Nahhh.
The Vulcans are just waiting to say Hi!
When we create Warp Technology some time in the next handful of years, we will see. ;)

We just need to get a couple of Elon Musk kind of people really interested in superluminal travel.

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That's illogical. The Vulcans are a fictional species. ; )
In general terms, it's not a bad scenario, though. Our extraterrestrial neighbors might want to have a word or two with us about getting along with the rest of the galaxy, before we go tearing off to the stars. Based on human behavior, they might want it to be a long talk, and sort of ease into our first meeting, very gradually.
I used to think that something like a warp drive was a long time off. I'm not so sure anymore. Dr. Harold White at NASA has some promising ideas about this, and some encouraging, if somewhat ambiguous, experimental results.

Hmmm... As much as I admire professor Brian Cox I find this statement very hard to accept. With the recent conclusion extrapolated from the rate of current exoplanet discoveries that nearly every star probably hosts a solar system of some type with planets (and our current methods of discovering exoplanets favor extreme examples of large gas giants in close fast orbits) and considering that there are hundreds of billions of stars in our own galaxy and considering that our most advanced telescopes straining all the way out to the time barrier of 13.8 billion light years away indicate that there are at least hundreds of billions of galaxies in the known universe, when you multiply that out and consider the unimaginable number of planets in the universe to conclude that our own tiny spec of dust is the only planet in the entire universe to have developed life and even the only one to host intelligent life is to me supreme self-important arrogance as a species equal to the dark ages belief that the Earth was the centre of the universe and that the entire universe was created solely for our benefit. Even for those with a religious viewpoint, given the vast distances and our current understanding of physics it is extremely unlikely that we would ever be able to visit more than a handful of other solar systems, so if a god exists would it not be an incredible waste to have created so many solar systems and not populate any others with life? As to the Fermi paradox question of why we haven't detected anything yet, as others have said:
- I read several years ago that for another civilization at the same level as us to detect our electromagnetic transmissions they would only detect us if one of our most powerful military radars was aimed exactly in their direction and run at full power (and only if they happened to be listening in our direction and at that frequency at the time the signal passed them).
- So much is said of our transmissions that have been leaking out into space for the last 70 years or so, but keep in mind that these transmissions dissipate rapidly in strength with distance, the incredible amount of background radiation noise out there being belched out by all the stars and the fantastical distances to even the nearest neighboring stars. It is highly unlikely that this accidental omnidirectional (not focused or beamed) radio leakage would even be detectable at the distance of our nearest interstellar neighbor.
- In the 2 million year or so history of our species, it's only in the last handful of decades that we've had radio transmission technology, and now with more efficient digital technology, fiber optics, etc. our radio transmissions are becoming less and less powerful and would therefore propagate even less.
- We've only been using radio technology for a few decades, who is to say that we don't progress to some other communications technology and if so, how short is the window of radio emissions for an advancing civilization?
- Our latest estimates place the universe at approximately 13.8 billion years old. Of that 13.8 billion years our species has only been around for about 2 million years and only during the last few decades have we become technologically communicative - so chances are that any other civilizations out there are either far behind us or far more likely incredibly far ahead of us.
That's not to say that we shouldn't keep trying however as the potential confirmation that we are not alone would just be too monumental and civilization changing a discovery to pass by and I have a lot of hope for the recent idea of trying to catch possible leakage of interplanetary communication in a distant solar system by targeting systems as multiple planets line up with us.

Just the stray thoughts of a fellow space science/SETI/SciFi geek. LOL! ;-)

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Man stands alone before a Universe he has not created and is indifferent to him. To him the choice between the Kingdom and darkness (Jacques Monod, "Chance and necessity", cited only by memory).
Tullio

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Alone in the Universe? That would be an awful waste of Space:(

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rOZZ
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Nature is wasteful. Think of the loss of spermatozoa before one and only one penetrates an egg.
Tullio

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Finding life--even plant life--say, on Mars would go a long way to wiping out the God thing and the notion that we are unique in the Universe. Since we share a not insignificant percent of our genes with common weeds---one may extrapolate to the idea that; given a nearly identical Earth-like planet and a few billion years; that intelligent life is likely elsewhere in the cosmos.

The trick then becomes finding an "Earth" with all of the necessary parameters in the right range.

I don't think that such planets are common; but I can imagine that there might be a handful in each galaxy. So I say lets find evidence of life on Mars etc and then lets find this other "Earth".

I don't expect to see this happen in my remaining lifetime but it is intriguing to hope and watch.

On "Nature" there is an article which I cannot link, but it says that exoplanets hunters are uniting their front to ask NASA a planet hunting space telescope (WFIRST), which was already proposed but never financed. But it will take years to build and launch it, provided it is funded.
Tullio

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It depends on the perceived relative need to discover such a planet in the near future. I agree that in the end mankind, or whatever we evolve to be, will need to find another place to live but that is so far off as not to be a good argument now. Even though I firmly believe there are other intelligent beings out there, for now and for most intents and purposes we are quite alone,

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

It depends on the perceived relative need to discover such a planet in the near future. I agree that in the end mankind, or whatever we evolve to be, will need to find another place to live but that is so far off as not to be a good argument now. Even though I firmly believe there are other intelligent beings out there, for now and for most intents and purposes we are quite alone,

Imagine what it would do to societies if they knew and had proof! Mass hysteria! You're probably right Bob, it's for the best that most people on this planet think we're alone... For crying out loud, they even put people in psychiatry for having such thoughts grmpf, makes me think of Nicolaus Copernicus who was grounded by Catholic church because of his revolutionary ideas...

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Copernicus was very cautious and was never condemned. It was Galileo who was condemned to house confinement in his villa "Il gioiello" on the Arcetri hill for divulging Copernican ideas. But the Jesuit astronomers, led by Father Orazio Grassi, SJ, already knew the Copernican ideas but kept them to themselves.
Tullio

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Opposition from the Church led Copernicus to shelve his theory, but Church opposition did not kill the idea.

I really thought they confined him, thx for the rectification Tullio:)

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rOZZ
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We may well be able to converse albeit with huge pauses--but we had better listen carefully for if we say "WHAT" we may have just lost 60,000 years.

Imagine what it would do to societies if they knew and had proof! Mass hysteria! You're probably right Bob, it's for the best that most people on this planet think we're alone... For crying out loud, they even put people in psychiatry for having such thoughts grmpf, makes me think of Nicolaus Copernicus who was grounded by Catholic church because of his revolutionary ideas...

Entirely agree Julie, which is why I have said for some years that if the WOW signal an be confirmed and substantiated it is not likely to be let loose to the general public. Remember what happened in America in 1938 when War of the Worlds was broadcast on radio and then again in Quito, Ecuador in 1949.

These days with the Internet the whole world would know in minutes. And apart from that the worlds governments and security agencies would clamp down on it, hoping to be the first to reverse-engineer some of their technology.

Yes, given even the size of the "observable" universe, there statistically has be other life out there somewhere, and maybe like us. But the distances involved are so unimaginably vast that we and they will never know that each other exists, let alone converse, or meet face to face.

Still, I'm a believer Chris...

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So am I Julie, in that "they" basically exist. I am also a believer that "they" were here before roughly 11-15,000 BC, but I don't believe that they are here now. I also believe that if I'm right "they" would have left a calling card somewhere, in such a manner that we wouldn't find it and understand it until we were ready for it. That was the whole idea of the original black monolith on the moon in the Odyssey sci fi series. Duncan Lunan predicted a probe at one of the Lagrange points.

Perhaps we should also be looking closer to home as well as the Seti project looking outwards. I just don't believe that the human race is ready for ET contact yet, and if "they" are clever enough to have mastered space travel, "they" would also know that.

A big +1 to the last paragraph! We are not ready yet to meet ET. If those UFO sightings are reality then it's very striking 'they' also leave after a short time and don't stay. I think 'they' don't find us worthy to have any contact with (yet). A highly civilized being in its 'UFO' can scan the area and its population quite fast I presume. (that's just guessing I know but could be a theory)

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rOZZ
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A highly civilized being in its 'UFO' can scan the area and its population quite fast I presume. (that's just guessing I know but could be a theory)

Some of these Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's) appear to accelerate from almost zero to many thousands of MPH in a matter of a couple of seconds. So if they are true ET sourced it would be reasonable to assume that they are remote controlled drones to be able to withstand those sort of G forces, and also it would not place one of "them" in danger of contact if it crashed or was shot down.

However there are enough of these UFO sightings that "they" if they exist, are by default advertising their presence, which I would not thought they would do. As I have said before, major world governments have open files stamped "not known at this time" but that only covers a very very small percentage. Most can be explained away by secret military projects which can't be made public, and of course it keeps the tin foil hat brigade on their toes :-)

It sure does.

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rOZZ
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"It's life Jim, but not as we know it."

Cheers.

Exactly!

All I know so far: Life always finds a way! ;)

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

The Drake equation is wrong. Life such as us require a refined atmosphere with air pressure and gas mixes to support life within narrow limits. The bacterium of the planet must be tolerable to the species.The planet must have a certain climate or life isnt possible. The point is earth sized planet with some of these requirements is so rare we cant imagine in our galaxy there could be another but to be a copy of earth makes it impossible. Bigger , smaller, close in or a moon of a gas giant life like us will be rare. We have to search to star clusters of old stable stars with time for life to grow.

lets see Russians found plankton on the surface of the ISS that have been exposed to vacuum and UV solar radiation and no water. The common plankton is found on the surface of the sea. And when assembly took place for parts of the ISS exposed to sea fog. 20 years in a vacuum I think it would be safe to say that zoo plankton came from space and survives the rigors is truly amazing and its like oh well earth plankton can survive in space. The temperature is 390 degrees swing from day to light every 90 minutes.
The nutty thing is that something has been drawing down energy production and was thought that thrusters firing are leaving residue on solar arrays. The swipes are from the ISS surface.

We are alone in the universe: Professor Brian Cox says alien life is all but impossible and humanity is 'unique'


The biological process which lead to intelligent life on earth was a fluke that is unlikely to have been repeated anywhere else in the universe, claims Professor Brian Cox.

The presenter and scientist blames a series of 'evolutionary bottlenecks' for the lack of extraterrestrial life on other planets, despite there being a mind-bogglingly vast number of them in the galaxy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2809183/We-universe-Professor-Brian-Cox-says-alien-life-impossible-humanity-unique.html

Working at CERN ey? Saying we are alone in the Universe and that we are unique ey, hmmmm, VERY interesting............. Wondering what else those scientists might think over there..........

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rOZZ
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