Out of Pod Experience

When people say "duh if you think we are alone in the universe you are stupid" it irks me. These people have spent to much time watching TV and not enough time educating themselves on what exactly it takes to generate intelligent life forms. The amount of time and the unique aligning of countless variables that make the earth as we know it possible.


They also do not seem to understand the difference between a "universe teaming with life" as in non intelligent life, and a "star trek universe" where thinking beings come a dime dozen. It is just as likely that the universe could be teaming with non-intelligent life, and there is no reason to simply presume otherwise absent of all evidence.

So here is a short list of variables that the average nerd, educated or not, does not consider when they blah blah about how stupid people are if they don't think they way that they do.




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1. Star Distribution Within Galaxies

There are stars that contain metals and heavy elements and there are stars that don’t so much. To make a long story short, galaxies seem to have “regions” where the metal baring stars seem to gather farther out (in the arms) and no so much inward (near the bulge)

Ironically, the earth is in this zone… hmm.

Metal rich stars are younger because they are born of older stars that have died. Supernova is what is thought to make every element bigger then helium, from carbon, to iron and uranium. All of which is needed for you to exist…yes, even uranium but we will get to that later.



So: the chances of generating a life baring planet is not spread uniformly throughout all stars in a galaxy. The likelihood varies widely between regions and ages of stars.



2. Lets Say You Get A Metal Rich Star

The accretion disk must generate a planet within the habitable zone of that star. But that is not the end of the story by far.



I. The Planet Must Have Uranium (and other radio active elements) In It’s Core

Radioactivity is what keeps the planets core hot. Without enough of it it will cool like it did in mars and the moon. No heated core and you get no Volcanoes, and no Volcanoes means no atmosphere.


II. The Planet Has To Spin Fast Enough To Create A Magnetic Field

Without a core containing adequate molten iron, and without a fast enough planetary spin you will get no magnetic field. A magnetic field acts like a force field that protects a planet from the solar wind. Without it, a world can lose it’s atmosphere like mars or it can lose it’s light elements like on Venus, leaving only greenhouse gases (generated from Volcanoes) in it’s place.

Mars died because it does not have enough radioactive elements in it’s core to stay warm
Venus “died” because a day lasts a year, and there is no magnetic shield from the solar wind.

So: Even if you do get a world in the habitable zone around the right kind of star by sheer random chance, that planet must also have A. the correct composition in it’s core and B. The proper rate of rotation.



Oxygen Does Not Occur Naturally

Whether you realize it or not, the Oxygen that you breath is what makes your complex thoughts possible. It is a highly reactive gas and that translates to packets of free energy. Without it you would be limited to alternative forms of energy consumption that are no where near as efficient and that could not support you, as you are.

Do you see how mars is red? That is because of oxygen. Oxygen is so reactive that it will be absorbed by everything. A planet cannot develop an oxygen rich atmosphere naturally, life has to generate it though photosynthesis.


You Need Big Bodies Of Water

This has nothing to do with evolving life, this has to do with the carbon cycle. Rain strips the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and turns it into calcium carbonate. It also hides the carbon inside of the surfaces of rocks. Without the “Atmosphere Scrubbing Rain” we would be looking at a planet, oxygen atmosphere or no, that would have a runaway greenhouse climate. Photosynthesis cannot do the job alone. There must be rain and lots of it.

If the world is to hot, no oceans. If it is to cold, no oceans.



You Are Also Going To Need A Moon

Without a moon the earth would flip on it’s side as it spins like Mars does. There would be nothing resembling a stable climate and even the length of the days would change without our moon. There would be no hope for a civilization on a planet where the equator became the north pole and visa versa regularly. The climate shifts would be extreme and extreme heat and cold would visit every continent. This wobble would alter the flow of oceans, such as the Gulf Stream, that act as climate control conveyer belts that keep the planets climate in check.


The Moon Can’t Be To Close Or To Far

To close and the earth becomes a molten planet like Io, do to the heat generated by gravitational tides. To far away and it would not stabilize the earths rotation.


Our Moon Has Not Always Been That Far Away

Our moon used to be allot closer, and yes it is though to have heated the earth in such a way long before the dinosaurs existed. Since that time it has been steadily moving way, and eventually it will move so far away that it’s pull on our earth will lessen and the stabilization that it brings will lessen with it.

Flamers unite!
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They chant "hey wait! he does not believe in intellegent life on other planets get him!!! Kill him! kill him! kill him! rablrablrablrabl!!!!"

I do believe there is more life out there. Yes i get what you're saying but how unlike the it would be there is still a chance that there is something\some one out there......We made it.

dupe

last time i checked our galaxy had 100 to 150 billion stars.

i dunno what other galaxies contain but obviously your 10 billion and some other post mentioning trillions is completely made up!

It is also possible that Aurthur C Clark had a vision like the ancient Hindu Yogi's who claimed to have seen Vishnu during deep meditation, and Mr. Clark caught onto the real truth that a geometric monolith is the preferred form of god. He then made 2001 the space odyssey.


Roll the dice.
Dup.

Imagination outside of any evidence can be fun!

This. Also, OP argument is flawed from the outset with determining what is meant exactly by 'common' ?

Chances of organic life are very high. We find organic compounds almost everywhere we seem to look out there.

Chances of intelligent life, much less so.

Also, there is the chance that in some cases we may not even recognize it for what it is.


Although I personally believe we will eventually find some life out there at least, whether or not it is found period is the important question that must be pursued before we get to the discussion of it's commonality.

That's all I meant, and no harshing implied.

FTL Travel. If practical FTL travel existed, it would only take one civilization to spam itself across the stars. (Imagine if Humanity had "warp engines" for a million years.) Since we don't see other civilizations, practical FTL travel isn't possible, thus Humanity is limited to our solar system and will eventually go extinct here.


/deep_thoughts

No; he then wrote a short story called 'The Sentinel'.

My point stands - intelligent Empires could have risen and fallen through self-destruction across the entire cosmos long before our existence and looking for intelligent life is just as futile because of this.

I do not believe in space exploration, I believe in self-exploration.

Without an understanding of who we are, we have no place to visit someone else's house and bestow wisdom we do not posses. No more than we have the right to disturb an ancient tribe living in the amazon basin and tell them we are superior when we resolve differences through war and oppression.

If aliens do exist, and I suspect they do or have, the reason we haven't seen them on a global 'Hello' scale is because we are child-like savages to them.

Our descendants are going to mock us and call us pathetic losers that nearly wiped ourselves out multiple times and practically destroyed the planet from all recognition.

That is, if we have descendants of course.

So yes, I agree with you - things like space exploration should be left to the imagination as sci-fi writers should be the only ones looking in that direction, all other thoughts should be towards making the world better. This means that when sci-fi is no longer sci-fi, perhaps we will be ready.

AK