Has Earth been visited by aliens?

[Joolee1980]

Some people think it has and i wondered what evidence there was for this.

[R1Geezer]

sorry its; arguable that faster than light travel will ever be possible, I doubt it.

[spudqueen]

Have you read Chariots of the Gods by Eric von Daniken? Or the Old Testement?

[MarkRae]

> sorry its; arguable that faster than light travel will ever be possible

Anything is arguable. If it's arguable (i.e. it can be argued that) travelling faster than light will never be possible, it's just as arguable that it will happen in the next month, or the next year, or the next century or whatever.

Or, by 'arguable' do you mean 'probable'...?

And what are you apologising for, AAMOI...?

[wildwood]

I would say that if the Earth has ever been visited by Aliens who can travel across galaxies, their knowledge would surely include much of the present inhabitants of this planet. Their 'intelligence' would have to be far superior to ours so why would they remain so anonomous? If they want to destroy or take over it has to be very simple for them. If 'friendly', their presence would be well known.

Just because life on another planet may be possible doesn't mean is exists.

[Henkle]

>Backdrifter Isn't it most likely that our first contact with extraterrestrial life would be with bacteria-like beings?

>R1Geezer yeah backdrifter, they'll arrive in very small space ships no doubt!

LOL Geezer, but arriving on a comet?
Has Exogenesis / Panspermia been categorically ruled out of contension as a valid hypothesis for the origins of life on Earth?
....or even, can the idea that impact events introduced bacteria - extremophiles capable of surviving the journey that survive today and /or influenced evolution, be completely discounted?
Probably talking rubbish, but just a thought....

[jno]

at this time of night, it looks as if you are, Eddie.

[Backdrifter]

Re my point about bacteria - given that, by a staggeringly huge margin, the most common forms of life on Earth are the simplest, isn't it reasonable to assume this is the case elsewhere? That highly evolved complex organisms like us are exceedingly rare and almost unimaginably outnumbered by single-celled organisms or even simpler ones similar to viruses or 'naked' genetic material?

[R1Geezer]

Henkle the origin of life is another subject entirely.

Backdrifter, yes not doubt bacteria like organisms exists on other planets. But we are talking about meeting/communicating etc.

[Henkle]

R1Geezer, Whilst not wanting to argue with anyone, the original question was 'Has Earth been visited by aliens?'
Joolee1980 does not ask if intelligent life has ever visited Earth.
It's only correct to acknowledge Panspermia as an origin of life theory when using the term but you'll notice I included the question 'could impact events have introduced bacteria - extremophiles capable of surviving the journey' which is not specifically Exogenesis / Panspermia and answers Joolee1980 - albeit with another question.
EDDIE51, yes I've read about the Rare Earth scenario and like all theories that's all it is...another theory, a bleak depressing one at that.
Who here can say 'I'm right and you're wrong?' we're all free to subscribe to whatever idea we choose the same way as we're all free to express whatever opinion that may be.
I know what I prefer to believe EDDIE and that's all everyone else is doing on this thread.

[Dodger666]

Having just watched the Budget speech I would say there are definitely people from another planet on earth. What's more they're still living on it!

[chakka35]

LucyThomas7, while there is a finite number of elements, numbers are infinite. Therefore the number of possible combinations of those elements, allowing for numbers, is also infinite. If you take just hydrogen and oxygen you could have HO, H2O, H2O2, H3O, H3O2, and so on for ever.

The typewriter is capable of producing any letter. Therefore, left to do that randomly for an infinite time, it would certainly produce Hamlet, plus all of the rest of the works of Shakespeare, Conan Doyle, PG Wodehouse, Ibsen.....in fact everything ever written by man.
What's more it would produce them all an infinite number of times.

But we don't know whether travel between stars is possible. Therefore the analogy falls down. If such travel is impossible then, like perpetual motion, it will never happen.

[naomi24]

I think the earth was visited in the very distant past by people from other planets. Bearing in mind the earth is very young in comparison to other areas of the universe, there is no reason not to suppose there are civilisations somewhere out there that evolved billions of years before ours - and consequently there is no reason to suppose that their technological achievements could not be billions of years in advance of ours.

As for evidence, there are very many ancient tales and depictions of flying craft and of 'gods' coming from the stars - and personally I don't believe that all that is a figment of early man's imagination. In fact I believe that's precisely where the idea of the gods - including the god of the bible/koran originated.

[Backdrifter]

@chakka - "If you take just hydrogen and oxygen you could have HO, H2O, H2O2, H3O, H3O2, and so on for ever" - how would that work? Each atom of an element is only capable of bonding to a fixed number of other atoms, so of the ones you listed only H2O and H2O2 can exist.

@naomi - interesting, the key word in your answer is "believe". Taking those same things you refer to, unlike you I believe they are indeed all products of human imagination.

I often see great similarities between followers of religions, and believers of ancient alien visitations, for whom the aliens in which they believe are the equivalent of the gods worshipped by the religious.

[Backdrifter]

@ LucyThomas - "If we assume that time and space are infinite then the theory states that there is an infinite number of me and you and everyone else throughout the universe. " Can you explain that a bit more; I didn't get it.

Henkle was more along the lines of how I think it's possible Joolee1980's alien visitations might have likely taken place (and you're right, she didn't specify intelligent life with whom we might communicate) - the simplest life forms such as bacteria etc are the most resilient and could quite conceivably survive the extreme conditions of deep space, and/or arrive via meteorites. The planet might have been teeming with alien microscopic organisms for millennia.

Then again, just because an alien life form is a bacterium, that doesn't necessarily mean it's not what we consider intelligent.

[trt]

We have definitely been visited by Aliens, I married one and sent her back to space, but she took my money with her, the bitch!!!

[naomi24]

backdrifter, you can swap the word 'believe' for 'think' if you like. The origins of religion, and the tales that religion promotes, intrigue me, and this appears to be a likely answer. It makes perfect sense to me because I don't believe (there's that word again!) that ancient man would have been capable of imagining machines of any description, least of all those that fly through the air and into (or out of) space. My studies in this area have led me to the conclusion I've reached, but I'm more than happy for someone to come up with a better explanation. On the other hand believers tell us they already have all the answers, and those answers are immutable. They are not open to alternative suggestions, so there's an enormous difference between my use of the word 'believe' and theirs.

[Backdrifter]

naomi personally I'm not too concerned whether you say believe or think, though I understand what you're saying; out of curiosity, can you point me to examples of the flying machines depicted by ancient humans - cheers

[jake-the-peg]

Depends what you mean by ancient.

The dream of flight is very old Icarus and Daedalus' wings of wax were "flying machines"