do you still believe?

[epg20]

for a while now I have begun wondering if there is really alien life out there*looks to the sky*, I guess I am having my doubts, because I have ben watching those ancient alien shows and the " ancient astronaut theorists" have put out some amazingly broad guesses that is supposed to help people make the leap to belief, seems to be pulling me away because they seem to be such fantastic and amazingly broad guesses that it just makes me go OH MY GOD, really. I just don't know any more, it all seems so circumspect, that...*sigh*... I just don't know any more.

[Annoyed]

Myself, I'm convinced there is or has been (and will be in the future, too) life in other star systems.
There are billions and billions of stars out there, and it would be incredibly arrogant of us to think that we are the only cradle of life among all that.

The gaps between us are simply too large for us to deal with at this time. Not only is there a huge physical distance gap between ourselves and other stars, but there may be time gaps as well.

It's quite possible that another sentient race developed, rose to explore space and then declined and became extinct millions of years ago, or will do so millions of years in the future. Civilizations aren't immortal. We would never know about another race on another planet unless it happens to occur at the the same time we are existing here.

As far as have we been visited, I think so. There are simply too many things such as Stonehenge which we couldn't have constructed on our own. As I understand it, SH is a reasonably accurate stone calendar, constructed at a time when our race thought the Earth was the center of the solar system. We couldn't have built that.

[Who Knows]

Well I belive you have to keep an open mind, and not rely too much on the 'past' & all the 'ancient prophacies/predictions'.
"We are the centre of the universe" No, we are not.
"The Earth is flat and you go too far you will fall of the edge" No, the earth is round & you do not have an 'edge' to fall off.
"The Earth sucks" True, it is called gravity, & if it didn't 'suck' you would fly off into space.

Somebody built Stonehenge. As far as we know, without all the modern equipment we have today.
Why do all the fiction writers depict aliens like Thor of the Asgard (stargate) or E.T.?
Why do so many people report 'spaceships' & 'flying saucers'? Not all of them are alcoholics.
What does America have in 'Area 57', & where did it come from?

We know there are other planets in our system, we can see them with telescopes. So far we have landed on the moon (our moon) but did not find any 'people like us', or I belive any life forms.
But there are so many other planets, & their moons to explore.
We had the technology to get to the moon, now we have the technology to go further (Mars, Venus) & if we keep progressing one day we can get man, sorry girls, a person there to check them out.
Maybe whoever or whatever built the pyramids & stonehenge now has the technology to travel at the speed of light (or thereabouts) & so a trip to another galaxy for them is just like a bus trip downtown to us.
Who knows, just keep the faith & keep an open mind.

[garhkal]

Myself, I'm convinced there is or has been (and will be in the future, too) life in other star systems.
There are billions and billions of stars out there, and it would be incredibly arrogant of us to think that we are the only cradle of life among all that.

As Jodie foster said in the film, "Contact".
Ellie Arroway: [to a group of children] I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space. Right?

and
Ellie Arroway: You know, there are four hundred billion stars out there, just in our galaxy alone. If only one out of a million of those had planets, and just of out of a million of those had life, and just one out of a million of those had intelligent life; there would be literally millions of civilizations out there.

[SoulReaver]

yes I believe there are microbes on other planets too

[Womble]

What does America have in 'Area 57', & where did it come from?

It's Area 51. A.k.a. Edwards air force base. What do they have there? Test grounds for oddball proof-of-concept prototype airplanes which in the past included U-2, Blackbird and F117, and for testing US defense hardware against enemy threat systems. They used to train US pilots to fly against actual working MiGs captured by Israel, and people wandering near the area could glimpse some unusual flying stuff.

Maybe whoever or whatever built the pyramids & stonehenge now has the technology to travel at the speed of light (or thereabouts) & so a trip to another galaxy for them is just like a bus trip downtown to us.

Big unworked slabs of stone put upright do not strike me as the work of an advanced civilization. In its craftsmanship, the Stonehenge is much more basic than even the Easter Island statues.

[Anja]

The chances that there are lifeforms on other planets are much bigger than thinking our planet is the only one!
There can be life forms we even cannot imagine, organisms so different from us hat we never can imagine them. Having not encountered any aliens yet is no surprise - the universe is huge and why should extraterrestrials come here? If they are capable of intergalactical flights we will look like cavemen to them.

[Annoyed]

Big unworked slabs of stone put upright do not strike me as the work of an advanced civilization. In its craftsmanship, the Stonehenge is much more basic than even the Easter Island statues.

As I understand it, Stonehenge is a reasonably accurate astronomic calendar. Since it was built at a time when humanity still believed the Earth was the center of the solar system.

Therefore, we couldn't have built it on our own.

[Who Knows]

It's Area 51. A.k.a. Edwards air force base. What do they have there? Test grounds for oddball proof-of-concept prototype airplanes which in the past included U-2, Blackbird and F117, and for testing US defense hardware against enemy threat systems. They used to train US pilots to fly against actual working MiGs captured by Israel, and people wandering near the area could glimpse some unusual flying stuff.

Yes, thank you Womble, Area 51. I was thinking of Heinz 57.

I was always lead to believe they had alien space craft & alien life-forms there. That is why I used it in my anxswer.

[aretood2]

As I understand it, Stonehenge is a reasonably accurate astronomic calendar. Since it was built at a time when humanity still believed the Earth was the center of the solar system.

Therefore, we couldn't have built it on our own.

The Maya had no real concept of a round earth, yet they created the ancient world's most elaborate calendar thousands of years ago using base 20 math. Furthermore they are one of few civilizations to develop the zero (a mathematically important number). Don't discount the ability or knowledge of ancient civilizations.

In fact there have been many ancient calendars made throughout the world that are fairly accurate, and Stonehenge isn't really that much of a calendar to begin with.

[Annoyed]

The Maya had no real concept of a round earth, yet they created the ancient world's most elaborate calendar thousands of years ago using base 20 math. Furthermore they are one of few civilizations to develop the zero (a mathematically important number). Don't discount the ability or knowledge of ancient civilizations.

In fact there have been many ancient calendars made throughout the world that are fairly accurate, and Stonehenge isn't really that much of a calendar to begin with.

Perhaps these other calendars were also created with outside help?

If ancient mankind was that intelligent, why hadn't they been higher up on the ladder?

[aretood2]

Perhaps these other calendars were also created with outside help?

If ancient mankind was that intelligent, why hadn't they been higher up on the ladder?

What do you mean by higher up on the ladder?

Do you mean industrialization? One of the big things that caused Europe to finally start catching up, and eventually surpassing, with other areas of the world technologically was because of trade.
The printing press was a combination of Arabic, and Chinese techniques. Thanks to its development,
knowledge was shared more quickly and more widely than ever before. A simple thing like a printing press changed everything. Minus that, we'd probably still wouldn't be communicating with each other on the internet.

Technological advances don't happen on a progressive predetermined path and they are not necessarily inevitable. They require chance events that transform the way humans develop, collect, and disseminate knowledge as well as the circumstances that cause the need for certain type of knowledge.

Also, different technologies require the right infrastructure and resources for them to be developed. Making a toaster in the US in the 1600's would be impossible even if a few people knew everything about how a toaster worked. Not to mention there's no plastic, a lot of components haven't been discovered. The Maya couldn't have created a toaster for they had no copper. But they did develop sewage systems, advanced medicinal knowledge, architectural engineering because these things didn't require the same unattainable prerequisites as that of a toaster...also, they had no need for a toaster for they had no wheat with which to make sliced bread or bagels.

EDIT: Let's go back to the printing press. Other parts of the world were not rediscovering lost knowledge like Europe was, so they had no need to quickly create large quantities of books. Europeans did, however, need to do that. They had a lot of homework to do to catch up. The printing press helped, and then after having it...it accelerated their pace. What differentiates Europe from the Middle East, India, and China is that they were not content. They knew that they lost information, and they were now getting it back and that gave them a thirst for more. That is the happy coincidence that helped advance humans technologically, well one of many. But it is all very much happenstance. You won't event a toaster until all the right variables are in place.

[thekillman]

Given the numbers, i think it's guaranteed there's other alien life. Billions and billions of stars, more than a planet average per star, and the fact that life evolved so close after earth's formation? Life's gotta be common. Not necessarily advanced life, mind you.

the big question is IMHO not whether we're alone, but whether it'll matter.

The distance between stars alone is vast. If a species lived in Alpha Centauri, then if Bush had sent them a hello, Trump would be getting the message right now. Cooperation would be useful in many ways, but politically it would be hell.

If a species lived at 50LY from here, a message would have a round-time of 100 years. For major technological leaps, that would be pretty useless (imagine asking in 1900 if we could get tech, and today we'd be receiving blueprints for a vacuum tube computer).

If a species lived on the other side of the galaxy (~100 000 lightyears), then right now they'd be getting a message that we're about to endure an ice age.



In short, unless aliens lived really close, it would be really difficult to have meaningful conversations with those aliens. Assuming we could have conversations with them, in stead of seeing only moss and bacteria and the occasional alien animal. And that's ignoring possible life in other galaxies.

[Annoyed]

There could also be a great time gap. Suppose 50,000 years ago, a civilization rose to spacefaring status only 10 light years away, but died out after 20,000 years. They would never have seen us, as we hadn't arisen yet, and we would never know about them, either.

[SoulReaver]

a civilization rose to spacefaring status only 10 light years away, but died out after 20,000 years

noobs