Aliens

Discuss, argue, whine, talk but not about Elma.

Moderator: Moporators

Aliens

have visited Earth
5
12%
exist
30
71%
do not exist
7
17%
 
Total votes: 42

User avatar
8-ball
39mins club
Posts: 4496
Joined: 9 May 2003, 13:30
Team: MiE
Location: Riga, Latvia

Aliens

Post by 8-ball »

I wander.
39:37,91
teajay
Donator duck
Posts: 10043
Joined: 3 Apr 2003, 17:53

Post by teajay »

exist, but have not visited earth.
User avatar
zworqy
Kuski
Posts: 3706
Joined: 19 May 2002, 23:17
Location: Lilla Edet, Sweden
Contact:

Post by zworqy »

tijsjoris wrote:exist, but have not visited earth.
<Fihlvein> another case of zworqy-is-always-right closed i guess
<yoosef> zworqy doesnt suck at anything
User avatar
A.K.B.
37mins club
Posts: 4122
Joined: 10 Dec 2005, 11:12
Location: Brisbane
Contact:

Post by A.K.B. »

Mexicans are aliens no?
Image
1 Golden Apple Award: Rookie of the Year
FinMan wrote:I prefer AKB:s topics to Xratios ones :)
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

sure as hell exist.

might have visited the earth; don't remember name of the theory, but it's about that the first 1-celled organisms came to earth from space, and then eventually evolved into us. personally i dont believe in this theory, but hey, who am i to say it's wrong?
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
User avatar
Staar
Kuski
Posts: 659
Joined: 21 Jan 2006, 13:44
Location: Lithuania

Post by Staar »

there's no doubt that they exist :P
the question is, have they ever visited earth? :o
Rock n Roll All Night and party everyday
nony
Kuski
Posts: 189
Joined: 11 Sep 2004, 22:09
Location: .ro

Post by nony »

i saw a documentary once about chances of aliens in the universe. the chances of us not being alone is very slim, like 2-3%. anyway, to verify it, a rabbit was sent to some planet. there he actually met(!) an alien who wanted to blow up the 'oith'. the alien had an english speaking(!!!) faithful dog, but the rabbit stopped him, while sacrificing though that planet, that blew up in the shape of a quarter of a moon. nobody knows what happened afterwards, but the proof remains... :?
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

nony wrote:i saw a documentary once about chances of aliens in the universe. the chances of us not being alone is very slim, like 2-3%.
I'd say chances of us being alone are like 1/1000000000000000......%
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
User avatar
John
first 35tt
Posts: 4738
Joined: 28 Sep 2002, 19:42
Team: WNO
Location: Luleå, Sweden

Post by John »

exist
Image
User avatar
milagros
Cheatless
Posts: 4560
Joined: 19 May 2002, 17:05

Post by milagros »

yes i do exist
[carebox]
User avatar
Mawane
Kuski
Posts: 3299
Joined: 15 Apr 2007, 01:05
Team: SV
Contact:

Post by Mawane »

I would like a definition of ''Alien''. Then I could write my opinion.
Website || TT:41:45:64 || Team Image
Image[url=steam://friends/add/76561198025490048]Image[/url]
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

obviously a living organism that does not come on earth?
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
User avatar
The_BoneLESS
38mins club
Posts: 4604
Joined: 7 Sep 2003, 00:30
Team: HHIT
Location: Dangerously close to the St-Lawrence River
Contact:

Post by The_BoneLESS »

i do believe aliens exist

with the amount of galaxies and planets that actually exist, the chances would be very slim that none of those actually possess one living organism.


yeah, and i'd love to hear sveinR's point of view on this...
Website || TT:38:05:33 || WC5:15th || HHIT for life || 9th world wide ... BAP is next
WkE
Kuski
Posts: 1173
Joined: 9 Apr 2003, 17:08
Location: Israel
Contact:

Post by WkE »

I don't like the word "aliens". I prefer regarding them as a humanlike race somewhere in a distant galaxy. I mean, the universe is so big, and we barely know our own solar system, so chances are pretty high that there is some inteliigent civilization in a far away planet.

Paradox is: assuming the number of planets (thus life environments) in the universe tends to infinity, and lets say that the chance to find humanlike civilization on a planet is 1:(10^20) - then there is still an infinite number of civilzations out there, and it is but logical that the Human race is not the most advanced of them all. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that some other civilzation must have better technologies and space-travel capabilities: so how come we never had visitors on our planet?

Only possible solution is that I base this paradox on a coarse assumption (the number of planets in the universe is, indeed, very large, yet still finite).

Other opinions on this subject?
TT: 43:03.93 | AVG: 47:03.65 | Image | Team Site [TR] || TR Forum | 1 Pro, 27 Good, 26 OK
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

well, ye, one reason no other organisms have reached us could be just the fact that the usiverse is so huge, that no one has found us

I'd also like to think that since the universe is endless and there probably are an infinite number of other species on other planets, there must also be an infinite number of better species to visit than us?
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
User avatar
The_BoneLESS
38mins club
Posts: 4604
Joined: 7 Sep 2003, 00:30
Team: HHIT
Location: Dangerously close to the St-Lawrence River
Contact:

Post by The_BoneLESS »

WkE wrote:...and it is but logical that the Human race is not the most advanced of them all. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that some other civilzation must have better technologies and space-travel capabilities: so how come we never had visitors on our planet?...
what if we were the most advanced civilization? maybe other civilizations have yet to discover fire? maybe that's the reason they never went to us... simply because they can't.

(you know, we're so used to see sci-fi movies where extra-terrestrials are way more advanced than us that we forget how advanced we actually are)
Website || TT:38:05:33 || WC5:15th || HHIT for life || 9th world wide ... BAP is next
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

well if the universe is endless and thus has an infinite number of planets, there must be an infinite number of species that are more advanced than us humans.
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
teajay
Donator duck
Posts: 10043
Joined: 3 Apr 2003, 17:53

Post by teajay »

I reckon that these guys are so far away that they're either still travelling to get here, or are simply not interested in us.
WkE
Kuski
Posts: 1173
Joined: 9 Apr 2003, 17:08
Location: Israel
Contact:

Post by WkE »

The_BoneLESS wrote:
what if we were the most advanced civilization? maybe other civilizations have yet to discover fire? maybe that's the reason they never went to us... simply because they can't.

(you know, we're so used to see sci-fi movies where extra-terrestrials are way more advanced than us that we forget how advanced we actually are)
What makes you think that we are the most advanced?

Buy grapes in the grocery and pick a good-looking one. Now you have a nice grape in your hand, but can you say it's the best in the country?

My point is that even if there are civilizations that are yet to discover fire, there must be some others that already master space-travel or colonize other planets. My premise is that we are somewhere in the middle of the technological achievements scale, which is way more logical than assuming that we are in the top of it.

Another possible solution that just came to my mind: maybe the everlasting changes that the astronomical objects are going through (collisions, orbits shifting, climates changing) just never allow a certain species to survive enough time to become highly technologically advanced (and thus able to come say "hello" to us). Or, of course, all civilzations annihilate themselves before this stage (which will likely happen to us, now in the nuclear age).
TT: 43:03.93 | AVG: 47:03.65 | Image | Team Site [TR] || TR Forum | 1 Pro, 27 Good, 26 OK
User avatar
Rust
Kuski
Posts: 80
Joined: 27 Nov 2007, 16:23
Location: Russia, SPb

Post by Rust »

DO NOT EXIST!
But I think that kuskis such as Zweq or John are aliens 100%...
TT: 45:01,xx Team EPC
1 - World Class . 3 - Professional . 18 - Good . 32 - Ok
My program for elma teams . Wood Kuski . Wood Kuski 2 . HER Cup Trophy
User avatar
A.K.B.
37mins club
Posts: 4122
Joined: 10 Dec 2005, 11:12
Location: Brisbane
Contact:

Post by A.K.B. »

I think that "aliens" are what I consider to be the "angelic race", more spiritual than actually "science fiction" aliens.
Image
1 Golden Apple Award: Rookie of the Year
FinMan wrote:I prefer AKB:s topics to Xratios ones :)
User avatar
Kopaka
39mins club
Posts: 6610
Joined: 23 May 2002, 13:59
Team: LAME
Location: In a northern danish city beating YOUR record.
Contact:

Post by Kopaka »

WkE wrote:so how come we never had visitors on our planet?
How do you know we haven't? Sure no one has visited last 100 years but maybe some did 5000 years ago and builed the pyramids :)
User avatar
milagros
Cheatless
Posts: 4560
Joined: 19 May 2002, 17:05

Post by milagros »

WkE wrote:Paradox is: assuming the number of planets (thus life environments) in the universe tends to infinity
there are around 10^79 electron in the universe (yes, it can be counted)
number of planets has to be way below that
WkE wrote:My point is that even if there are civilizations that are yet to discover fire, there must be some others that already master space-travel or colonize other planets. My premise is that we are somewhere in the middle of the technological achievements scale, which is way more logical than assuming that we are in the top of it.
well, they can be a few million years ahead but still i find possible that space travelling is theoretically impossible, thus not even advanced aliens can't do teh
[carebox]
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

milagros wrote: there are around 10^79 electron in the universe (yes, it can be counted)
number of planets has to be way below that
There are atleast 10^79 electrons in the universe, and still, i don't think that applies to anti-matter either (where the electrons have a positive charge).
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
User avatar
milagros
Cheatless
Posts: 4560
Joined: 19 May 2002, 17:05

Post by milagros »

Igge wrote:
milagros wrote: there are around 10^79 electron in the universe (yes, it can be counted)
number of planets has to be way below that
There are atleast 10^79 electrons in the universe, and still, i don't think that applies to anti-matter either (where the electrons have a positive charge).
wtf, there are only small fraction of antimatter particles in the universe comparing to 'normal' ones
there is no 'atleast' in 10^79, it's around that number together (assuming there was big bang)
number of planets has to be way below that, how the fuck does antimatter matter there
[carebox]
User avatar
sierra
39mins club
Posts: 2471
Joined: 15 Apr 2004, 22:51

Post by sierra »

Could exist, but definitely have not visited Earth. Do you guys not realize that to get even to the nearest star in our galaxy takes several light years, by which time any living being would be long dead.

By the way, Earth isn't as insignificant as you might at first think. Yes, there are loads of stars and so it is probable that there exists a planet that is also a suitable distance from a star to allow life, but there are more factors than just distance from the star. For one, we have Jupiter nearby, which pulls most of the potentially life-threatening asteroids out of our path due to its superior gravitational field.

There could be other life forms somewhere else in the Universe, and maybe that event even has a probability greater than 0.5. But I don't agree that it is likely they are trying to contact us, let alone visit us, and they would be, as far as I'm concerned, every bit as oblivious to our existence as we are to theirs.
[OMG] | [SpEF] | Apparently my TT was once 39:26:06
Mushroom
Kuski
Posts: 116
Joined: 17 Nov 2005, 20:01

Post by Mushroom »

Igge wrote:well if the universe is endless and thus has an infinite number of planets, there must be an infinite number of species that are more advanced than us humans.
Just because the universe is endless doesn't mean it can't have a finite mass... ( it has a finite mass)

"Could exist, but definitely have not visited Earth. Do you guys not realize that to get even to the nearest star in our galaxy takes several light years, by which time any living being would be long dead. "

I don't get this. It might take some hundreds of thousands of years seen from the planet they were sent from, but the time on the spaceship will be alot shorter :/


OT: why is it there isn't as much anti matter as "real" matter? Is it something about the symmetri in the early universe or something ? :/
User avatar
niN
Kuski
Posts: 2631
Joined: 22 Aug 2005, 12:23
Team: HoHo
Location: Sweden, Gothemburg
Contact:

Post by niN »

"Could exist, but definitely have not visited Earth. Do you guys not realize that to get even to the nearest star in our galaxy takes several light years, by which time any living being would be long dead. "

this is no waterproof opinion. One could move a civilisation by spaceships. Especially one whom might have a far more advanced technology than we could ever imagine. And with that type of technology one might even be able to get a spaceship that could travel that far in an earth-day.

Still, I'm pretty sure that no 'aliens' have visited the earth since the earth is so young compared to the universe.
Team HotHorses, and I'm converting to Icelandian now...
User avatar
John
first 35tt
Posts: 4738
Joined: 28 Sep 2002, 19:42
Team: WNO
Location: Luleå, Sweden

Post by John »

niN wrote:And with that type of technology one might even be able to get a spaceship that could travel that far in an earth-day.
nat possible to travel lightyears in a day, it's physically impossible to go faster than light.
maby if they had such advanced technology that they could fold universe together, travel through that fold and then unfold again, i guess that might be hard tho, but who knows ;o
Image
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

maybe the have something that can disolve you into mere quarks or possibly something smaller, send them away to a planned destination where they assemble again? Yes, kinda like teleportation. And ez be able to get quarks up to a speed close to C. adn i since the quakrs don't get like older or age (i think? :0) there could be a spossibility that someone could survive deep-space travel?
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
User avatar
niN
Kuski
Posts: 2631
Joined: 22 Aug 2005, 12:23
Team: HoHo
Location: Sweden, Gothemburg
Contact:

Post by niN »

John wrote:
niN wrote:And with that type of technology one might even be able to get a spaceship that could travel that far in an earth-day.
nat possible to travel lightyears in a day, it's physically impossible to go faster than light.
maby if they had such advanced technology that they could fold universe together, travel through that fold and then unfold again, i guess that might be hard tho, but who knows ;o
if one could bend space and time they could (like you said). And as I said, we don't know if that's possible. I wouldn't rule the possibility out at all.
Team HotHorses, and I'm converting to Icelandian now...
teajay
Donator duck
Posts: 10043
Joined: 3 Apr 2003, 17:53

Post by teajay »

Interesting, igge. I think it might be easier than that though. If you manage to break someone down in quarks, you can probably just digitalise anything aswell. Then you can send the information using light across the universe where on the other side another machine will reassemble it again.

Ofcourse, you need to have gotten across the universe first, so that will be a problem. But I guess that's the same story with your proposition, because there's no way those guys are gonna reassemble lifeforms all by themselves.
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

If they have found a way to create living organisms through coding (you code the equivalent to our DNA) and if you could code living organisms, maybe you could send the data to other places in space, and then through some process create them where they end up?
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
teajay
Donator duck
Posts: 10043
Joined: 3 Apr 2003, 17:53

Post by teajay »

That's smart! Maybe that's how we got created. :wink:
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

But then the question remains: Why would someone bother coding our feelings, which are threatening to destroy the earth? Would be much better to code us as slaves, so that when they have developed even more sophisticated space-travel they could with some proogram kill us all instantaniously and then inhabit the earth themselves?
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
teajay
Donator duck
Posts: 10043
Joined: 3 Apr 2003, 17:53

Post by teajay »

Better yet; there planet was about to dissolve due to severe climatic changes, so they sent capsules out to space containing the highly experimental Developable Nurturing Anthropos. The planet finally exploded when this DNA was well on it's way to several corners of the universe.

And one of these capsules happens to have landed on earth, about 4 billion years ago. The DNA had yet a long journey to eventually evolve into DNA capable of producing human life. We ourselves are alien.
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

Sounds good :D
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
User avatar
Zweq
34mins club
Posts: 4055
Joined: 28 Nov 2002, 15:54
Location: suo mesta

Post by Zweq »

zamppe logic: as incredible as earth's story is(distance from sun, 66 degrees, moon, magnetic field, jupiter and so on), I voted exist because if billions of galaxies exist and each one contains billions of stars the odds that earth #2 exists are high =D
Image
User avatar
A.K.B.
37mins club
Posts: 4122
Joined: 10 Dec 2005, 11:12
Location: Brisbane
Contact:

Post by A.K.B. »

Can you guys read what you've been posting? You sound like a bunch of fucktarded michael moores
Image
1 Golden Apple Award: Rookie of the Year
FinMan wrote:I prefer AKB:s topics to Xratios ones :)
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Post by Igge »

michael moore sach pwns
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
teajay
Donator duck
Posts: 10043
Joined: 3 Apr 2003, 17:53

Post by teajay »

oh, here comes mister-father-son-holy-ghost-amen. :roll:
Mushroom
Kuski
Posts: 116
Joined: 17 Nov 2005, 20:01

Post by Mushroom »

tijsjoris wrote: If you manage to break someone down in quarks, you can probably just digitalise anything aswell. Then you can send the information using light across the universe where on the other side another machine will reassemble it again.
But still the universe is so big so that even traveling with the speed of light it will still take mill of years :/..

Btw it wouldn't make any sense to break the atoms down to quarks :/
User avatar
John
first 35tt
Posts: 4738
Joined: 28 Sep 2002, 19:42
Team: WNO
Location: Luleå, Sweden

Post by John »

tijsjoris wrote:oh, here comes mister-father-son-holy-ghost-amen. :roll:
tijs for president ;D
Image
teajay
Donator duck
Posts: 10043
Joined: 3 Apr 2003, 17:53

Post by teajay »

You see, time doesn't really matter in this concept. That's why I think we need to digitalise instead of breaking down into quarks or atoms, because these still have a maximum age.
Imagine sending those atoms through space, and when they've gotten to their destination: who knows what is left of you. 8O

Really, I don't think the chance of aliens being able to do this is any greater than very, very, very slim. We should instead take a look a the question of how far the closest aliens capable of performing deep space travelling (maybe with some 30% of C) are. Would they be either 10, 100, 1000 or a million lightyears away?
User avatar
A.K.B.
37mins club
Posts: 4122
Joined: 10 Dec 2005, 11:12
Location: Brisbane
Contact:

Post by A.K.B. »

tijsjoris wrote:oh, here comes mister-father-son-holy-ghost-amen. :roll:
I came a long time ago. Fourth post I believe. Why am I even talking to you? You are so-five-minutes ago :!:
Image
1 Golden Apple Award: Rookie of the Year
FinMan wrote:I prefer AKB:s topics to Xratios ones :)
User avatar
sierra
39mins club
Posts: 2471
Joined: 15 Apr 2004, 22:51

Post by sierra »

The whole idea of teleporting doesn't make any sense in present scientific contexts. If we're approaching this question from a rational perspective, this science fiction speculation has no place here.

Btw what zamppe said is totally right. Scientists estimate there are about 1 billion billion (1 * 10^18) planets in the Universe. Richard Dawkins, in his book, conservatively estimates that the chances of a planet being able to host life are a billion to 1.

Let's do some crude probability computations. We already know that there is at least one planet able to host life, because we live on it. Now let's find the probability that we are the only one.

P(one planet can host life) = 1/(1,000,000,000)

P(one planet cannot host life) = 1 - [1/(1,000,000,000)]

P(two planets cannot host life) = 1 - [1/(500,000,000)]

P(in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets, there are not two who can host life) = {1 - [1(500,000,000)]}^(1,000,000,000,000,000,000)

= 0, as far as an ordinary calculator will tell you. The real answer is as good as 0.

So as I said before, there very likely are others out there. But the idea of communicating with them or ever having a chance to see them is simply not compatible with science at present.
[OMG] | [SpEF] | Apparently my TT was once 39:26:06
User avatar
The_BoneLESS
38mins club
Posts: 4604
Joined: 7 Sep 2003, 00:30
Team: HHIT
Location: Dangerously close to the St-Lawrence River
Contact:

Post by The_BoneLESS »

all those numbers and statistics scare me
Website || TT:38:05:33 || WC5:15th || HHIT for life || 9th world wide ... BAP is next
User avatar
niN
Kuski
Posts: 2631
Joined: 22 Aug 2005, 12:23
Team: HoHo
Location: Sweden, Gothemburg
Contact:

Post by niN »

sierra wrote:... Btw what zamppe said is totally right. Scientists estimate there are about 1 billion billion (1 * 10^18) planets in the Universe. Richard Dawkins, in his book, conservatively estimates that the chances of a planet being able to host life are a billion to 1...
I'd like to hear their motivation, did you read this off some site?
User avatar
sierra
39mins club
Posts: 2471
Joined: 15 Apr 2004, 22:51

Post by sierra »

niN wrote:
sierra wrote:... Btw what zamppe said is totally right. Scientists estimate there are about 1 billion billion (1 * 10^18) planets in the Universe. Richard Dawkins, in his book, conservatively estimates that the chances of a planet being able to host life are a billion to 1...
I'd like to hear their motivation, did you read this off some site?
I got the number from Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion". Allow me to quote him exactly:

"Again... the anthropic alternative to the design hypothesis is statistical. Scientists invoke the magic of large numbers. It has been estimated that there are between 1 billion and 30 billion planets in our galaxy, and about 100 billion galaxies in the universe. Knocking a few noughts off for reasons of ordinary prudence, a billion billion is a conservative estimate of the number of available planets in the universe. Now, suppose the origin of life, the spontaneous arising of something equivalent to DNA, really was a quite staggeringly improbable event. Suppose it was so improbable as to occur on only one in a billion planets. A grant-giving body would laugh at any chemist who admitted that the chance of his proposed research succeeding was only one in a hundred. But here we are talking about odds of one in a billion. And yet, even with such absurdly long odds, life will still have arisen on a billion planets - of which Earth, of course, is one."

Richard Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature, the recipient of the 1987 Royal Society of Literature Award, the 1990 Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society, the 1997 International Cosmos Prize for Achievement in Human Science, the Kistler Prize in 2001, the Shakespeare Prize in 2005 and the Lewis Thomas Prize in 2007, among other awards. He hasn't just made the numbers up.
[OMG] | [SpEF] | Apparently my TT was once 39:26:06
User avatar
niN
Kuski
Posts: 2631
Joined: 22 Aug 2005, 12:23
Team: HoHo
Location: Sweden, Gothemburg
Contact:

Post by niN »

I doubt he made it up, but it would be nice for my own state of mind to know where he got them from. I trust you in the fact that this is our situation. Doesn't the article say anything about how they got the numbers?
Post Reply