Extraterrestrials?

f95toli

Golden Member
Nov 21, 2002
1,547
0
0
You need to be more specific, there is a difference between believing in UFOs and believing that there migth be extra-terrestials life somewhere in the Universe.

Do I belive that there is life on other planets? Yes
Do I believe that they are visiting us? No
 

MisterChief

Banned
Dec 26, 2004
1,128
0
0
How about Roswell? I honestly don't know what to believe. The story has been twisted so many times, I can't tell truth from Hollywood.

There is this one website for those looking for documentation: The Majestic Documents. Google it, there's some really thought provoking stuff.
 

IlllI

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2002
4,929
11
81
i think it would be pretty stupid to assume that this is the -only- planet out of millions and billions of others out there, that has life on it.
 

f95toli

Golden Member
Nov 21, 2002
1,547
0
0
The so-called Roswell-incident is actually quite interesting, it does not however involve aliens.
I actually stumbled on an exaplanation when I read a biography of General Groves, the man who was responsible for the Manhattan project.

Now, the official explanation has AFAIK always been that it was a weather ballon, that is NOT true.
According to documents that were de-classifed some 20 years ago or so (I don't remember the exact year but it was quite some time ago) researchers at MIT was at the time involved in a top-secret project; the goal was to find out if and when the Soviet union was testing atomic bombs. Basically the the idea was to attach very sensitive microphones to very high-altitude ballons and the "listen" for the explosion, apparantely the chock wave travels very far at those altitudes.

I think you can guess the rest.

A few days prior to the Roswell incident they lost one of their ballons along with some very valuable, and secret, equipment. When the ballon was found and the military had figured out what it was they made up a cover story about it being just a normal weather ballon, the problem was of course that people had seen it and I guess they also became suspicius when they saw how the authorities treated the equipment; why bother if it was just a weather ballon?

Anyway, the whole thing was perfect. The military had presented a plausible official explanation and everyonee who did not belive in the cover story could easily be dismissed as lunatics once the word UFO had been mentioned.
A perfect way to keep a secret.
 

CycloWizard

Lifer
Sep 10, 2001
12,348
1
81
There is a contact number somewhere on the official Wright-Patterson AFB home page (http://www.wpafb.af.mil) that is basically a hotline for information-seekers. The people working the line must answer any questions you have, but they will not volunteer any information. When I worked there we called them a few times but couldn't get much out of them.

I think this is the number:
Information Line (937)257-1111
 

halfadder

Golden Member
Dec 5, 2004
1,190
0
0
I've visited the museum in Roswell, NM. It's a very interesting collection of photos, diagrams, illustrations, stories, and even some artifacts (weather balloon, test dummies, electronic monitoring devices, etc from that era). It takes about 2 hours to walk thru the exhibits and it leaves you to make up your own conclusion.

Something happened there. Something big. There were many people involved and it **REALLY** stirred up the town when it happened. But I really, reeeeaallllly doubt aliens had anything to do with it!

So that's my opinion. I'm not a traditional skeptic, though. I'm just a down-home good ol' boy God-fearing Christian from Texas. I don't like GW Bush, didn't care for him when he was governor either. I go to church every week, but I also believe in seperation of church and state. I don't know if there are extraterrestrials out there. I suppose there could be, it's a big universe!
 

hoppa

Senior member
Apr 10, 2004
253
0
0
with all the possibilities of life popping up in our own solar system (europa being my fave), it is almost stupid to think there is no life out there in the trillionss of billions of star systems.

lets see: typical estimates are "hundreds of billions of galaxies" in the universe. lets just say 100 billion. the milky way has 100 billion stars. taking this as an average galaxy, thats 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10^23) stars in the universe. the chance a star would have planets orbitting it that could support life is about 2% (look it up), and thats only using what our idea of life currently is. 2% of... that number is 2*10^21 stars that could have a planet capable of supporting life.

the annoying thing is that all these stars are so damn far away that unless someone finds a way to create/harvest and manipulate wormholes within my lifetime, ill never get to see any aliens =( kip thorne believes that the laws of nature keep time machines from existing (and has a lengthy explanation of it in his book "black holes and time warps"). this part is my own personal thinking and i'm no Hawking, but if a worm hole exists it will be a time machine no matter what, even if it only scales time for times as small as 10^-42 of a second (cant remember the name of that critical value). without going into too much detail i believe thats because even the smallest movement of one of the mouths out of sync with the other mouth will cause an extremely minute time phase, just like all movement in the universe. its just so small in typical life that it couldnt possibly affect us. so yeah, so much for seeing aliens...

any other ways to travel across the universe in a human life time?
 

Sunner

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
11,641
0
76
Originally posted by: f95toli
You need to be more specific, there is a difference between believing in UFOs and believing that there migth be extra-terrestials life somewhere in the Universe.

Do I belive that there is life on other planets? Yes
Do I believe that they are visiting us? No

Same here.
 

MetalStorm

Member
Dec 22, 2004
148
0
0
Regarding Roswell, do you really think that aliens that will have travelled a minimum of 4 light years (closest star to us) to get to earth would really be so stupid that they managed to crash?
 

Sunner

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
11,641
0
76
Originally posted by: MetalStorm
Regarding Roswell, do you really think that aliens that will have travelled a minimum of 4 light years (closest star to us) to get to earth would really be so stupid that they managed to crash?

That's a very good argument :)
 

f95toli

Golden Member
Nov 21, 2002
1,547
0
0
I found the title of the biography where I read about the exaplanation for the Roswell incident in case someone wants to read it.

"Racing for the bomb : General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project's indispensable man "
by Robert S. Norris

It is an interesting book, at least if you are interested in the history of the Manhattan project.
 

unipidity

Member
Mar 15, 2004
163
0
0
WIthout knowing exactly how life formed, and how it potentially can form, you cant really put any numbers to it. I would say that in a sptially infinite universe, I think the odds just might be on the side of life existing somewhere else.

Id be suprised if anyone on AT believed in little green men.
 

Rhin0

Senior member
Nov 15, 2004
967
0
0
Originally posted by: unipidity
WIthout knowing exactly how life formed, and how it potentially can form, you cant really put any numbers to it. I would say that in a sptially infinite universe, I think the odds just might be on the side of life existing somewhere else.

Id be suprised if anyone on AT believed in little green men.


You should find the Time magazine from a month or two ago. Had a VERY interesting article in it about life and the universe. Basically the conclusion was now that there were so many factors in the creation of life on earth that it would be statistically impossible for it to happen on its own. They stopped just sort of saying God exists. They did say there was a high possibility of some type of higher lifeform being involved (God, ET's, etc) It was so damn interesting, this article would also make any athiest question there ideas again too.
 

halfadder

Golden Member
Dec 5, 2004
1,190
0
0
I don't think aliens had anything to do with Roswell, and I'm not yet convinced that aliens have been visiting us either. But I wouldn't rule out the possibility that aliens would be too advanced to crash land on earth. We all know how technology and dumb luck works! Things can go wrong, even when a highly skilled, highly experienced person performs a very simple task.

There's a counterpoint to the arguement of statistics and life. With a lot of time, you can work through a lot of combinations / possibilities. Ever heard the one about an infinite number of monkeys pounding away at an infinite number of typewriters? Still, even if life on earth consisted of nothing more than some cows and some grass, that'd still be an impressive feat, with interacting cells, the concept of heredity, DNA, etc etc etc. I have a hard time assembling a desk I bought at Ikea.

No matter what your beliefs or mindset is, it's hard not too look at our universe and our planet and just think.... WOW!
 

Furbag

Junior Member
Dec 3, 2004
9
0
0
Well for the folks out there that belive in some sort of all mighty power, by defination God is an extraterrestrial. If he made the earth he has to be from someplace else. As far a proof of little green men, there is at least as much physical proof of them as there is of God.

Being an Atheist I do not belive in God, but I do belive in the possability of advanced civilazations traveling the universe. I do not think that they would stop and visit us though, think about it for a second, Humans kill each other over some very trivial differances, and can even be convinced to commit suicide when theythink it is for a good reason. A civilazation advanced enough to travel the stars might stop and watch with the same curiousty of a kid who put a bunch of ants and bees in a jar together.

But stop and say Howdy to a bunch of people who are killing each other by the thousands because, The way they worship the SAME deity, of which there is no proof of, differently.

Then again god could be a farmer and when the population hits a high enough level we'll all become part of the warm tasty goodness at some galactic drive through window.

Yes halfadder I agree WOW !
 

KoolDrew

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
10,226
7
81
Originally posted by: skunkbuster
i think it would be pretty stupid to assume that this is the -only- planet out of millions and billions of others out there, that has life on it.

 

MetalStorm

Member
Dec 22, 2004
148
0
0
Put it this way, if there was some "supreme being" that created us and or the universe...Where did it come from? Chicken and the egg comes to mind, and in my opinion that is proof enough that there isn't a "god".
 

dethman

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
10,263
3
76
i believe they exist. i question however the possibility of technology to actually travel to another habitable world.