Extraterrestrial contact in our lifetime?

[flobadob]

I'm not taking the pee here, I'm just asking whether or not you believe that humans will have contact with extraterrestrials in your lifetime?

[craft1948]

They're here already..............look at Tom Cruise.

[naomi24]

//So naomi does that make you a scientologist? //

Good grief! No, certainly not! The very idea!

[flobadob]

Naomi I just thought it was a scientology belief that aliens have been here before.

As far a not being able to travel the vast distances of interstellar space then I don't see any reason why it won't be worked out at some stage. Look at the progress made in technology over the past 20 years, imagine the next 50.

[joggerjayne]

Given the size of the universe(s) (infinite) ("known universe") ... (just covering myself against the pedants here) ...

... it is ludicrous to think that there is no other intelligent life.

It's only a matter of time before one of them finds us.

But it may be a long time.

So, if they're not here already (which I think they are!) then it's unlikely to be in our lifetime.

[naomi24]

Flob, Scientologists do believe it - but they have a very weird take on it.

Never mind the progress we might make in the next 50 years - think about, say, the next 10,000 years - that's if we haven't blown ourselves to smithereens long before that. ;o)

[MoonRocker]

Joggerjayne, Who's doubting that there is intellegent life elsewhere? I'm certain there is and equally certain that we will never have contact.

[chakka35]

Yes, Joggerjayne, the probability is that there is life elsewhere but it is only human conceit that imgines that it would even notice, let alone investigate, us.
The size of the universe is such that it would be like a set of microbes on a grain of sand on a Australian beach noticing microbes on another grain of sand on Chesil Beach in Dorset. On a universal scale we are totally insignificant.

[naomi24]

Chakka, //it is only human conceit that imgines that it would even notice, let alone investigate, us. //

I'm not sure that statement can really be justified. We're looking for them - so why assume they're not just as curious about the universe as we are?

[wildwood]

Naomi. The conceit (perhaps a strong word) is in that we presume any extra terrestrial life to exist and to be remotely similar to us or have a similar brain function.

[naomi24]

Wildwood, man has a tendency to restrict his vision of human potential – and human history - to current knowledge, which is why some people insist that inter-stellar travel will always be impossible. Look at this list of things people got wrong – and there are some very eminent names there.

http://www.etni.org.il/quotes/predictions.htm

Amusing now – but those people were unable to extend their imagination beyond that which they already knew – and so it continues.

[chakka35]

If they are looking, naomi, they wouldn't be looking for us; they would be looking for any other life. The chances that they would find us are, as I said, astronomically remote, if you'll pardon the pun.

But I was forgetting that you believe that alien life once did just that and so that argument obviously won't wash with you. Sorry.

[naomi24]

Chakka, I didn't say they were looking for 'us' specifically. I said we are looking for 'them' and there is no reason to assume that they aren't just as interested in the universe as we are.

No, the argument won't wash with me, but no need to apologise. The chances of them finding us or of us finding them may, indeed, be remote, but remote does not equate to impossible.

[Zippolover]

Probably not, but I would love it to happen though

[naomi24]

I like this quote from Sir Humphry Davy.

“Nothing is more fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose that our views of science are ultimate; that there are no mysteries in nature; that our triumphs are complete, and that there are no new worlds to conquer.”

[Old_Geezer]

I've not formed a belief regarding contact in my lifetime, but as I get older it seems less likley. That said things change over a single lifetime (or even each decade) so fast these days it's difficult to rule anything out.

[brionon]

Sorry but what has Belief to do with it ?

[Bambiagain]

I share Wildwood's view. The film that portray extra terrestrials as bipeds with a remarkable similarity to us are on the wrong track. There are in all probability life forms that could not exist in our atmosphere. Whether we will ever have contact - or have unknowingly already had contact we may never know.

[chakka35]

Bambiagain is right. I have said before that all depictions of aliens as creatures with an upright trunk, two lower and two upper limbs, a neck bearing a head containing two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth (such as that hilariously silly Roswell 'alien') can be dismissed out of hand.

The human body is the result of countless millions of random mutations each reacting to the particular environment obtaining at the time. The chances of that same succession of events happening elsewhere can be cheerfully dismissed.

[Old_Geezer]

Belief has everything to do with it. The question was, "I'm just asking whether or not you believe that humans will have contact with extraterrestrials in your lifetime".

[whiskeryron]

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