Libertine: On the Prowl

Vidi, vici, veni -- I saw, I conquered, I came. _______________________________________________________________

Life On Other Planets?

12:22, 2008-Apr-23 .. Posted in news .. 3 comments .. Link

During a lecture he gave on Monday, scientist Stephen Hawking expressed the opinion that he believes that it is likely that life exists on other planets in our galaxy. He said that given the size of the universe, it is unlikely that Earth is the only planet to develop some sort of life.

"While there may be primitive life in our region of the galaxy, there don't seem to be any advanced intelligent beings," he said, though he did not discount intelligent life existing elsewhere in the universe.

In his opinion, the lack of success by the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project to discover signals from an alien civilization suggests that none exist within several 100 light-years of Earth. He offered two reasons why this could be so: aliens intelligent enough to beam signals into space may also be smart enough to build civilization-destroying weapons like nuclear bombs, he said. More likely, he added, is that primitive life is likely to develop, but intelligent life as we know it is exceedingly rare.

I would add a couple of other possibilities: there could be intelligent alien life that simply isn't at the level of technology to send or receive such signals or to recognize signals as such and it could be that our receiving equipment isn't sophisticated enough to receive signals or we're already getting them but not recognizing them.

Hawking, however, dismisses UFOs and stories of alien vistation and abductions. "Why would they only appear to cranks and weirdos?"

He also stressed the importance of ongoing space explorations, primarily as a way to ensure the long-term survival of the human race. "If the human race is to continue for another million years we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before," Hawking said.

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Untitled Comment

01:55, 2008-Apr-23 .. Posted by texican
I believe that life exists on other planets, but I have to disagree with Hawking's view that UFO sightings only happen to cranks and weirdos. There have been plenty of documented incidents where credible witnesses were involved. Of course, UFO doesn't necessarily mean extra-terrestrial.

Here's how I see it...

07:39, 2008-Apr-24 .. Posted by sortingitout
If we're here, maybe something else is too.

That is all.
Reed

Untitled Comment

09:06, 2008-Apr-26 .. Posted by littleMissConfused
I don't think we are the only ones out there. I just hope the other worlds are friendly and if we are screwing things up...maybe they can come and tell us how they do it and life on this big blue marble will continue.