Having recently discovered these boards and the wealth of knowledge herein, I cannot say enough about the visible array of intellectual acumen demonstrated on these boards. And when one wants to let loose and rant and rave you nice people at the SDMB have provided a proverbial PIT to do so. nice job.
As far as intellectual prowess is concerned, and my reasons for venturing into the GD forum, is my not-so-vast knowledge of Irrational Theories. One of which is the theory of Extra Terrestrials visiting earth. I would not normally bring such topics up, but this morning while watching the news I noticed the topic of ‘Would ET visit Earth’. Now that is not something one hears in the morning all too often and I thought it decidedly uncharactoristic of national news groups to even give this idea merit enough to air it.
According to this article on MSN we have been visited since 1947. There are arguements for and against the claims of Alien visitation. Mathmatical probabilities have been calculated and so-called informed guesses have been postulated. If memory serves my lord Carl Sagan put his two cents in for the existance of aliens as being possible and probable.
My assertion is that being a pinpoint in even our solar system and a mere quark and lepton in the grand bendable universe I see no evidence to think we could be alone. If we are riding any form of meaningful existence we must have a galactic presence and are surly known by others out there.
Has this topic been dragged though SDMB one too many times? Is there still room for an intellectual pull on the notion that we are infact not alone?
Are we alone in the universe? Almost certainly not.
Have we been visited? Same answer.
It’s not a question of whether ET would like to pop over for lunch, it’s whether ET is able, after all, we would like to zoom out and explore the universe, but at the moment it looks as if it will not be practically possible.
Oh and
Are we ‘known’ in the galaxy/universe? Almost certainly not.
I’d think the hype surrounding the UFO phenomena and visitations would be fueled by more of a ‘want’ to know someone else is out there, that we are truly not alone in the universe. It certainly raises some very interesting psychological questions about public interest in the subject.
your take ** Mangetout** obviously is that we have most likely not been visited.
I suppose the lack of credible physical evidence would be a valid reason.
And in most cased common sense can define whats credible and not in this instance.
If however, they are out there, and we have not been formally introduced, there must be a reason why, aside from a foreign bodies ability or lack thereof to travel across the galaxy.
Why? Surely if aliens lack the ability to travel, or even communicate, across the galaxy, this is a complete explanation of why we have not been visited? Why should there be some other reason?
You’re suggesting that lack of travel across the galaxy isn’t a big enough obstacle for ET? why not?
This is an assertion based soley upon the assumption they can travel across the galaxy using a method, or substance, we have no understanding of.
This assumption said, they may not want to ‘socialize’ with us, this is my conundrum, why don’t they.
I understand this is based on a broad assumption, and without the assumption one can only conclude they lack the ability to travel across galaxies at speed. I much rather think they can travel utilizing a method we know nothing of or have yet to discover… Leaves a lot of room for ingenuity.
Or we could argue on the basis that our best theories suggest that FTL travel and communication are to all intents practically impossible is strongly supported by the lack of evidence that anyone else seems to be doing it.
I mean, suppose pigs could fly (granted we’ve never seen them do it, and we have no idea how they could, but our perspective is naturally limited to that which we currently understand); there’s only one reasonable conclusion: they must all be flying when our backs are turned, mustn’t they?