly 10^22 stars in the universe.

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

This is so big we can't conceive of what it means.

(And apologies if I've got some arithmetic awryv there, it's possible!)

What we don't know is how likely other technological societies are.

Very simple life started on earth quite early, so it seems likely, but not certain, that there will be life elsewhere.

But complex life came much later, taking several billion years. Technological development has been present really only in the last few thousand years, out of 4 billion.

It could be that the steps from simple to complex, and complex to intelligent, and intelligent to technological societies are all very, very unlikely and we're unique. It's impossible to know.

What we can say is that communication with alien intelligence is almost certainly impossible. The distances are too far, and the speed of light too slow.

It’s time that’s the issue. Intelligent life will be incredibly optimistically around for another hundred thousand years or so. Very likely wiped out long before that either by our own stupidity or by ai. The chances of two intelligent life forms existing in the blink of an eye period of the same tine is approaching 0

 

[Ming the Merciless]

 

[gavroche]

I am not a mathematicien or a scientist or cosmologist, just a simple guy who can't believe we are alone in the universe, given its huge dimension. Even if we were to receive signals from out of space, these signals will probably be thousands of earth years old , same as signals from us will be thousands of earth years old and we will be extinct by the time they are received out there. I just trust my guts feelings as it would be very sad indeed if we were a one off.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Dark Forest theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis

 

[Dave 123]

Imagine another Cyclechat somewhere, but with intelligent life!

Too far fetched?

 

[Baldy]

Sorry, that is not correct.

Our Galaxy is around 100000 light years across. The Universe is far bigger.

The Observable Universe from any given point in space is around 93 billion light years in diameter.

The Universe is far bigger even than this.

Still not as big as the latest SUV

 

[Drago]

Imagine another Cyclechat somewhere, but with intelligent life!

Too far fetched?

Oh come on. We were just having a laugh but you took it too far!

That said, that's probably how the residents of St Elsewhere view themselves.

 

[Beebo]

I am not a mathematicien or a scientist or cosmologist, just a simple guy who can't believe we are alone in the universe, given its huge dimension. Even if we were to receive signals from out of space, these signals will probably be thousands of earth years old , same as signals from us will be thousands of earth years old and we will be extinct by the time they are received out there. I just trust my guts feelings as it would be very sad indeed if we were a one off.

This has been posted before. But our own radio waves haven’t even come close to penetrating a 10th of the galaxy yet. So the chance of ever getting radio waves to other galaxies is impossible.