Do check out a very good documentary from the 1980s called COSMOS by Carl Sagan. Its available in DVD and updated in late 1990s before he died.
In one of the chapters, he describe the probabiliy of life in billions of worlds.
Start with millions of galaxies consisting of billions of stars.
Take a fraction for those that are existing in stable equilibrium.
Take a fraction for those in ideal orbits.
Take a fraction for those with ideal climate, environment
Take a fraction for those with intelligent life
Take a fraction for those with life at the same stage as we are...i.e. now
Take a fraction for those who have not destroyed themselves or destroyed by catastrophy
in the end, of the billions and billions of stars, only a mere few hundred thousand will satisfy our criteria but we have to be in each other's vicinity to even contact each other. chances is we are millions of light years apart..
Are we alone in the Universe?
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Airconvent
- Super Moderator
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chris shaw
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- Location: Newton area
Are we alone in the universe? To answer this question in an expert way, GO TO HOLLYWOOD UNIVERSITY. Top 10 'must view' movies -
1) Contact
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey
3) 2010: The Year We Make Contact
4) Signs
5) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
6) E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
7) Independence Day
8) Alien Trilogy
9) Mission To Mars
10) War of the Worlds
So grab a mug of your favourite hot juice, fire up the DVD player and GET EDUCATED!
Chris
1) Contact
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey
3) 2010: The Year We Make Contact
4) Signs
5) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
6) E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
7) Independence Day
8) Alien Trilogy
9) Mission To Mars
10) War of the Worlds
So grab a mug of your favourite hot juice, fire up the DVD player and GET EDUCATED!
Chris
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chris shaw
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2003 5:16 pm
- Location: Newton area
Star Wars is not really about aliens or extraterrestrial life forms as it relates to our planet earth. The Top 10 list of films are about how earthlings encounter other lifeforms in the universe. Star Wars has nothing to do with earth at all. Better to watch Star Trek. I should in fact include Star Trek. Here is the list again -
1) Contact
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey
3) 2010: The Year We Make Contact
4) Signs
5) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
6) E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
7) Independence Day
8) Alien Trilogy
9) Mission To Mars
10) War of the Worlds
11) Star Trek
Chris
1) Contact
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey
3) 2010: The Year We Make Contact
4) Signs
5) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
6) E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
7) Independence Day
8) Alien Trilogy
9) Mission To Mars
10) War of the Worlds
11) Star Trek
Chris
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Guest
:roll: "are we alone in the universe?" :roll:
I doubt anyone in the planet earth (except a few people at Area51) could give a confirmation on this one!!!
If you ask the recent Chinese space hero, Mr. Yang LiWei, this and my guess is "NO" so as not to destroy his now famous reputation.
Anyone in this group can confirm that "Yes, we are alone in the Universe! period." with very very strong scientific proof and probably will get a nobel award for his/her discovery and become very very famous.
Or all of us roll back to the question again, "are we alone in the universe?" If I or you or this group just use our logic and senses and talk that there are others forms of living creatures or things or whatever in the huge universe (don't forget we are only see the universe at only a very very small section thru' Mother Earth.
I might not be so accurate but we human on Mother Earth only for how long? may be 20,000 - 40,000 earth years. Mother Earth previously was populated with giant dinos that had been confirmed with the dug out bones. So, are we alone in the universe or are we the immigrant from ... that our Father will come to bring all of us back one of this fine day before the Mother Earth pass away. This is nothing about religion but a question has been bugging me since young!
Talking about all the sci fic, "space, alien" movies, someone actually trying to make their believe or thought or dream out so that we can all enjoy.
someone has said that we human only can tap around 10% of our brain power! I wonder myself as the 90% I definitely cannot think possible. Don't you? by the way, why is this 90% of the brain power hidden?
Tonite is good nite to view the sky.
cheers,
eric goh
I doubt anyone in the planet earth (except a few people at Area51) could give a confirmation on this one!!!
If you ask the recent Chinese space hero, Mr. Yang LiWei, this and my guess is "NO" so as not to destroy his now famous reputation.
Anyone in this group can confirm that "Yes, we are alone in the Universe! period." with very very strong scientific proof and probably will get a nobel award for his/her discovery and become very very famous.
Or all of us roll back to the question again, "are we alone in the universe?" If I or you or this group just use our logic and senses and talk that there are others forms of living creatures or things or whatever in the huge universe (don't forget we are only see the universe at only a very very small section thru' Mother Earth.
I might not be so accurate but we human on Mother Earth only for how long? may be 20,000 - 40,000 earth years. Mother Earth previously was populated with giant dinos that had been confirmed with the dug out bones. So, are we alone in the universe or are we the immigrant from ... that our Father will come to bring all of us back one of this fine day before the Mother Earth pass away. This is nothing about religion but a question has been bugging me since young!
Talking about all the sci fic, "space, alien" movies, someone actually trying to make their believe or thought or dream out so that we can all enjoy.
someone has said that we human only can tap around 10% of our brain power! I wonder myself as the 90% I definitely cannot think possible. Don't you? by the way, why is this 90% of the brain power hidden?
Tonite is good nite to view the sky.
cheers,
eric goh
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weixing
- Super Moderator
- Posts: 4708
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- Favourite scope: Vixen R200SS & Celestron 6" F5 Achro Refractor
- Location: (Tampines) Earth of Solar System in Orion Arm of Milky Way Galaxy in Local Group Galaxies Cluster
Hi,
Ha... Ha... I heard this before....
But I think the 90% are not hidden and we are actually using 100% of the brain power, but only 10% of the brain power are allocated for "manual" control. The 90% of the brain power are performing automatic background task... like controlling the muscle of the chest as you breath, controlling the numerous leg muscle as you walk, and etc.... Do you want to perform these task "manually" ??? 
Also, do you know that someone lost half of the brain and still survives and live like normal people... amazing brain 
why suddenly change topics from "other life form" to biology?? Ha Ha 
Ha... Ha... I heard this before....
But I think the 90% are not hidden and we are actually using 100% of the brain power, but only 10% of the brain power are allocated for "manual" control. The 90% of the brain power are performing automatic background task... like controlling the muscle of the chest as you breath, controlling the numerous leg muscle as you walk, and etc.... Do you want to perform these task "manually" ??? Also, do you know that someone lost half of the brain and still survives and live like normal people... amazing brain why suddenly change topics from "other life form" to biology?? Ha Ha Yang Weixing
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance."
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." 
add two morechris shaw wrote:Star Wars is not really about aliens or extraterrestrial life forms as it relates to our planet earth. The Top 10 list of films are about how earthlings encounter other lifeforms in the universe. Star Wars has nothing to do with earth at all. Better to watch Star Trek. I should in fact include Star Trek. Here is the list again -
1) Contact
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey
3) 2010: The Year We Make Contact
4) Signs
5) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
6) E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
7) Independence Day
8) Alien Trilogy
9) Mission To Mars
10) War of the Worlds
11) Star Trek
Chris
-Dark City (about aliens controlling humans)
-Red Planet (about terraforming Mars gone wrong)
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chris shaw
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2003 5:16 pm
- Location: Newton area
Yes - agree so we have 13 great movies about ET
1) Contact
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey
3) 2010: The Year We Make Contact
4) Signs
5) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
6) E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
7) Independence Day
8 Alien Trilogy
9) Mission To Mars
10) War of the Worlds
11) Star Trek
12) Dark City
13) Red Planet
1) Contact
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey
3) 2010: The Year We Make Contact
4) Signs
5) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
6) E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
7) Independence Day
8 Alien Trilogy
9) Mission To Mars
10) War of the Worlds
11) Star Trek
12) Dark City
13) Red Planet
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chris shaw
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2003 5:16 pm
- Location: Newton area
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ChaosKnight
- Posts: 293
- Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 6:54 pm
Lets try out an experiment on your calculator.
Assuming the possibility of NOT finding life is 0.99999999999 (as many 9s as you can type)
And the number of stars in the universe is 10 million.
(0.99999999999)^ 10M gives about 0.999000499 on my calculator, which is the probability of NOT finding life in a universe of 10 million stars.
Now assume there are 10 billion stars. The above process gives 0.367879 on my calculator.
Now assume the probability of NOT finding life is 1-(1x10^-10).
[ 1- (1x10^-10)] ^ 10G gives 0.367879. (possibily the limits of the claculator have been reached).
As you can see, from my calculator, unless multiplying all the terms in the Drake equation is greater than [ (1-(1x10^-10) ], the probability of life in a universe of 10 billion stars is 1-0.367 = 0.632.
This experiment has some implications. It dosen't matter whether life in question is some intelligent life form or simply bacteria, because if the probability of NOT finding bacteria is 0.99, the probability of NOT finding intellegent life is something like 0.9999999. In the above experiment, we used all the 9s our calculator can take. So it dosen't matter the type of life we are calculating is intellegent of germs.
Next we disregard whether the stars in question can support life, because if a G type star has a probability of 0.999 NOT finding life, a K type star simply has a probability of 0.9999999 NOT finding life. Again since we used all the 9s our calculator can take, whether the star can support life or not is irrelevant.
Same thing with the planets. In short, every factor that can affect the probability of life is taken at its worst case 0.9999999999999.
And note that the number of stars used is only 10 billion. Many more out there than our estimate, which when considered will lower the probability of NOT finding life.
Finally I think life out there is almost a certainty. Just because we haven't come into contact with any dosen't mean they don't exist. We are like Columbus when he set sail for the New World. He didn't come to the conclusion there is no land after just the first 1000 miles. Similarly we may be in our first "1000 miles".
Frankly I think it may be best if we stay hidden from aliens. Imagine what they will think of us if they pick up signals of Wrestlemania or No Mercy coming from our planet.
Assuming the possibility of NOT finding life is 0.99999999999 (as many 9s as you can type)
And the number of stars in the universe is 10 million.
(0.99999999999)^ 10M gives about 0.999000499 on my calculator, which is the probability of NOT finding life in a universe of 10 million stars.
Now assume there are 10 billion stars. The above process gives 0.367879 on my calculator.
Now assume the probability of NOT finding life is 1-(1x10^-10).
[ 1- (1x10^-10)] ^ 10G gives 0.367879. (possibily the limits of the claculator have been reached).
As you can see, from my calculator, unless multiplying all the terms in the Drake equation is greater than [ (1-(1x10^-10) ], the probability of life in a universe of 10 billion stars is 1-0.367 = 0.632.
This experiment has some implications. It dosen't matter whether life in question is some intelligent life form or simply bacteria, because if the probability of NOT finding bacteria is 0.99, the probability of NOT finding intellegent life is something like 0.9999999. In the above experiment, we used all the 9s our calculator can take. So it dosen't matter the type of life we are calculating is intellegent of germs.
Next we disregard whether the stars in question can support life, because if a G type star has a probability of 0.999 NOT finding life, a K type star simply has a probability of 0.9999999 NOT finding life. Again since we used all the 9s our calculator can take, whether the star can support life or not is irrelevant.
Same thing with the planets. In short, every factor that can affect the probability of life is taken at its worst case 0.9999999999999.
And note that the number of stars used is only 10 billion. Many more out there than our estimate, which when considered will lower the probability of NOT finding life.
Finally I think life out there is almost a certainty. Just because we haven't come into contact with any dosen't mean they don't exist. We are like Columbus when he set sail for the New World. He didn't come to the conclusion there is no land after just the first 1000 miles. Similarly we may be in our first "1000 miles".
Frankly I think it may be best if we stay hidden from aliens. Imagine what they will think of us if they pick up signals of Wrestlemania or No Mercy coming from our planet.