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Leaving aside the philosophical question of whether we, independently or as a group, possess either life or intelligence, do you think these conditions exist elsewhere in the universe? Why, or why not?

I would be amazed if there was not life elsewhere ("intelligent" or otherwise) in the universe. We have only mapped a very small segment of the universe, and in reality......we know very little about what is actually out there.

I'm intelligent... I come from places. I get jokes.

@Aegis sarcasm is v.low

But i do think Intelgent lif is out their

What do you mean, "intelligent life anywhere except on Earth"? It sounds as if there *is* intelligent life on Earth...

Well, starting in 1969, there have been brief periods when intelligent life existed on the moon. Other than that, intelligent life almost certainly exists - probabilistically speaking - but we might have a tough time recognizing it. We're still haven't made up our minds on dolphins yet.

I agree with Gwally - probabilistcally, I am convinced there are complex life forms with high learning ability and communication skills out there in our vast universe.

These life forms might however be very different from us, perhaps more different than we can ever imagine.

Remember though that we currently have a lot of problems with defining both "life" and "intelligence".

Originally posted by C Elegans:
<STRONG>Remember though that we currently have a lot of problems with defining both "life" and "intelligence". </STRONG>

I know what you mean. I have it on good authority that there is an extremely intelligent, remarkably patient lifeform that has made endless attempts to contact us over the last several thousand years, without any success. It achieves this by incubating itself within the bloodstream of each human, then tries to establish a mental link. Thus far, it has only achieved the sad distinction of being labelled the common cold.

Any other takers?

I must ask if anyone have read the book Solaris by Stanislaw Lem? Its partly about the dificulties in makeing contact with a "alien intellegence" and imo a very good book.

There is also a movie directed by Andrey Tarkovsky and although it is rather diferent from the book its good aswell.

Originally posted by fable:
<STRONG>I know what you mean. I have it on good authority that there is an extremely intelligent, remarkably patient lifeform that has made endless attempts to contact us over the last several thousand years, without any success. It achieves this by incubating itself within the bloodstream of each human, then tries to establish a mental link. Thus far, it has only achieved the sad distinction of being labelled the common cold.</STRONG>

ROFL It's not at all an impossible scenario. On the contrary, I would imagine it would be rather improbably that life forms who have evolved in totally different solar systems than us, would have similar sensory organs to us, and thus communicating in form we can even pick up.

My blunt and limited human mind can't even start to imagine what a non carbon based life form could look like, even less how it could function

We have only known for less than 20 years that there are creatures at earth that don't need oxygen to live (The first sulphur cave in former Jugoslavia was discovered in the middle of the 1980's IIRC.)

[ 10-28-2001: Message edited by: C Elegans ]

I find it highly unlikely that life, intelligent or otherwise, would appear only on earth and nowhere else. The universe is a pretty large place, and there's nothing particularly special about Terra that is so highly unlikely that something similar won't happen/have happpened somewhere else. Therefore I think it's possible that there even exists life with similar environmental requirements, ie beings that could survive on earth (or we could survive at their place). Besides those, there can be any number of alternative lifeforms, some based on carbon, others on silicon (see Dr. Who for reference ), yet others on something else.
I am not the least bit convinced that Earth has been visited by any extraterrestial visitors lately, and especially not to abduct people and do sexual experiments on them. If one in ten of all the reported sightings were true, we'd have swarms of flying saucers causing havoc for commercial airspace control.
As for intelligence, I guess time will tell.

I believe that the best sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't visited us. They obviously know what a backwater dump we are, and know that we will eventually be the cause of downfall for our own species, and possibly other species. To those smart Aliens out there, I say stay away, and keep yourselves safe from the plague that is the human race.

Originally posted by Aegis:
<STRONG>I believe that the best sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't visited us. They obviously know what a backwater dump we are, and know that we will eventually be the cause of downfall for our own species, and possibly other species. To those smart Aliens out there, I say stay away, and keep yourselves safe from the plague that is the human race.</STRONG>

Precisely. Any extraterrestrial life able to navigate within earth's proximity would also have the ability to perceive the chaos we wreak upon one another, upon life in general. If they have any sense, they will stay well away.

Life in other parts of the Universe- I believe.
But a lifeform inteligent as us, no I don't believe.
For some reason I think we are blessed or doomed. Only we.

I am not entirely sure how big the universe is, but with its size (large) and the amount we know about (little) there has got to be some other earth type planets somewhere capable of sustaining life. The scenario that happened in our solar system would have to be replicated somewhere else if the universe is the size it is, just due to the probability of chance. The only question is trying to find it, given the size of the universe is going to take a very long time.

...Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much... the wheel, New York, wars, and so on, whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely the dolphins believed themselves to be more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasons.

I had to post this - i love that book.

Sadly he is dead

Originally posted by C Elegans:
<STRONG>

Remember though that we currently have a lot of problems with defining both "life" and "intelligence". </STRONG>

One day I will be classified as both "life" and "intelligence".

Originally posted by fable:
<STRONG>I know what you mean. I have it on good authority that there is an extremely intelligent, remarkably patient lifeform that has made endless attempts to contact us over the last several thousand years, without any success.</STRONG>

See Fable came close.

regarding the question - i really really hope so - i mean it cant only be us idiotes.

Do anyone know Ian M. Bank's books?

I doubt we have even discovered all the inteligent life on this planet. I find it hard to believ that in all the universe, Earth is THAT special. There has to be life somewhere else, and where the is life, there is a good posibility of inteligent life.....My hometown excepted of course

"Intelligent"? What's that?

Really I know some people that can't be from this planet , but then again, they aren't intelligent...