She's mine. I saw her first.
Where is everybody?
- Thread starter Ming the Merciless
- Start date
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She's mine. I saw her first.
It's been here for over 2 billion years, and survived at least 6 mass extinctions. Why would you imagine that all life will end in the next few thousand years? After all, they've just discovered that there is more mass of life at depth in the earth's interior than there is on the surface. Life (ie self-replication) once established seems almost impossible to kill off.
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Who says that life must have the same conditions to propagate on other planets? Other forms of life may not be carbon based.
Anyway, we all know that the Earth is only 6000 years old and flat......
Threevok
Growing old disgracefully
- Location
- South Wales
I hope to God there is no life on other planets
I cringe at the thought of "Earth's Got Talent" and "Celestial Love Island"
I cringe at the thought of "Earth's Got Talent" and "Celestial Love Island"
A civilisation capable of interstellar communication will have vanishingly small window of existence. They will wipe themselves out by disease, overuse of resources, war etc. An optimistic 10,000 years is virtually zero in a 14bn year old universe.
So as civilisations may well occur, the chances of them coinciding are virtually zero.
However, should the extremely unlikely happen and we receive a distant signal, by the time the signal has reached us the aliens would all be dead. By the time our reply hits their planet, we’d all be dead.
So as civilisations may well occur, the chances of them coinciding are virtually zero.
However, should the extremely unlikely happen and we receive a distant signal, by the time the signal has reached us the aliens would all be dead. By the time our reply hits their planet, we’d all be dead.
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uphillstruggler
Guru
- Location
- Half way there
I'm having one of those 'stare into space moments'
to really appreciate just how small we are, you need a very dark night and a very clear sky. All delusions of self importance should drift away.
I'm off for a lay down
to really appreciate just how small we are, you need a very dark night and a very clear sky. All delusions of self importance should drift away.
I'm off for a lay down
Delusions??
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
My meaning was "how long will life exist at a level that is capable of communicating with life on other planets". We're about 50 years into a period where we can do this, Earth having been around for 4.5 billion years. I guess the question is "what proportion of a planet's existence will it harbour life capable of communicating with life on other planets?" My gut feel is a tiny %
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
Not sure about that. The problem is that for 99.9999% of the time life has existed on Earth, it hasn't been able to communicate with other planets and other planets are probably the same, all developing at different rates. As @Markymark says, the chances of our little window coinciding with theirs is vanishingly small
Indeed. Our best hope for finding life will be looking for signatures in the atmospheres of planets. Ratios of elements that are very unlikely to occur naturally but are probably as the result of carbon based organisms.
This is something I think we’ll disciver at some point. They wouldn’t necessarily be intelligent life. In all likelihood it would be maybe bacteria or simple life forms. But even then what we’d detect wouldn’t be life itself but the change in atmosphere and as a result it would be listed as ‘probable life’ rather than definitive proof.
We’ll be dead looong before then.
Ah, OK. That's a very different thing.
