Aliens, ETs, other life forms...

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by Bozza Bostik, May 8, 2016.

  1. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!!

    [​IMG]

    So I watched some dopey film the other day about alien abduction with this girl who solved crime on some TV show on Sundays at 1 pm. After I watched that, I got in the mood for some more alien stuff, so I'm now watching Falling Skies.

    But it got me thinking...Aliens! What do you think? Nonsense or is there life out there? Are they intelligent or are they just little amoeba like blobs no bigger than a flea wobbling around and being useless?

    If there is life out there, I imagine they would look like the clangers...I hope so anyway.

    For our funny American friends...

    [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G512fvK9KXA"]The Clangers - The Egg - YouTube[/ame]
     
  2. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    We just don't have the data to know, although exoplanet research has shown that planets with the potential to harbour life are far more common than was previously thought.

    My guess is that single-celled organisms might be relatively common, while intelligent life will exist, but too far away for any meaningful chance of contact.

    I reckon that by the time our radio transmissions reach a being capable of receiving them, we will have become extinct as a species.

    I think that abductions are a psychological phenomenon, with a bunch of hoaxing thrown in.

    PS. Best spoiler ever! :)
     
  3. Mushroom

    Mushroom De-powered to come back better than before.

    I'm a believer. A theory that they haven't said Hello to us yet is probably because we either scared them off...or no one there has the tech yet to travel like us.

    I think the first "alien" beings we meet are gonna be stuff like plants/algae.
     
  4. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Yeah, I agree. But damn it, I want intergalactic warfare with slightly intelligent and poorly equipped beings!

    And alcohol or hallucinogens. I think it's more hoaxes though, but who knows.

    It was supposed to be frightening! :mad:
     
  5. EdiSco

    EdiSco Likes his anonymity

    I've yet to see any sign of intelligent life on Earth :rolleyes:
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2016
  6. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Touché!

    An oldie but a goldie :D
     
  7. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    I think there's a strong case for abductions being the succubi of our times.

    I have seen some interesting UFO's, but I've never had an abduction experience.
     
  8. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    A sexual thing?

    It's funny that the truth behind the paranormal is often more interesting than the actual incidents, especially some of the psychological stuff (obvious example: attention seeking children smashing stuff against walls and claiming it was a ghost etc).

    Go on...
     
  9. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Rapey night terrors/sleep paralysis. You hear very similar stories involving ghosts too.

    Definitely! I read a good book on it years ago. I think it was called Sex and the Supernatural, and it dealt with everything from Succubi to alien abduction to the genital stealing witchcraft hysteria in Africa. Despite the trashy title it was well written, by a psychologist I believe.

    The best one was when I was 15 or 16. Me and a friend were in my room, which overlooked fields, in the afternoon after school. We saw a silver sphere slowly floating through the air some distance away, which was interesting but then we freaked out when it faded away. It didn't go into the distance, it just faded away from existence.

    What made it more intriguing was when we were 17 or 18, the subject of UFO's came up in our philosophy class. When we said we'd seen a UFO, our tutor stopped us and said "Don't tell me; it was a silver sphere.", which was weird. Turns out his girlfriend had told him about standing at a bus stop in London, when a small silver sphere zipped down from the sky, appeared to take a look at the people waiting for a bus, then zipped off again.

    The others I saw were when I was about 18. I was in a bedroom with a window in the roof, and two nights in a row I saw triangular things, the colour of UV lights, shoot overhead in formation at what appeared to be tremendous speed.
     
  10. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    The universe is vast both spatially and temporally. Of 3 billion years of life, we've created precisely one species that has created only one civilization that has been able to scan the skies for what… 50 years? Maybe a little more. At the same time the potential for the destruction of our species has existed for basically the same amount of time. We came to crises several times in which nuclear war was averted by the decisions of single people. Who knows what would have happened had they changed their minds. People able to communicate with the stars are also likely able to make self destructive weapons, so there's a small window of time in which they are able to both send and receive signals and the ability to do that is incredibly rare. Only one civilization building species and one civilization that can do it! And only 50 years in the space of 15 billion! The chances against two of these species coinciding within close distances and being able to signal each other are incredibly high.
     
  11. SWC Sifu Ben

    SWC Sifu Ben I am the law

    We have this intense longing to find other intelligent species but I bet in a cruel twist of fate we're the first intelligent life in the universe. I mean someone has to be and, to quote Morpheus, "fate it seems is not without a sense of irony."
     
  12. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    In a cosmic sense there is no difference between the Romans and Argentine ants. In fact, the latter may be more successful. Only since the invention of radio have we had cosmic significance and so I think the chances of this sort of life existing simultaneously with others of its sort are remote indeed.
     
  13. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    But the truth is, we won't know until we can increase our sample size.
     
  14. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    There's no reason to suspect we are the first - creatures may have existed on much older stars, once similar to our's, now long dead. Nothing will have remained of their civilization and billions of years may separate us. Though we may be alone, we are likely not unique.
     
  15. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    Each mass extinction and diversification is a new sample. The truth is that highly developed intelligence is of limited utility. Achieving the absurd degree of human intelligence strikes me as a rare occurrence strikes me as similar to achieving sauropod levels of sizes - it requires a nearly unique ecological circumstance.
     
  16. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    You carbon-based lifeforms are so myopic!
     
  17. SWC Sifu Ben

    SWC Sifu Ben I am the law

    Yeah. I remember watching Starship Troopers for the first time and thinking that an insect collective with r-strategist reproduction would likely be far more successful.
     
  18. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

  19. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Speaking of ants taking over the world and aliens, that reminds me of one of my all-time favourite films:

    [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcs3_b3VXSU"]Phase IV Trailer (1974) Saul Bass Director Feature Film - HD Classic Trailers - YouTube[/ame]
     
  20. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    God I love that movie.
     

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