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Do you think it’s unusual how many people think that we would find intelligent alien life?

posted 5 years ago by actionkamen (23176)
31 replies | jump to latest

When I was a kid I really hoped someday, in my lifetime, we would finally find aliens. I watched many many space movies and most depict it as if it's almost likely will happen in near future.

Fast forward to 2010s now I know a lot more about space and physics while having less and less hope that it would ever happen, let alone in my lifetime. Sigh.

The universe is too vast and too stretched in time. Maybe it will eventually happen, but if it happens 100,000 years in the future then what use to me. We all would've been long dead. But I wonder how many people actually still believe that we would actually find intelligent alien lifeform.

[–] samoanjoes (50731) 5 years ago

No. I believe it's possible that aliens exist. The universe is infinite, so why not?

[–] actionkamen (23176) 5 years ago

It's not that alien life is possible or not. Of course it's possible. My point was if we would ever find / meet them. Because the universe is so vast and so stretched in time.

[–] samoanjoes (50731) 5 years ago

Us finding them in our lifetime? I don't think we have the technology to get to that point. Eventually down the line? Yes, unless they find us first.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 5 years ago

I think the amount of sci-fi space movies casually depicting aliens were distorting my expectation.

They are mostly using a huge leap of faith that assumes we would ever be able to travel faster than light.

Because as the more I realize just how VAST the outer space really is, the more I realize how incredibly tiny the probability that we would ever meet aliens. Basically it's not going to happen. Like not a chance. Zilch.

Even with lightspeed travel, which is also improbable, we are also limited by time. What if there are aliens but they lived in like hundreds of millions years ago. Even if we could reach them, they're probably already extinct.

Or what if there are aliens, but they live hundreds of millions years in the future. Most probably human would not exist anymore by that time.

[–] Roguemail (1562) 5 years ago

I see where you are coming from.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s and as a boy was fascinated with sci fi, moon landings etc. And I remember that the year 2000 was always seen as a landmark year, and that there were certain things we would be doing by then, for sure. Or so it seemed...

For example, it was assumed we would be living on the moon and travelling into space, in a tourist fashion. This was spurred on by the moon landings, and it seemed logical at that time that the next step is to expand our forays into space...but the world changed and it all fell apart.

Transport...flying cars. Another given. But when you think about the practicalities of flying cars its highly problematic. It's not impossible, but the notion of taking the existing chaos of the roads and moving it up into the air would just not work. There would have to be a completely different system and type of vehicle. The safety aspects of this alone are frightening.

Just two examples, but I am sure there are more.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 5 years ago

Yeah that's true for flying cars too. However, nowadays I see less and less scifi movies depicting flying cars. I think most audience already realize that flying cars are just not feasible. The most recent flying cars I saw in a movie is probably in Alita Battle Angel, and it was based on a manga from the 80s. They also don't make a big deal about the flying cars, basically just as sceneries. Hmm... it made me curious. What is the latest movie depicting flying cars?

That can't be said about aliens though. I think most people / most audience still don't grasp how little bity tiny sliver of chance that we can actually meet aliens. The movie Ad Astra was actually refreshing in that angle. It shows something new I haven't seen in many movies. That we CAN'T find any aliens out there, even from the rim of the solar system.

Most, like 99% lol, space movies have somekind of aliens... or just not bother with it at all (The Martian, Gravity.) Not just that they are depicting that it's possible and very probable, but also as if it would surely happen in the NEAR future, like 10 to 100 years starting from the 70s. Which now I know is totally as absurd as traffic full of flying cars.

[–] samoanjoes (50731) 5 years ago

Even if we could reach them, they're probably already extinct

Man, out of all the times I thought about life on other planets, it never occurred to me of the possibility of them being extinct.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Hate to be the wet blanket but I too doubt the human race will survive long enough to find out. We’re too fragile, one airborne super virus or wayward comet and Human is the new Dinosaur.

They’re out there though.

[–] Kowalski (57229) 5 years ago

THEY HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE AND CONTINUE TO VISIT.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVSRm80WzZk

[–] chilone (17251) 5 years ago

dUdE! pAsS tHe BoNg!

[–] howgamer (3642) 5 years ago

No, I find it unusual that people take the show Ancient Aliens seriously. I mean it has 14 seasons, now THAT is strange!

[–] Kowalski (57229) 5 years ago

EVER WATCH IT?...THEY SPECULATE A BIT,BUT THE MAJORITY IS PURE SCIENCE AND HISTORY AND ARTIFACTS....I OWN ALL 14 SEASONS MYSELF...PRETTY FUCKING CONCLUSIVE WHEN YOU DO SOME RESEARCH READING TO GO ALONG WITH THE SHOW....

[–] howgamer (3642) 5 years ago

Yes, I've seen a couple of episodes. Of the episodes I did see, it was anything but conclusive as they twisted theories and ignored others especially after reading what actual historians have wrote. For example, Aliens building the pyramids yet we know how the Egyptians moved the rocks, what tools they used, how they cut the stones, and how they stacked the pyramids.

[–] Kowalski (57229) 5 years ago

ANCIENT ALIENS IS VERY CLEAR THAT ALIENS DID NOT BUILD THE PYRAMIDS,EGYPTIANS DID;WITH THE KNOWLEDGE AND TOOLS OF THE "SKY PEOPLE"...EVRY SINGLE ANCIENT GROUP OF PEOPLE HAVE ALMOST THE EXACT SAME LEGENDS..THE SKY PEOPLE CAME DOWN AND GAVE KNOWLEDGE AND INSPIRATION.

[–] howgamer (3642) 5 years ago

What about when they said that the Egyptians would have needed diamond tipped power tools to cut through granite so smoothly or levitation or making stones weightless to move the stones?

Oh never mind you did say they just used the aliens tools, my bad. But, then again, we know that the Egyptians could cut the granite and move the stones without ancient alien tech.

[–] Kowalski (57229) 5 years ago

POSSIBLY,BUT IF YOUVE SEEN THE OTHER ANCIENT STONE STRUCTURES ON EVERY OTHER CONTINENT...THERE ARE CUTS SO PRECISE AND BLOCKS SO HUGE,WE COULDNT MATCH IT WITH OUR CURRENT TECH.

[–] db20db (16142) 5 years ago

Food for thought which also staggers the imagination somewhat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Jl4HNDixc

[–] Kowalski (57229) 5 years ago

THE CARVED OUT TEMPLE....NICE.AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF "SOMETHING MISSING FROM THE STORY"

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

shadow people built it.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 5 years ago

Pffft... lol.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Not really.

Such a vast universe. So many possibilities. Of course people are curious.

[–] AndyKing1967 (33689) 5 years ago

It’s already happened, we just don’t realise it; we are after all merely an alien ant farm.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Hollywood has programmed us to think that aliens are superior to us. There is no evidence of this.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 5 years ago

Superior? They always lose to us puny humans.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

superior from a technology perspective.

[–] chilone (17251) 5 years ago

Well, if any were to actually come here, they would pretty much have to be superior to be able to do so.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 5 years ago

So white people is superior because they came to the indigenous people's land?

[–] chilone (17251) 5 years ago

Not necessarily. The "technology" they used was possible for any people on earth. The tech to travel here from other worlds, is not at this time.

[–] CarterBlunt (1030) 5 years ago

For all we know, they could be arriving any day now. Could've been hurtling through space for generations on a self-sustaining space station.