Do you believe in extraterrestrials?

[Monte Smith]

Well do ya?

Yep!!

[Jazzzoline]

You mean Rael ?

[graypencil]

I've a strong suspicion that Gallagher is an ET ..

What other grownup human would embark upon a career consisting of splattering the crap outta harmless watermelons ...??

[jesus marion joseph]

The more under the influence I am, the more I believe in ETs.

[Vince Kargatis]

I voted 'no' in a practical sense (meaning I assume you mean identifiably intelligent/sentient life [and not just life], and perhaps some that's discoverable). I mean, the universe is a big place, so I pretty much expect a "lot" of everything possible, but I understand evolutionary theory well enough to know evolution is not progressive, and you can probably expect the great majority of life-bearing planets to lack identifiably intelligent forms. My zeroth-order guess would be a figure similar to the fraction of species that are intelligent on this planet, which is a handful of groups (apes, cetaceans, squids, pigs, etc) divded by the total number (millions or billions) of terrestrial species: so, a pretty small number.

However, I do expect "life" as we know it or can potentially identify it, to be fairly common.

[Brian Olewnick]

Do I think there's life (recognizable by us or otherwise) outside of Earth? Of course. Do I think any of them have visited and interacted with us? Nah.

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Do I think there's life (recognizable by us or otherwise) outside of Earth? Of course. Do I think any of them have visited and interacted with us? Nah.

Thank you, Brian.

[GoodSpeak]

Um.

Is this a glaring issue of some sort in North America?

[Enforcer]

There has to be some other life beyond earth, right? In a universe this vast, it can't all be limited to this place, can it? Seems hard for me to believe.

The one thing I'm not sure we spend enough time on is the concept that life could exist in a form that we can't identify. We have five senses and an intelligence that we know ranks first amongst the animals we're surrounded by. But when I watch a little black ant meander around on the sidewalk, unaware that I exist (or that it exists), yet completely at my mercy to scoop it up and move it somewhere else, kick it two feet away or step on and kill it, it gives me pause. Isn't it not only possible, but pretty likely given the odds of all this sh**, that we could be playing the same role in the "lives" of something else? I'm not talking about a creator or anything like that, just a coexisting life form that is so much more intelligent than us that it could no more explain its existence to us than we can teach a dog trigonometry.

This is the crap I think about.

[Noj]

I think it's pretty cool how ants find their way back to the trail when they're lost. They circle around in progressively larger circles until they detect the right chemicals. They're fascinating little critters, especially if one looks at them up close. They're also a real pain in the rump in the Summer because they enjoy air conditioning just like we do.

Like Larry, I've had a similar paranoid train of thought looking at ants. Our advantage over a blind insect is only so great. We're both at the mercy of the elements and luck.

In the anime series Robotech, the aliens looked human, but were 100x the scale. I thought that was so cool. The tiny earthlings piloted giant robots to fight mano a mano with the giant aliens. This, in turn, gave me the even scarier notion--what makes us so sure we can see aliens at all? Maybe they're microscopic, and they've been here all along. Or maybe like Predator, they've got great camouflage.

"There's somethin' out there Major. And it ain't no man. We're all gonna die."
--Billy Bear

[Jesse]

Much more than I believe in terrestrials.

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Much more than I believe in terrestrials.

Oh, Jesse, what an opening for a fly fisherman! I not only dig terrestrials, I tie patterns to replicate them ... beetles, hoppers, etc.

[Jesse]

I'm here to serve.

[AntManBee]

Klaatu barada niktu!

[Tom Storer]

I don't think about the crap Larry thinks about. Every time I read an article in the paper about the rare "planet discovered with the right conditions for life," it turns out that it means the planet has conditions that maybe could, with various qualifications, eventually lead to the possible development of some form of pre-proto-life-like organism-oids, once the temperature drops below a billion (or rises above negative a billion) and the poisons in the atmosphere evaporate and so forth. I figure if there were extraterrestrials, we would have discovered more traces of them by now.

[walto]

I figure if there were extraterrestrials, we would have discovered more traces of them by now.

After all, we're at the center of the universe, and the the sun rises and sets on our tuchus, doesn't it?

[Gary Sisco]

I can't not believe in them and still be a regular at JC.

[Vince Kargatis]

Originally Posted by Tom Storer

I figure if there were extraterrestrials, we would have discovered more traces of them by now.

This is a rather bizarre statement, as Walt implies - are you serious here, Tom?

[Gary Sisco]

There's no rational reason to assume an answer yes or no to this question. I'd assume, given even the known universe's incredible size and variety of phenomena, tht there is, but there's no rational reason for doing so. I just do. It can as easily and as rationally be assumed that life on Earth is one of those many differing phenomena.

No reason to assume that the presence of water equals the presence of life. No reason necessarily to assume that life requires the presence of water, just because it does on Earth. There might be different forms of life that don't require water but require something else instead. Or not. It's all assumption, however we look at it, yes or no.

[Uli]

For me there is more and more evidence every day that even a lot of "folks" here are from another planet.

[Tom Storer]

Originally Posted by walto

After all, we're at the center of the universe, and the the sun rises and sets on our tuchus, doesn't it?

As a matter of fact the sun does rise and set on our tuchus! Unless we hide indoors.

[walto]

Yes, and as Einstein showed, we're at the center of the universe too!

[tippy]

Whenever I have dreams 1) that I'm being visited by extraterrestrials, or 2) that I'm being murdered, I wake to find that I have been sleeping on my neck in a bad position.

[Vince Kargatis]

Originally Posted by walto

Yes, and as Einstein showed, we're at the center of the universe too!

Wasn't that Hubble?

[Darryl]

I knows for a factk that terrestials is out there, Jack!

I can proves it, too!

One times I was sleepin' all alones in my crib, right! And that was a rarity for big D, bein's that I was in my most prmosciuous state at the time.

So I'm lyin there in my REM cycle, right and I'm dreamsin about Ginger from Gilligan's Island or some such nonsense show ans about how she an Mary Anne and her would makes some serious three-way!

When all of suden, I hear some like vacuum cleaner noise! Holy cow I think! There's a big friggins vacumm cleaner outside my window and whatnot!

I opens up the curtain and lo and behold there's an alien space ship outside! Ands some kind of camera eye is lookin at me from the outside! I hide under the bed because Im a brave dude but I aints stupid!

Well, all of suddens I see some like mega gammaray all goin "boooooo booooo hoooooo hisssssss booooo!" ands suckin' me up into the vortrext!

I comes to five hours later, but it may have been five days becausae in space no one can hear you scream and time don't exist!! Theres five bigass greeneyed motherfuckers lookin' down at me with big heads and antennaas just like they had in that movie!

and then they pull out this like big six foot squiggly things with a eye on it and put it in my butt! And they don'ts give me medication either because these are some cruelass motherfuckins aleins! I'm seriously scared ands even though I served in the army I have never dealt with no space bastard like this. They dont train you right for this in boot camp.

And the butt thing goes "booooo boooooo hoooooo hissssss BOOOOO BAMMMMM!" I pass outs becasue I thinks they may be takins my ability to make sweet love from me because that is probably a very powerful force on their planet. I means, theyre ain't no way they can have something that matches the powers of Darryls love!

And then they make all kinds of weird oogoo noises over me! I'm totally freakins out. "Am I in a planetarium movie or somethings? Or IMAX? Or is this a bad dreams?" I say this to myself because I don't want to give away no secrets and shit.

Well, then this space lady must have felt the power of Big Ds love because she takes off her shirt and she got six bresses all with eyes an' tattoes on em! And they're lookin' at me, comins closer and closer! "Augggh!" I screams! "AUGGGGGGH! AUGGGGHHHHHH!"

And thens, the next thing I know, I'm back in bed, drenched in sweat and wetness that was more than I'd ever experinced before.

And that's how I'm 110% certain theeres alien life forms and terrestials on other planets and whatnot.

I can only hope that you other people never have expereince the same types of fear that I went through that night, thank God almighty.

[groover]

Is it possible that some form of intelligent life exists independent of our planet? Absolutely.

Is it probable? Yes, but I'm not as certain of significant probability as I am of the possibility.

[tippy]

Six breasts!?! That's evolution for ya. We humans are still only at the third nipple stage. Also interesting that the boobs have eyes for staring back at ya.

[groover]

Originally Posted by tippy

Six breasts!?! That's evolution for ya. We humans are still only at the third nipple stage.

My friend's Jack Russell terrier has six nipples, I think. (I've never actually counted them.)

She could be a visitor from the Dog star, but I wouldn't take that too Sirius-ly.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Way to go, Darryl! That ought to settle it for once and for all! And I think you're in line for some kind of medal for not giving away our secrets.