Odds are, they'll have 911s and Ferraris and Apple devices. Probably someone stepped on a butterfly somewhere a zillion years ago and consequently, that cool stuff is 50% off compared to our retail prices. I think we'd get along fine with them.

[QUOTE=Flieger;6488178]Most sky lights are normal airplanes. Some lights are hoaxes by people with nothing better to do. Some are meteor(ites).

Then some of them are classified aircraft (the ones out west mainly). The government loves the UFO stories because it helps keep people from digging around for classified aircraft details.

Area 51 started for the A-12 and U-2 programs. Now if the A-12 wasn't the most amazing thing in the world in the early 60's then what was? Random sonic booms, strange lights, oh, it must be aliens. :rolleyes:



Have to agree with a lot of your points but as a 12000+ hour ex-commercial pilot I know the difference between "normal airplanes" and some of the things I've seen. The performance and maneuvers were such that I'm positive we don't have that capability.

Ever get a video of it? Hell, everyone has a video camera in their pocket these days.

Don't Panic.

Right, now if you think about space travel in economic terms, why would anyone invest the ridiculous amount of capital required to send 100s of generations of people to a far off rock with no possibility of return during anyone's possible lifetime or even a chance of their progeny benefiting from the effort? Of course, this assumes that their ships aren't made of neutrinos.

recent experiments in Europe point to the speed of light NOT being the speed limit of the universe. Neutrinos have been clocked travelling faster than the speed of light!

The jury is still out for a definitive answer, but separate experiments reveal the same results.

These days, yep, we're talking early 70's here. Video cams weren't even dreamed of then. I quit flying 6 years ago. I don't even hardly look up anymore.
Another pilot that's seen one.

Apollo Astronaut Speaks on UFO, Alien Claims : Discovery Channel

While its highly probable, almost a statistical certainty, thanks to the magic of large numbers, that life in a form that we would understand (and that might be a microbe or a slug) exists in the Universe, I think its quite appropriate to be agnostic on this question. There is no evidence.

So I dont think one needs to "believe" one way or the other. Its quite reasonable to say its very likely, but we at this time do not know.

How do you know they are independent? The law of large numbers may not apply.

Stop talking sense Stuart.
Its not welcome here. ;)

there are quite a number of assumptions in the Drake equation that you cannot be sure of.
You know what they say about assuming things....

You better have experience studies to back it up!

Nearly everyone on this planet has a cell phone that takes pictures or video. Yet no real conclusive evidence.

A reasonable person would deduce that either UFOs are something mentally unstable people dream up, UFOs don't exist or are explained away in other ways, or UFOs are invisible.

I find it amusing that many of the same people who believe we are visited by beings from outer space also believe that a supreme being does not exist.

...and the number of people who believe the earth is 6000 years old!

UFOs are real enough Sammy. There are reports of things that fly that arent identified. Doesnt mean theyre from anywhere but earth.

The question here is whether life exists elsewhere in the Universe. Whilst Joe Bob's iphone footage of a space alien would be impressive, I think we are better looking to science for the answers.

Proof of recognisable life elsewhere - say a microbe- would sure throw a spanner in the old Supreme Being schtick though wouldnt it?

If youre talking to me, Im afraid I didnt do well enough in Stats and Prob to conduct the argument as to the actual probabilty of the existence of life elswhere in the Universe. You can do that for yourself.

There are billions and billions of stars, surrounded by billion and billions and billions of planets. Its seems reasonable to say ours may not be the only one capable of supporting life, and that therefore life may have arisen on one of of those planets.

It doesnt require belief one way or the other.

If there is life out there I sure hope I get to see it before I go six feet under.

That would be mind blowing!

+1

Real question is....


Are any of them within 50 trillion light years of us?

I wonder if the human race develops the means to travel to the next star/planetary system and other points in our galaxy before going extinct. Although we've made great scientific/technical strides in the past two centuries, the ability to go beyond our own planetary neighborhood is going to be quite challenging.

Anybody watch Ancient Aliens?

The odds of life on other planets is so high it is a certainty. How many of those life forms are intelligent enough to create technology (even if it is one in a trillion) is a number that is large. If some super advanced technological civilization figures out an affordable way to travel to other planets great. But our little galaxy is so large the odds that any aliens have visited us is nil.

I really hope to live long enough to learn that we have found intelligent life on other planets. I just don't see that as likely. They are there but just too far away.