Science, having discovered/decided that we were not the only intelligent
species on this planet has made it seem more likely that there must be
intelligent life forms somewhere else in the universe? DO YOU AGREE
WITH THIS STATEMENT?

Technically, no, because the number of intelligent life forms on this
planet may very well have no bearing whatsoever on what happens
elsewhere in the universe.

One might use it as a sort of precedent and say, "it now seems more
reasonable to assume that more than one intelligent life form can
co-exist on any given other planet," since we extrapolate from what we
know and can observe here.

But whether there is one intelligent life form on earth, or
seventy-three million, would not, in and of itself, affect the
conditions on other worlds that we believe would allow intelligence to
develop and proliferate.

Red,

I'm skeptical. The statistics say that its entirely possible, and there
are enough 'interesting' accounts of UFOs, but, still no undeniable "oh
sh1t there really are extraterrestials" evidence.

It would be cool if that were to happen in my lifetime!

Thanks Lex & Mike for responding, I can always count on you both to have
great opinions and even logic behind them. Here are some things that
lead me to the statement I made. First, of course, I meantioned that we
have not been the only humanoid, thinking, intelligent beings on this
planet. As Lex points out, this might be the basis to say, if other
such life existist on other planets then it its more reasonable to
extrapulate from this thought that more than one has or does co-habitate
the same planet. OK, that's a start. Science has reaced a point where
they have broken down the "substance" of the universe to some minute sub
atomic level. In doing so, they have discovered that there is
identifiable matter and matter which still needs addressing, such at the
black matter of the universe. What they have agreed on, is that every
mass, every form includes certain common properties, common universally.
That theory that everything, including us are made of star dust, has
been proven beyond just theory. This being the case and the fact that
there are, countless planets on which life could exist, gives
intelligent life a far greater chance of existing than a person winning
a lottery. We know the odds of that are 1 in millions and yet it
happens every day. Now if we say "all matter being equal" in other
words all matter has a limited make up which includes commonality
throughout the univers than all we need is the right combination or set
of circumstance to make intelligent life occur. With the millions,
perhaps billions of planets over millions or billions of years the odds
are in favor of a winning spin of that universal lottery, many times
over. Would it not be incredible if science, one day finds that the way
life happens, is the simplest equation on a scale of universal
probabilites. Comments?

I believe there is. Do you really think I am from this planet?

lol@whisper

Whisper, you may not be the only alien I know, but I will enjoy and
celebrate your differences as I do everyone elses.

Trust me there NOBODY like me

Redy, here's something about dark matter from Simon Singh's book, "Big
Bang":

==============================================================

Something else that keeps Big Bang cosmologists awake at night is dark
matter. Observations show that stars orbiting the periphery of galaxies
have tremendous speeds, yet the gravitational pull of all the stars
closer to the heart of the galaxy is not enough to prevent these
peripheral stars from flying off into the cosmos. Therefore,
cosmologists believe that there must be vast quantities of dark matter
in a galaxy, namely matter that does not shine but which exerts enough
of a gravitational pull to keep the stars in their orbits. Although the
idea of dark matter dates back to Fritz Zwicky at Mount Wilson on the
1930s, cosmologists are still unsure of its true nature, which is rather
embarrassing as calculations imply that the universe has more dark
matter than ordinary stellar matter.

==============================================================

I think we'll need something a little more definitive before we can
incorporate this into the "life on other worlds" scenario, if it even
has any impact at the individual planetary level.

I was just reading an article which noted that 215 extrasolar planets
have now been detected. If things were simple and consistent across the
universe, we could take our own solar system's ratio, and say
intelligent life appears on 1 out of 9 planets (or 1 out of 8, if you
insist on demoting poor little Pluto), therefore some 24 of the
extrasolars must also have intelligent life! Unfortunately, it never
seems to work that easily.

If you assume that the existence of a planet is necessary for life to
develop (which I personally doubt, although we have no frame of
reference for any other kind of life at this point), these 215
extrasolars offer some fascinating options. But we know so little about
them.

Still, we now know that planets, and planetary systems, are not unique
to our own little corner of the universe. There are others out there.
We don't know if life has developed there, let alone intelligent life,
but there are certainly a large number of "stages" on which it may
flourish.

I believe the mathematics would suggest that, with billions of galaxies
to work with, over a period of 14 billion years or so, it is entirely
possible, perhaps even likely, that some other form of intelligence
would arise. The fact that we haven't seen it means little, given the
distances and the possible observational problems -- it is not mandatory
that another form of intelligent life be composed in such a way that
they would be detectable by our own (necessarily limited but perfectly
serviceable for our purposes) sensory apparatus.

Singh again:

=============================================================

In his autobiography, "Confessions," written in about AD 400, the
philosopher and theologian St. Augustine quotes an answer he has heard
to the theological equivalent of "What came before the Big Bang?"

What was God doing before He created the Universe? Before He created
Heaven and Earth, God created hell to be used for people such as you who
ask this kind of question.

=============================================================

And, you know, we're not really ALL THAT FAR removed from that mindset,
either....

Good morning Lex. Still telling you I am what they are looking for. I
have come to take over the world Mwhahahaha

Fix your celing first, then we'll talk about World Domination....

My ceiling is fixed so HA! Now let's start talking. Come on I will even
let you be my side kick. I could use a human by my side to keep the
others in line. Cause I am sure they are not going to surrender
easily

OK, fine, as long as I get Indianastan when you're done....

You can have what ever country or state that you want. As long as I get
Ontario and BC.

OK I am out of here. I have a telescope to get. Got to keep my eye on my
home planet some how.

Whisper, you didn't try to fix the telescope, did you? Were ya able to
catch glimpse of your sweet home out there? I hope so, it'll make you
feel more comfortable. Why do you want BC?

Lex, I'm slightly familiar with the information you gave, I think I may
have something more recent to add, gotta look again. I just don't have
all the time I'd like, to learn new things. I'll try to get back to
this.

Does intelligent life exist or has it existed in the past elsewhere in
the universe? Given the sheer number of gallaxies and the number of
planets that each must contain, he odds seem to favor the theory that it
does or it did. There is also the string theory that points to the
existance of many parallel universes which would account for the missing
or dark matter in the universe. I personally think that life does or
did exist elsewhere in the universe. And, if it does exist hopefully
they have evolved beyond our bellicose temperment

Pt1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKgCXcjDV58&feature=related
Pt2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9zg4_Ql-78&feature=related
Pt3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdPzqOKsZww&feature=related

yes there is other life out there besides us. the star people have been coming to mother earth long before any one has been on mother earth, and they will continue to come to mother earth while we are here and long after we (mankind) is long gone.

Sometimes when I get emails or read certain threads or look at certain profiles, or just interact with people in my daily life, I wonder if there's really that much intelligent life on earth let alone elsewhere.