Are we alone

[hollodero]

(07-15-2019, 09:47 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Do you think there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe?

Probably. There's this Drake formula that used factors like number and birthrate of stars, probability of exoplanets around those and some other terms to predict the number of intelligent lifeforms in the universe. It seemed almost impossible that there isn't. But obviously, that prediction got severely modified lately, making it way less probable... so logically, there seems no real way to know.

Critics say that even on earth, there are 50 billion species and only one is intelligent. (That'd be me.)

(07-15-2019, 09:47 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Do you think think there is anything more than the most simple forms (bacteria, etc..) of life in our solar system?

No. Reason for that is that the other planets don't seem to provide the conditions for more sophisticated chemical processes necessary for forming the kind of complex molecules that would be the basis of higher developed life.

(07-15-2019, 09:47 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Do you think we've been "visited"?

No. That idea makes zero sense to me. Why would an alien race visit earth in secret all the time, what's the purpose. And even if, why would they never get caught.
Also, if there's intelligent life out there it still would probably not be able to avoid the Einstein barrier, eg. it could not travel faster than light and hence would need a truly astronomical number of years to even get here from their home planet.
And if a species could live that long, it couldn't develop as highly (for generations and generations are necessary for life to evolve). Sure they could travel for generation after generation after generation on some spaceship, but that raises questions a) about energy and supplies (there's no reststops in space) and b) why would they do that.