Would we recognize alien life if we saw it?

[GWestphal]

What's to say alien life is even carbon based? Would our instruments recognize it? Could Mars be teeming with signs of life that we just don't see? Maybe our own Earth is full of non-carbon life and we just overlook it?

fixed: grammar trolling

 

[LucJoe]

What's to say alien life is even carbon based? Would are instruments recognize it? Could Mars be teaming with signs of life that we just don't see? Maybe our own Earth is full of non-carbon life and we just overlook it?

Posting in troll thread

 

[DesiPower]

quiet possible... I remember an OLD black & white movie where the alien was not carbon based and was only an energy that could travel through AM signals... only one radio station operator recognized him and helped him reach somewhere by boosting the signal or something like that... but yeah, its quiet possible... in fact I believe that we are not alone even on this earth!

 

[SandEagle]

quiet possible... I remember an OLD black & white movie where the alien was not carbon based and was only an energy that could travel through AM signals... only one radio station operator recognized him and helped him reach somewhere by boosting the signal or something like that... but yeah, its quiet possible... in fact I believe that we are not alone even on this earth!

tv is your scientific proof?

i'm pretty sure alien blood is green.

 

[Newbian]

Depends if they have more then two boobs.

 

[DesiPower]

tv is your scientific proof?

i'm pretty sure alien blood is green.

lol, yeah I guess my post did sound like that, but I was just referring to a possible example...

 

[disappoint]

quiet possible... I remember an OLD black & white movie where the alien was not carbon based and was only an energy that could travel through AM signals... only one radio station operator recognized him and helped him reach somewhere by boosting the signal or something like that... but yeah, its quiet possible... in fact I believe that we are not alone even on this earth!

Who is possible and why are you telling them to be quiet?

Sure it's quite possible you typoed it the first time, but 2 times is suspect.

 

[eldorado99]

I agree, quiet possible. But if we got in a war with them, would we loose? Something just doesn't jive.

 

[Fritzo]

We compare all suspicions of alien life with our only known example:

 

[DAPUNISHER]

 

[Iron Woode]

quiet possible... I remember an OLD black & white movie where the alien was not carbon based and was only an energy that could travel through AM signals... only one radio station operator recognized him and helped him reach somewhere by boosting the signal or something like that... but yeah, its quiet possible... in fact I believe that we are not alone even on this earth!

that was the pilot episode of the original Outer Limits - Galaxy Being.

 

[GWestphal]

Although can something on this early already be alien? Wouldn't it be undiscovered terrestrial life?

DNA, amino-acid, carbon based life makes up most (all?) life on Earth from virus to man. Has anyone ever theorized/proven another plausible substrate for replicable (does it need to be replaceable?) life (Sulfur/Silicon maybe). I suppose you could make the argument that only the first 30 or so elements are abundant enough to form a reasonable basis for life and only a subset of those can form the requisite bonds to make stable compounds. Though there may be some areas/planets that are much higher abundance in say Ununquadium than we have, making it a viable substrate in only that area. But then again the the chain of events leading to the first animo acid formations on up to the first bacteria are staggering statistically and that's using carbon which is just about as abundant as it gets.

 

[DesiPower]

We compare all suspicions of alien life with our only known example:

 

[Juddog]

Tesla postulated that a life form based on pure energy could survive off of energy as it's food source, and given that energy is constantly flowing pretty much almost everywhere throughout the universe, it wouldn't have need to do anything to sustain itself.

 

[Fritzo]

Tesla postulated that a life form based on pure energy could survive off of energy as it's food source, and given that energy is constantly flowing pretty much almost everywhere throughout the universe, it wouldn't have need to do anything to sustain itself.

Energy can't really be alive though--it would need a structure and a medium to reproduce. Life requires a series of systems that seeks to keep itself running. Energy itself doesn't really have an exact definition, but it is actually the trigger to activate a process.

 

[Juddog]

Energy can't really be alive though--it would need a structure and a medium to reproduce. Life requires a series of systems that seeks to keep itself running. Energy itself doesn't really have an exact definition, but it is actually the trigger to activate a process.

As far as we know, sure, but when you look at it from the angle that all matter is merely energy condensed, then all of a sudden it becomes possible for a life form based on pure energy to exist; it would just exist on a way different scale.

That's not to say that we'd recognize it if we saw it, or even if we would ever be capable of perceiving it.