And this isn't calling you out Mu-u-ud Brother, but Mo-o-o will say that those that think that there is no such thing as aliens or other intelligent life out there is quite naive.
Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t believe alien life exists—I just don’t think it’s visiting Earth. I do believe there are people out there who really have seen strange things, but saying alien visitors and their spaceships are the reason for such phenomena seems like a stretch. That explanation falls more into the category of mythology/folklore than logic/facts, though I do think it’s a lot of fun to imagine (you know me)…
As for the scientific effort to detect alien life—well, that’s a whole other category. To me, the scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is not only worthwhile but necessary to our understanding of science as a whole. I mean, I couldn’t agree with your thoughts more. The way I’ve always seen it, there isn’t even a question of whether life on other planets exists. The more we explore space, the more we find that the circumstances which led to life evolving on Earth aren’t particularly rare elsewhere, as shown by the examples you mentioned. Going further, I don’t find it hard to believe that life with a level of intelligence similar to ours could exist out there. In fact, it seems quite egotistical to me how some people think humans are the only intelligent forms of life in existence. We live in a universe that’s incomprehensibly vast and filled with far more unknowns than knowns—what makes us so sure we’re alone? “What limited thinking,” indeed!
I'm curious why nobody mentions trying to find life in general...doesn't have to be "big brain" like the humans that we are right now that have evolved from monkeys.
On the topic of less advanced extraterrestrial life, I will say that there was quite a stir in the 90s over a meteorite from Mars, ALH 84001, that supposedly showed fossil evidence of microscopic life. This was later concluded to be inaccurate, but the claim caused a lot of excitement in the scientific community at the time.
All this being said, the question is when and where will we confirm the existence of alien life, and will our own species even survive long enough to do so? I suppose, as Neil deGrasse Tyson put it, “There are times, at least for now, when we must be content to love the questions themselves.”
Recent Posts