A search shows that it been a while since we did this (though I admit my search skills suck). This article has some compelling evidence that we might be. Still the universe is a big place.
I’ve always been fairly convinced that we are not alone but speculating that we might be is kind of eerie.
Short answer: No. Granted, we haven’t heard anything yet (possibilities from the WOW! signal notwithstanding), but we haven’t really been listening: very little of what we’ve done would show us anything that wasn’t almost exactly like we are. The real question is, is it time to start looking for other life?
We are functionally alone, which is essentially the same thing. If there is another technological civilization 50 million light years away in some distant galaxy, it ultimately isn’t any different from them not existing at all, from our point of view at least.
We’ve been looking for ET in earnest for about 50 years. And have made more progress in the last 5 than the previous 45. It’ll take us a good 5 thousand more years to get good at searching at mid-galaxy distances.
Why the heck would we quit before we’ve done any more than barely prepare to begin?
The article you linked to might be new, but it mostly reports on info that’s 15 years old. Not news.
Moving over to Great Debates for you.
that assumes the speed of light is a determining factor. There could be a life form that is 20,000 years ahead of us and can travel in ways we can’t dream of. 20,000 years is a blink of an eye in the timeline of the Universe.-
We are discovering new life on earth every year. And we still discover fossils of previously unknown human ancestor species after looking for over 150 years.
I’m not suggesting we should stop looking or even that we are alone. Some of the info, like the GRBs, are new to me and I thought interesting enough to link to.
Thanks.
Some of the points in that article are just plain wrong. Yes, gamma-ray bursts can kill at a very great distance, but that doesn’t mean that they kill everything in a sphere of that volume. They’re so bright because they’re beamed: You get a lot of radiation in some directions, but very little in most.
And it seems implausible that the jump from prokaryotic life to eukaryotic would be particularly rare, since the key adaptation (one cell absorbing another and leaving it alive inside of it in a mutualistic relationship) has happened at least twice in Earthly evolution: Once with the mitochondria and once with the chloroplasts.
The article also makes statements like that hot gas giants (things the size of Jupiter or larger, closer to their star than Mercury is to ours) are common, but there’s not actually much evidence of this. A large proportion of the planets we know of meet this description, but that’s just because planets like that are easy to discover (in fact, they’re the only kind you can discover with the most commonly-used technique). More versatile techniques like that used by the Kepler mission show an abundance of systems not too far unlike our own.
No, it’s time to accept that the universe is a very, very big place. That is to say, unimaginably big and very sparsely populated with matter relative to its size, and dominated by the limitation of the speed of light as an absolute stemming from the fundamental nature of spacetime. Statistically, the idea that in the entire universe the earth is only place where life formed is so absurdly improbable that the word “impossible” is appropriate, especially now that we know how extremely common planetary systems are. But the nature of spacetime also makes it very improbable than we would have encountered any such beings, or that we ever will in any foreseeable future.
That’s how I look at it, too. Except I’d say that there could be millions of such technological civilizations in this galaxy alone and the same thing would apply. And with around 300 billion stars and at least 100 billion planets, even if only 0.001% of planets harbor intelligent life, there would be more than a million of them just in our own galaxy.
It’s what, 50,000 light years to the center of our galaxy, where random distribution would suggest is the most likely place for other technological civilizations. I am not prepared to accept that we are alone until we have been sending out radio or light communications for another 25,000 years and still heard nothing back.
I think any type G star with planets in the habitable zone, with liquid water, is going to develop life. Cultural evolution, which is faster than biological evolution, is going to start eventually on most of them. I would be less than surprised if there are other technological planets within a few hundred light years of us. Once we notice each other, it just takes patience.
And thus must be added the great quote from Pogo, with which Dr. Bob Bless, professor of astronomy at UW-Madison in the 70s, ended his Astronomy 101 course -
[QUOTE=Porky Pine]
Thar’s only two possibilities: Thar is life out there in the universe which is smarter than we are, or we’re the most intelligent life in the universe. Either way, it’s a mighty sobering thought.
[/QUOTE]
If there is anyone else out there, waiting to hear from us -
Regards,
Shodan
This diagram shows that even this beamed radiation would be enough to damage a large fraction of the galactic centre over a period of 100 million years.
Actually I find this diagram quite encouraging, since there is quite a bit of volume in that space which is only slightly affected by GRBs, and some which is not affected at all.
[QUOTE=Shodan]
It’s what, 50,000 light years to the center of our galaxy, where random distribution would suggest is the most likely place for other technological civilizations. I am not prepared to accept that we are alone until we have been sending out radio or light communications for another 25,000 years and still heard nothing back.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think life is possible at the center of the galaxy, but your essential point is correct…we’ve barely scratched the surface of our own galaxy, let alone the universe at large…or the multi-verse for that matter. 
I think the odds of us being alone in the universe are vanishingly small.
[QUOTE=wolfpup]
No, it’s time to accept that the universe is a very, very big place. That is to say, unimaginably big and very sparsely populated with matter relative to its size, and dominated by the limitation of the speed of light as an absolute stemming from the fundamental nature of spacetime. Statistically, the idea that in the entire universe the earth is only place where life formed is so absurdly improbable that the word “impossible” is appropriate, especially now that we know how extremely common planetary systems are. But the nature of spacetime also makes it very improbable than we would have encountered any such beings, or that we ever will in any foreseeable future.
[/QUOTE]
Exactly this.
THere are half a dozen forums where the people talk about their constant contact with the greys and the other aliens. The newest I have been reading about fly around in ships about the size of a USA dollar coin and help old men to find young female humans for sexual partners. I haven’t found any of these to help me however.
There are literally hundreds of quintillions of places in the universe where life could arise. We will not in a billion years be able to investigate all of them to rule out life in all of them. We may never find other life due to the distances involved, but it seems highly unlikely that it isn’t out there.
You also had mentioned spacetime, and I just wanted to also give equivalent weight to “time” being a very, very big “place” as well.
For all we know, we might have been visited by someone 65 million years ago and the aliens saw an obliterated world with very little life on it and unable to communicate, and with 200-400 billion other candidates in the galaxy, decided to erase us off the “follow-up later” list.
The fact that there’s life on Earth means that life does exist in the universe. If it can exist, then there’s a possibility that it exists elsewhere. There might be a planet of prehistoric women with excessive libidos somewhere out there. Who knows…
If anything, seeing a planet with highly-evolved lifeforms would necessitate we remain on the “follow-up later” list. After all, the hard work has been done: life has spawned, and is no longer trapped in the single-cell bioform.
Us announcing our presence in the universe is like a mouse announcing its presence in the forest.
We’re all gonna die…
By Snu Snu!