Why Us Being Alone In The Universe Is An Absurd Idea
Today I was watching a TED talk video, in which the speaker spoke about how it is truly rare to find an advanced species like us in the universe, capable of contemplating their place in the cosmos.
He theorised that the chances of finding another such civilisation in the universe would be around one in a trillion galaxies. He spoke about the various barriers that any life form would need to overcome to reach that status, concluding that he believes we are alone in the universe.
I have nothing against the speaker, but I think that this idea is a ridiculously absurd one. There are many things wrong about how he came to the conclusion and the conclusion itself.
There are probably more than a trillion galaxies out there with hundreds of billions of stars in them. That would make the number of planets so high that we can't even imagine it meaningfully. It seems statistically impossible that we are alone in such a vast universe!
Thinking Outside The Box
In the search for intelligent extraterrestrial, scientists are often fixated on finding water, as based on our current understanding, life requires water. They also look for a planet that is at a favourable distance from its sun.
What I have always believed is that, maybe in other places in the universe, life started out with totally different parameters than Earth's and doesn't require the same ingredients to exist that we do. Granted, it would make the search for life easier if we looked for life similar to ours, as we already understand it.
But that doesn't mean other forms of life simply cannot exist out there. Maybe there are intelligent beings that are made of uranium and require cosmic rays to survive!
Also, there might be dimensions to their life that our monkey brains simply cannot understand. Do you expect your dog to even remotely understand the concept of wi-fi? No, right? Then is it possible that we are simply not intelligent enough to understand other forms or dimensions of life that can exist in the universe?
Small Samples Cannot Predict Larger Reality
In the video, the speaker said that if there really were intelligent beings out there, isn't it possible that we would have had some signs of them by now? Our space activities have been going on for more than 60 years now, so it's natural to think that way.
But consider the size of the universe and the 'actual looking' that we have done. We haven't even explored Mars completely and there are ongoing missions to determine if there are microbial life forms underneath its surface. Let alone other planets and their moons in the solar system.
It's like taking a cup of water out of the ocean and concluding that there is no fish in the ocean because we would see at least some sign of it in the cup. Our space exploration till now has been millions of times less significant than that cup even!
There can be thousands of reasons that we might not have heard from them. Maybe they don't consider us intelligent enough, or maybe we just don't have the technology to detect them, or maybe they are already here and observing us, and we just can't tell!!
you are absolutely right
Thank you!
You are welcome
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You are welcome sir
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Thanks for this.
We are not alone and many proof exist on earth. The universe I believe have a lot of civilizations!
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I too believe that there are lots of civilisations in the universe.
one problem is the sheer SIZE involved and the relatively slow speed of light.
it takes an hour and a half for the light of the sun to get to earth.
it takes four YEARS for light to get from the nearest star to earth.
and type of spacecraft that we have any idea of building would be much MUCH slower than light.
That's so true! Compared to the size of the universe, the fastest thing that there is (light), is ridiculously slow. So even if we figure out how to travel at light speed, we just can't explore the cosmos in a meaningful manner. Only if somehow we achieve things like warp drive can we truly explore and know for sure about the other possible civilisations out there.
P.S. Light takes 8 minutes 20 seconds from the sun to Earth.
I love your example of a cup of water from the ocean and no sign of fish in it!
It is quite plausible that life in some form or the other surely exists somewhere in the universe apart from that on Earth. Considering the size and the vastness of the known universe, we are just an infinitely small pixel in an infinitely huge, infinitely high resolution, multi-dimensional display (so-to-say), 60 years in space is less than a mere dot on the timeline of the universe!
Their intelligence is a different debate altogether!
That's exactly right!! 60 years of exploration is quite frankly nothing!