Post by xkamelx on May 3, 2007 1:01:19 GMT -5
This will be the first of a series of debates relating to science and science fiction. These debates/topics will be a bi-weekly thing.
So for our first, do you believe in aliens / extra terrestrial life?
I absolutely believe there is life out there. I think intelligent life may less common than basically animal or plant life, but still believe with all of my heart we are not alone in the universe.
Some may argue that the circumstance that lead to life on Earth in one in a billion shot, so there statistically cannot be life elsewhere in the universe. Fair enough, but when you take into account the billions of stars, possibly trillions, and consider the possibility that 90% of these stars may have planets, you suddenly have billions of chances for life to evolve.
If you also take into consideration the age of the universe, it's next to impossible for Earth to be the only life sustaining planet in the universe.
Think of it this way, if you play the lottery tomorrow, you probably will not win. But if you play the lottery one billion times a day for 15 to 25 billion years, you are statistically going to win an unlimited amount of times.
So while conditions for life to be created and evolve may seem rare, it's actually quite common when you take into account the number of planets and the age of the universe.
SETI's Drake Equation explains exactly how much life they believe is out there:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ztl8CG3Sys
Carl Sagan explains the Drake Equation perfectly. (I cannot find the official Drake Equation video but here is the formula: www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_drake_equation.html )
And just to get a visual grasp of how large the universe is, take a look at the into to the move Contact:
www.temporalreality.net/universe
Our universe is so large, that our feeble human minds have an extremely hard time comprehending just how large it is, and just how small we really are.
I've always found it hard to try to explain the size of the universe in the words I've been taught to use, so when I first saw Contact many years ago, I was happy to see the following video as it's a perfect example of just how large our universe is.
Before I post the link, think of this, right now our top speed we can achieve in space is something like 40,000 miles an hour (don't quote me on those numbers, as I forget the exact speed, I'm taking a guess). That seems like an incredible speed, but in space terms, it's as slow as a snail. If the ancient Romans launched a space ship 2,000 years ago at this speed headed toward our nearest star with is only 4 light years away, it still wouldn't even be a quarter of the way there.
Space is VAST.
Anyway, below is the opening to the movie Contact, it's an interesting watch. It starts out just above Earth, pans out from Earth through our solar system, then though our galaxy; The Milky Way, then eventually once outside out galaxy it keeps panning back until we see the billions of other galaxies in the known universe.
The reason for the sound is because our radio waves are traveling into deep space, so the further out into space you are, the older the radio transmissions are, until they just stop (This is how SETI looks for intelligent life, listening for radio signals from other star systems).
So do I believe in aliens, ABSOLUTELY, and I think the theoretical odds absolutely prove they exist.
Debate away!
So for our first, do you believe in aliens / extra terrestrial life?
I absolutely believe there is life out there. I think intelligent life may less common than basically animal or plant life, but still believe with all of my heart we are not alone in the universe.
Some may argue that the circumstance that lead to life on Earth in one in a billion shot, so there statistically cannot be life elsewhere in the universe. Fair enough, but when you take into account the billions of stars, possibly trillions, and consider the possibility that 90% of these stars may have planets, you suddenly have billions of chances for life to evolve.
If you also take into consideration the age of the universe, it's next to impossible for Earth to be the only life sustaining planet in the universe.
Think of it this way, if you play the lottery tomorrow, you probably will not win. But if you play the lottery one billion times a day for 15 to 25 billion years, you are statistically going to win an unlimited amount of times.
So while conditions for life to be created and evolve may seem rare, it's actually quite common when you take into account the number of planets and the age of the universe.
SETI's Drake Equation explains exactly how much life they believe is out there:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ztl8CG3Sys
Carl Sagan explains the Drake Equation perfectly. (I cannot find the official Drake Equation video but here is the formula: www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_drake_equation.html )
And just to get a visual grasp of how large the universe is, take a look at the into to the move Contact:
www.temporalreality.net/universe
admin said:
As many of you know, I'm very interested in astronomy, and any and all things space. I find the subject absolutely fascinating.Our universe is so large, that our feeble human minds have an extremely hard time comprehending just how large it is, and just how small we really are.
I've always found it hard to try to explain the size of the universe in the words I've been taught to use, so when I first saw Contact many years ago, I was happy to see the following video as it's a perfect example of just how large our universe is.
Before I post the link, think of this, right now our top speed we can achieve in space is something like 40,000 miles an hour (don't quote me on those numbers, as I forget the exact speed, I'm taking a guess). That seems like an incredible speed, but in space terms, it's as slow as a snail. If the ancient Romans launched a space ship 2,000 years ago at this speed headed toward our nearest star with is only 4 light years away, it still wouldn't even be a quarter of the way there.
Space is VAST.
Anyway, below is the opening to the movie Contact, it's an interesting watch. It starts out just above Earth, pans out from Earth through our solar system, then though our galaxy; The Milky Way, then eventually once outside out galaxy it keeps panning back until we see the billions of other galaxies in the known universe.
The reason for the sound is because our radio waves are traveling into deep space, so the further out into space you are, the older the radio transmissions are, until they just stop (This is how SETI looks for intelligent life, listening for radio signals from other star systems).
So do I believe in aliens, ABSOLUTELY, and I think the theoretical odds absolutely prove they exist.
Debate away!