The Fermi Paradox

You —

Something I had mentioned a while ago no Tribune that I would link to if I remembered what it was called.

From Wikipedia:

The Fermi paradox can be asked in two ways. The first is, "Why are no aliens or their artifacts physically here?" If interstellar travel is possible, even the "slow" kind nearly within the reach of Earth technology, then it would only take from 5 million to 50 million years to colonize the galaxy. This is a relatively small amount of time on a geological scale, let alone a cosmological one. Since there are many stars older than the sun, or since intelligent life might have evolved earlier elsewhere, the question then becomes why the galaxy has not been colonized already. Even if colonization is impractical or undesirable to all alien civilizations, large scale exploration of the galaxy is still possible; the means of exploration and theoretical probes involved are discussed extensively below. However, no signs of either colonization or exploration have been generally acknowledged.

The argument above may not hold for the universe as a whole, since travel times may well explain the lack of physical presence on Earth of alien inhabitants of far away galaxies. However, the question then becomes "Why do we see no signs of intelligent life?" as a sufficiently advanced civilization could potentially be seen over a significant fraction of the size of the observable universe Even if such civilizations are rare, the scale argument indicates they should exist somewhere and some point during the history of the universe, and since they could be detected from far away over a considerable period of time, many more potential sites for their origin are within our view. However, no incontrovertible signs of such civilizations have been detected.

Forum

You — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:12

From the original wikipedia link:

The extreme age of the universe and its vast number of stars suggest that if the Earth is typical, extraterrestrial life should be common. Discussing this proposition over lunch in 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi questioned why, if a multitude of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exist in the Milky Way galaxy, evidence such as spacecraft or probes are not seen. A more detailed examination of the implications of the topic began with a paper by Michael H. Hart in 1975, and it is sometimes referred to as the Fermi-Hart paradox. Another closely related question is the Great Silence—even if travel is hard, if life is common, why don't we detect their radio transmissions?

You — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:13

An "alternative" look:

Number of alien worlds quantified

Intelligent civilisations are out there and there could be thousands of them, according to an Edinburgh scientist.

The discovery of more than 330 planets outside our solar system in recent years has helped refine the number of life forms that are likely to exist.

The current research estimates that there are at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy and possibly as many as 38,000.

The work is reported in the International Journal of Astrobiology...

Read more @ BBC News

s.b.f — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:15

[quote=You]An "alternative" look:

Number of alien worlds quantified

Intelligent civilisations are out there and there could be thousands of them, according to an Edinburgh scientist.

The discovery of more than 330 planets outside our solar system in recent years has helped refine the number of life forms that are likely to exist.

The current research estimates that there are at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy and possibly as many as 38,000.

The work is reported in the International Journal of Astrobiology...

Read more @ BBC News[/quote]

argh! I was just highlighting that and just copied that to post on here.
I was going to ask, in reference to it, whether,

discovery of more than 330 planets outside our solar system in recent years has helped refine the number of life forms that are likely to exist.

if anyone believes that there actually could be aliens out there?

You — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:19

There could be life out there. There could even be intelligent life out there.

The interesting question IMO would be what do it believe?

s.b.f — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:20

[quote=You]There could be life out there. There could even be intelligent life out there.

The interesting question IMO would be what do it believe?[/quote]

That humans are scary and more intelligent than them, I hope.

You — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:24

[quote=s.b.f]When I first watched Signs, this was my favourite scene. Now it just makes me laugh.[/quote]

Yeah, they enemy was kind of lame. Good film for a one time viewing though.

[quote=s.b.f][quote=You]There could be life out there. There could even be intelligent life out there.

The interesting question IMO would be what do it believe?[/quote]

That humans are scary and more intelligent than them, I hope. [/quote]

heh, I meant more in terms of religion, but the above also asks an interesting question.

If you sent a probe out into the unknown, would you sign post a way for potentially unfriendly life to come back here, or would you point them in a totally different direction?

s.b.f — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:29

[quote=You]
heh, I meant more in terms of religion, but the above also asks an interesting question.

If you sent a probe out into the unknown, would you sign post a way for potentially unfriendly life to come back here, or would you point them in a totally different direction?
[/quote]

In terms of religion...that is an interesting question. The fact that there are other planets out there, Is that at all mentioned anywhere in the Qu'ran or any hadiths?
Do you think there really are actually any planets out there or that it is all an illusion, created by Allah swt, just to test us?

and your second question, I would want to do both, it would be interesting to sign post them to Earth, but if they are potentially harmful, then thats bringing more problems to this world than needed.

You — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:34

"Al hamdulillahi Rabbis Aalameen".

Aalameen = worlds.

Traditionally this has ben translated as this world and the word after death etc, but it could also be translated as other worlds that exist now, as in planets.

AFAIK, the qur'an does not deny the existence of life outside the planet.

And then there is a question over the Jinn. Why are they? where are they? are they on other worlds? Is that like saying intelligent aliens exist?

s.b.f — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:36

[quote=You]"Al hamdulillahi Rabbis Aalameen".

Aalameen = words.

Traditionally this has ben translated as this world and the word after death etc, but it could also be translated as other worlds that exist now, as in planets.

AFAIK, the qur'an does not deny the existence of life outside the planet.

And then there is a question over the Jinn. Why are they? where are they? are they on other worlds? Is that like saying intelligent aliens exist?[/quote]

Aalameen = words.

You mean worlds don't you?

And then there is a question over the Jinn. Why are they? where are they? are they on other worlds? Is that like saying intelligent aliens exist?

oh.
hmmm. Not really ever thought about Jinns before.
So what does Islam say about Jinns then?

You — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:41

YEah I meant worlds - corrected now.

As for the Jinns - The qur'an says that they exist, that they have free will.

I am not sure if this is hearsay/make-belief or from the qur'an too but I have heard that Earth was their original home, but they were driven out by the angels due to "causing mischief".

s.b.f — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 - 15:54

The Holy Qur’aan reveals that Jinn are created from fire whereas the human beings are created from clay. Although they are invisible to human eyes, the jinn can see us. Like human beings they are also entrusted with responsibilities (careers, family life, etc.). They too will be rewarded for their righteousness and will receive punishment for their wickedness.

http://www.inter-islam.org/faith/jinn.html

I thin I knew that before, but I can't find any "reliable" websites about Jinns.

You — Mon, 9 Feb 2009 - 13:42

Its the other way around. Maybe Earth civilisation is not advanced enough to be able to make contact. but that would not stop any civilisation more advanced to contact us. So why has not happened? Because there is none?

You — Mon, 9 Feb 2009 - 13:46

If there is intelligent life on other planets, why would the earth be the one which is the most advanced? Other solar systems, planets, stars are older.

While they may not have "made contact" according to the first linked to article, it should be possible to detect transmissions etc at the least.

The Lamp — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 - 14:39

Or maybe, aliens are already here on Earth but they are just hiding and belnding in. Maybe.

s.b.f — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 - 16:09

[quote=Ya'qub]I have one question about all this:

Who cares?[/quote]

😂

ssshhhh!

s.b.f — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 - 16:10

[quote=The Lamp]Or maybe, aliens are already here on Earth but they are just hiding and belnding in. Maybe.[/quote]

are you trying to tell us something?

The Lamp — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 - 14:14

I am a TIMELORD!!!!!!!!! I took on the name the Lamp when I "regenerated"!

Just kidding! But seriously, think about it, maybe we have a pre conception on what an alien looks like so maybe we've missed them while they're right under our doorstep.