UFO's

[Steve H]

The way I see it, if the universe is almost limitless, there must be almost limitless numbers of civilisations out there
That does not mean, of course, that they have been visiting us in their funny little flying saucers
Used to love 'My Favourite Martian' when I was a kid

 

[fyl2u]

The way I see it, if the universe is almost limitless, there must be almost limitless numbers of civilisations out there
That does not mean, of course, that they have been visiting us in their funny little flying saucers
Used to love 'My Favourite Martian' when I was a kid

It's a nice thought, but it's a non-sequitur.

For all we know, civilisation itself is an almost limitless rarity, and there's no way to discount the possibility that we're the absolute first to develop.

 

[fixxxer]

The stuff that has come out over the last few years on the "tic-tac" UFOs is pretty compelling mind

You must be logged on to see external links

 

[KathyBatesHammer]

It's a nice thought, but it's a non-sequitur.

For all we know, civilisation itself is an almost limitless rarity, and there's no way to discount the possibility that we're the absolute first to develop.

If we are the first the rest may as well give up. If we ever found them we'd probably try to fuck them, before we kill them.

Well I would anyway.

Our current understanding of physics doesn't completely discount getting from one point to another faster than it would take light to travel that journey.

Then there's time dilation. Or maybe they're just unmanned drones.

 

[Steve H]

It's a nice thought, but it's a non-sequitur.

For all we know, civilisation itself is an almost limitless rarity, and there's no way to discount the possibility that we're the absolute first to develop.

Good response ,but it is beyond extremely unlikely that in the barmy, unimaginable vastness of space /time we are the first civilisation to develop

 

[fyl2u]

Good response ,but it is beyond extremely unlikely that in the barmy, unimaginable vastness of space /time we are the first civilisation to develop

There's no way of knowing that.

If we are the first the rest may as well give up. If we ever found them we'd probably try to fuck them, before we kill them.

Well I would anyway.

Our current understanding of physics doesn't completely discount getting from one point to another faster than it would take light to travel that journey.

Then there's time dilation. Or maybe they're just unmanned drones.

All that's true, but they have to detect us first, and our current understanding of physics requires the light and radio waves from our planet to take considerable time to reach even the nearest star systems (more than 4 years). The furthest stars from us just in our own galaxy are 700,000 light years away.

While it's entirely possible that sophisticated alien technology might be able to see us from that far away, they'd be seeing us as we were 700,000 years ago. With all the stars in our galaxy, there'd surely be more interesting planets for them to visit than Earth circa 698,000 B.C.

 

[citybythesea]

While that may well be true, it is also a stab in the dark. We don't know whether we're the billionth civilisation to venture into space or the first.

The Drake equation doesn't help answer that, because it's based on a whole bunch of complete guesses to come up with possible answers based on those guesses.


Whether your guesses are conservative or not is still a guess. We have no idea what the actual values should be for the variables being inputted into the equation, so all you're getting out of the equation at the end is supposition.

I agree it’s a guess…I did say it is an estimate, albeit one done by an eminent astrophysicist.
It’s a shame our current observations of the much much older cosmos, is limited on a sciences developed in the last few hundred years. That our own limitations

I leave it there

Good response ,but it is beyond extremely unlikely that in the barmy, unimaginable vastness of space /time we are the first civilisation to develop

I agree, it’s a geocentric view of a cosmos much much older than our young solar system

We aren’t the centre of the universe

 

[fyl2u]

I agree it’s a guess…I did say it is an estimate, albeit one done by an eminent astrophysicist.
It’s a shame our current observations of the much much older cosmos, is limited on a sciences developed in the last few hundred years. That our own limitations

I leave it there

The eminent astrophysicist only came up with the equation. It's other folks putting their guesses in there for the variables that make it more or less likely that there are alien civilisations out there in their opinions.

Drake never intended the equation to answer the question of whether there are civilisations on other planets, merely to gather in one place the unknowns that would need to be known in order to make such a determination, and therefore to stimulate the conversation on the topic.

 

[citybythesea]

The eminent astrophysicist only came up with the equation. It's other folks putting their guesses in there for the variables that make it more or less likely that there are alien civilisations out there in their opinions.

Drake never intended the equation to answer the question of whether there are civilisations on other planets, merely to gather in one place the unknowns that would need to be known in order to make such a determination, and therefore to stimulate the conversation on the topic.

Like I say, the limitations of our current science and technology , restricts us to estimates……….

Maybe when we’re as old as the universe we’re observing we can put something more empirical together

 

[Borgsten]

Autumn 1991 - driving near Chirk, on my way from London to Plas y Brenin , I saw a greenish globe/light in the sky. Pulled over and watched it for about 20 minutes. Sober as a Judge. Not a plane, I was transfixed.
I told my work colleagues when I was back in the office. They took the p.
Read later it may have been a kind of meteor shower. However to me it remains unidentified.

 

[derum]

While it's entirely possible that sophisticated alien technology might be able to see us from that far away, they'd be seeing us as we were 700,000 years ago. With all the stars in our galaxy, there'd surely be more interesting planets for them to visit than Earth circa 698,000 B.C.

Unless you believe in a flat earth, in which case the feckers could just be hiding underneath us.

 

[CissesUnderpants9]

You must be logged on to see media items

 

[Deleted member 14766]

Of course they exist. We can't be the only life in the whole of the universe.

Why not? If there is an infinite number of possibilities then why couldn’t the one where life - or what we’d call life - only exists here and now be the one of them that’s the truth? What’s so hard accept about that possibility? Or the possibility that it doesn’t matter because everything’s so far apart we’ll never know anyway.

The way I see it, if the universe is almost limitless, there must be almost limitless numbers of civilisations out there
That does not mean, of course, that they have been visiting us in their funny little flying saucers
Used to love 'My Favourite Martian' when I was a kid

Why ‘must’ there be?

 

[Cox Green Fc]

It's all absolute tosh

 

[Deleted member 14766]

Good response ,but it is beyond extremely unlikely that in the barmy, unimaginable vastness of space /time we are the first civilisation to develop

Why?

 

[Ember]

Autumn 1991 - driving near Chirk, on my way from London to Plas y Brenin , I saw a greenish globe/light in the sky. Pulled over and watched it for about 20 minutes. Sober as a Judge. Not a plane, I was transfixed.
I told my work colleagues when I was back in the office. They took the p.
Read later it may have been a kind of meteor shower. However to me it remains unidentified.

Back around that time I was out in the countryside very late one night and the sky was filled with green light in all sorts of shapes. I read later that the Northern lights had been visible at much lower latitudes than normal that night
Like another poster said, many of the world's population are now walking around with cameras in their pockets. We now regularly see photos or videos or CCTV of unusual natural phenomena, traffic accidents, animals doing all sorts of strange things etc.

But for some reason we haven't seen any incontrovertible photos or videos of aliens, spaceships, ghosts, yetis, Bigfoot etc despite some genuine sounding people insisting that they have seen such things. I wonder why?

 

[KathyBatesHammer]

Why not? If there is an infinite number of possibilities then why couldn’t the one where life - or what we’d call life - only exists here and now be the one of them that’s the truth? What’s so hard accept about that possibility? Or the possibility that it doesn’t matter because everything’s so far apart we’ll never know anyway.



Why ‘must’ there be?

But that doesn't make sense. If there is an infinite number of possibilities then anything that's possible has to happen an infinite number of times.

 

[fyl2u]

But that doesn't make sense. If there is an infinite number of possibilities then anything that's possible has to happen an infinite number of times.

Including universes where there's no life outside our own planet.

Not that I'm a believer in the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics.

 

[Cyrus]

I love this quick jump to lights in the sky, tik tak on navy radar and aircraft cams , to aliens . I think it's much more believable that they are unknown, non human but from our own planet or system.

 

[Deleted member 14766]

But that doesn't make sense. If there is an infinite number of possibilities then anything that's possible has to happen an infinite number of times.

OK. If there’s an infinite number of possibilities then here are three of those possibilities.

1. In all the infinite possibilities we are alone in the universe
2. In the possibility within which we exist we are alone in the universe
3. We exist in the possibility, out of all the infinite possibilities, where there isn’t an infinite number of possibilities and there’s only one. And we exist in it. And we are alone.

I’m not being entirely serious or at all arsed about it except to point out that a number of people here, as usual in conversations like this, are saying that if ‘xyz’ is true then it MUST be that ‘abc’. In actual fact we have no idea is ‘xyz’ is at all fact and the answer could be ‘d’. anyway

I’m sure all this philosophical naval gazing helped me pass many an hour when I was young but I realised when I turned 50 that I had to stop talking and thinking like a 14 year old.

(Im just having a sarcastic laugh talking bollocks on the internet by the way, not wanting to offend anyone. No harm intended)