UFOs and aliens

[Cole]

Do you believe in them?
Have you already seen a strange object on the sky looking like an UFO?

I know that I've already seen once or twice in my life strange things that didn't act like planes or helicopters in the sky during the night.
As for if I believe that they are infiltred in governements and manipulate the world for some dark reasons...not really!

[Ashu]

Do you believe in them?
Have you already seen a strange object on the sky looking like an UFO?

I know that I've already seen once or twice in my life strange things that didn't act like planes or helicopters in the sky during the night.
As for if I believe that they are infiltred in governements and manipulate the world for some dark reasons...not really!

Yes and yes....it looked like a star but was moving WAY TOO FAST!i have no ideea what i could have been...

[Cole]

http://www.ufocasebook.com/phoenixlights.html

The 1997 Phoenix Lights affair..noticed by about 700 people.

http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1832.htm

Norway's most famous village regardin UFO, Hessdalen.


Now we can wonder about that, but those are among the most witnessed events, which decrease hoax factor.

[Nigatsu_Aka]

There are no aliens. Unless i see and touch/speak with one or see some real evidence, not fabricated by others, i presume that they don`t exist.

UFOs can often be confused with clouds, shadows, airplanes, experimental flying objects, etc... just because they are unidetifyed, that does not mean that they are extraterestrial.

[Taure]

Given the size of the universe and the new discoveries recently pouring in about the occurrence of planets in solar system (much more common than previously thought) I find it statistically likely that there is other life in the universe. Perhaps even a lot of it. Perhaps even much more advanced than we are.

Given the size of the universe I also find it statistically unlikely that we will ever meet said other races, unless they were incredibly advanced and they came to us. Assuming here that with sufficient scientific knowledge the "speed limit of the universe" could be bypassed.

I also find it possible that were we to encounter other life, we may not even recognise it as life for it could be very different from ourselves.

In the search for life most scientists look for planets with water, oxygen, etc.

But there is nothing to say that other life would be like us. In fact it would be a miracle if it were like us.

Technically all you need for evolution to take over is a non-perfect self-replicating unit. And even this is assuming that evolution is the only way to get from basic life to advanced.

It doesn't even have to be solids. You could have some sort of complex cloud of gases and electrical currents. Or liquids with complex attractions and repulsions. Or system of light: reflection, refraction, etc.

[Cole]

We were already able to make a spacecraft fly at 252,792km/h in the 70s..so perhaps for 2250s, first test of speed of light?


[spoiler]Helios: Fastest Unmanned Spacecraft in the World

This spectacular flying machine is the fastest unmanned spacecraft in the world with a top speed of 252,792 km/h (157,078 mph). The Helios deep space probes were launched in the mid 1970s by Germany. There were two in the series, Helios I and Helios II. They were launched into heliocentric orbit to study solar processes. They set a speed record for the fastest spacecraft ever at 252,792 km/h (70.2 km/s). They also set the record for the closest approach to the Sun, at approximately 45 million kilometers, slightly inside the orbit of Mercury. The Helios space probes completed their primary missions by the early 1980s, but they continued to send data up to 1985. Presently, these probes are no longer functional, but they still remain in their elliptical orbit around the Sun.[/spoiler]

http://www.cracktwo.com/2009/04/worlds- ... ver-built/

[Taure]

Even if we can get up to the speed of light (actually reaching it is impossible) it would still be too slow.

And you'd have problems of relativity of time, inability to communicate the further the ship got away from earth, fuel problems, and it wouldn't be able to be manned because of the accelerations involved.

One day I feel that it is the destiny of humanity to colonise space or die out. This planet does have a deadline after all. This is the only real choice. Leave the planet or die.

2250 is far too optimistic though, even at the rate of change technology is progressing at. Especially given political and economic strife, and the possibility of natural disaster.

I feel that we're probably going to have at least one more "dark age" - one more fall of civilisation. And in the long run this might be better for humanity.

But yeah. Maybe in the year 3000 we can begin to think seriously about space. This is the kind of change that is needed: as our society is to that of the 1000s, a space faring society would be to ours.

[Jack]

Even if we can get up to the speed of light (actually reaching it is impossible) it would still be too slow.

And you'd have problems of relativity of time, inability to communicate the further the ship got away from earth, fuel problems, and it wouldn't be able to be manned because of the accelerations involved.

One day I feel that it is the destiny of humanity to colonise space or die out. This planet does have a deadline after all. This is the only real choice. Leave the planet or die.

2250 is far too optimistic though, even at the rate of change technology is progressing at. Especially given political and economic strife, and the possibility of natural disaster.

I feel that we're probably going to have at least one more "dark age" - one more fall of civilisation. And in the long run this might be better for humanity.

But yeah. Maybe in the year 3000 we can begin to think seriously about space. This is the kind of change that is needed: as our society is to that of the 1000s, a space faring society would be to ours.

You mean just like how it was impossible a little over a hundred years ago for man to fly? Like how it was impossible just over have a century ago space manned space travel was impossible? Like how travel to the moon was impossible?

[Taure]

No, I don't mean impossible like that.

It was never considered impossible for man to fly: it was just not considered that we would achieve technology to achieve it. We knew that it was possible for things to fly. We see birds doing it all the time, after all.

Nothing in the universe travels faster than light. And this is not just a scientific theory - it is the theory which underpins all of modern science. It is not that we think it possible for things to travel faster than light and we just can't achieve it. It's that travelling faster than light just doesn't happen.

[Kit-Fox]

until about the 11/12th centruy it was in fact considered impossible for man to ever be able to achieve actvie flight (by that i dont mean gliding)

Even from the 11/12 century till about the 15/16 it was still considered somewhat impossible and highly improbable even by most scientific minds

EDIT: and the trick isnt to accelerate to the speed of light or to go faster, the trick is to change the laws of psyhics around the object you are moving (ie warp field / hyperspace field etc etc)

[Jack]

@Taure

And I am saying that it is incredibly foolish to believe that we know everything, or even close to that, about anything that moves in the universe. If something could move faster then light, than WTH makes you think we'd know it was there, that we'd be able to see it, to measure it's speed?


My point is not that brute force FTL travel is possible, but that we just don't know what is all possible. That technology evolves so quickly, that saying interstellar/intergalactic travel not being possible within the next millenia is rather naive.


Pity neither of us will be around long enough to know if they other was right.

[Ashu]

I can see it now...people waiting with their MS's in a line at StarPizza...Anyway about 60 years ago people thought any speed bigger than 60 km/h would kill a man.Further more there are over 1 trilion trilion trilion trilion trilion stars in the universe,maybe more...You are actually saying there is NO INTELLIGENT LIFE EXEPT FOR OUR OWN IN ALL THE IMMESITY OF THE UNIVERSE?!

[Nigatsu_Aka]

I can see it now...people waiting with their MS's in a line at StarPizza...Anyway about 60 years ago people thought any speed bigger than 60 km/h would kill a man.Further more there are over 1 trilion trilion trilion trilion trilion stars in the universe,maybe more...You are actually saying there is NO INTELLIGENT LIFE EXEPT FOR OUR OWN IN ALL THE IMMESITY OF THE UNIVERSE?!

No, i do believe that there are trillions of other civilisations, but i don`t think that any is able to travel across the universe to meet other civilisation(s) before it is extinct.

@Jack... the speed of light is one of our reference coordinates. Maybe there are other forces/laws of the Universe that we didn`t discovered yet and probably will not discover them ever, unless we notice/observe them or an effect of them.... and this happens because our narrow thinking in the reference coordinates of the Earth time and the 3D space.... and also our life time is too short in Universal times to make a difference.

On a small paranthesis, if we compare the time from when the Earth was born until today, with a 24 hours day, the humanity from when it apeared is on a fraction of a second time frame.... and we`re not far away from being extinct (this is another discussion topic). We mean absolutely nothing to the solar system, not to mention in the galaxy or universe.

[Thriller]

I can see it now...people waiting with their MS's in a line at StarPizza...Anyway about 60 years ago people thought any speed bigger than 60 km/h would kill a man.Further more there are over 1 trilion trilion trilion trilion trilion stars in the universe,maybe more...You are actually saying there is NO INTELLIGENT LIFE EXEPT FOR OUR OWN IN ALL THE IMMESITY OF THE UNIVERSE?!

No, i do believe that there are trillions of other civilisations, but i don`t think that any is able to travel across the universe to meet other civilisation(s) before it is extinct.

@Jack... the speed of light is one of our reference coordinates. Maybe there are other forces/laws of the Universe that we didn`t discovered yet and probably will not discover them ever, unless we notice/observe them or an effect of them.... and this happens because our narrow thinking in the reference coordinates of the Earth time and the 3D space.... and also our life time is too short in Universal times to make a difference.

On a small paranthesis, if we compare the time from when the Earth was born until today, with a 24 hours day, the humanity from when it apeared is on a fraction of a second time frame.... and we`re not far away from being extinct (this is another discussion topic). We mean absolutely nothing to the solar system, not to mention in the galaxy or universe.

Meaning in the sense your talking about is a matter of perspective. So i'm not even sure why you said it or why i'm even replying to it. What point were you making again???

If you are determining human value based upon our impact upon the universe, your probably right that we would be quite insignificant; but we experience time linearly so you can never know what the future may bring. As it stands now it is impossible to travel from galaxy to galaxy but that doesn't mean it is impossible; just improbable. I 'm guessing that's what your getting at anyway soooo.... hey look a rabbit.

[SSG EnterTheLion]

I would be ASTOUNDED if any reasonably intelligent educated human being still thinks we are alone in the Universe. With our current limited technology, we know of extra solar planets. And there are 100 billion stars approximately in our galaxy alone. It would be the height of arrogance to believe we are the only beings to have existed in such a vast universe. Even our own planet has had more than one intelligent humanoid species on it.

And if you are a creationist, by the definition of alien, angels and God himself/herself/itself is alien.

As for UFOs, I read somewhere that UFO sighting have vastly increased lately, even over Parliament. Do I believe there is some way to visit worlds light years apart in decent time? Yes. So imagine a civilisation far older than us. Within 10 years we'll know the truth, atleast I think so.