The Main Reasons Why Aliens Don't Exist

originally posted by: tanka418

originally posted by: sonics1030
I think of that as wishful thinking. From my point of view, that statement will never be proven right or wrong, because there will always be more to explore, and there will always be people thinking they exist somewhere else.

What part is "wishful?"

There are estimated to be greater than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. Of those stars astronomers tell us that 40% have Earth like planets. Science also tells us that up to 90% of those stars have planets...at that level planets become "ubiquitous"...so there is half of my prediction proven.

Of the 40%, or approx. 40 billion Earth like Planets about 7.6% orbit "G" class stars (like Sol)...that is something over 3 billion Earth like planets orbiting a Sol like star. The probability for life here is very great!

We should also understand that we are talking about "life" in a more generic sense, and not just "life as it is known on Earth".

Also, the sheer amount of conditions necessary for the appearence of life as we know it, the proportion they would have to appear in and the timespan at which those conditions have to adapt are so especific and so many, that the probability of them happening all over the universe is next to none. It's not zero, but is pretty close to it.

While perhaps more true than either of us realize; please remember that the Universe is so vast that even IF the probability of life was arbitrarily small; life would still be observed as ubiquitous.

Aditionaly, there is the problem of the relativity that makes impossible not only to travel faster than light (at least theoreticaly), but also makes it so that, even if ftl travel was possible, if we were to travel to a foreign star system and come back to earth in a ftl ship, when arrived back here, centuries would have passed on Earth and nobody we knew would be alive.

Yes...good ole "relativity"...which is why we leave the relativistic universe behind, travel at super luminal speeds...

Theoretically speaking; FTL isn't particularly difficult...one only needs to accelerate to a velocity faster than light. Yes, I am fully aware of what the old science stance on FTL is...old school science is just that "OLD"!

More modern work has provided Earth with field drives, and a "warp drive" both well within the realm of current science and technology (at least the field drive).

Thinking about interstellar travel in terms of old school "relativistic" physics is incorrect. a more current paradigm is required; a paradigm based in current science and technology.

If you need references to either of these drive systems I can provide, just understand, that the science and technology does exist to build FTL craft today...and may have already happened.

Then I'm asking you for references on those drives. I'll answer properly when I'm better informed about that.

Also, even if that is possible, there's that problem of the "relativistic time". FTL travel means whoever travels in the ship will arrive back here ages later for those who remained on earth. Everyone he/she knew would be dead.

a reply to: sonics1030

It seems you're not up to date on the latest theories then - FTL means nothing of the sort and if you're going to quite relativity, then you should know it says you can't go FTL anyway.

I suggest you look up the latest research

originally posted by: stumason
a reply to: sonics1030

It seems you're not up to date on the latest theories then - FTL means nothing of the sort and if you're going to quite relativity, then you should know it says you can't go FTL anyway.

I suggest you look up the latest research

I'm afraid you're misinformed. Have you heard of time dilation? It's an effect of FTL travel and even sublilghtspeed travel if you're close enough to lightspeed. Time flows differently at those speeds and at normal speeds. Look it up. Google is your friend.

a reply to: sonics1030

Don't condescend me - I am quite aware of time dilation as a result of travelling close to light speed, in fact you get time dilation no matter what speed you travel at, which again I must point out has naff all to do with FTL.

According to relativity, nothing can travel past light speed, so that should be the first give away it isn't FTL - you know, Faster Than Light?

As for actual FTL, research is ongoing into possible warp fields - NASA paper here with research being carried out at their Eagleworks lab. It's obviously early stages, but already they have taken the required energy down from that of the whole Universe, through that of a Jupiter-mass planet to around 500kg. They are also about to build a gizmo (as detailed on the paper) to see if they can generate and detect small warp fields.

If you look into the theorised method of operation for this device, it does not suffer from any relativistic affects you seem to think would apply, the vehicle itself does not travel anywhere close to light speed, it warps space around it remaining in a bubble of real-time. In fact, the idea of a warp drive is so well known and understood by anyone vaguely interested in this (from all the Sci-Fi if nothing else) it's a little surprising that you don't know this.

originally posted by: sonics1030
Then I'm asking you for references on those drives. I'll answer properly when I'm better informed about that.

Also, even if that is possible, there's that problem of the "relativistic time". FTL travel means whoever travels in the ship will arrive back here ages later for those who remained on earth. Everyone he/she knew would be dead.

Alcubierre Drive "Warp drive": www.space.com...
This was in the news recently as some NASA associated scientists were conducting expirements to the the feasibility of this system.

Heim - Lorentz "field" drive: www.hpcc-space.de... this is a god paper. More available at: www.hpcc-space.de...

You can also do a search for "alcubierre drive", and "heim - lorentz", both return good results.

The whole idea of the speed of light being some sort of barrier is fictional, and based solely on the fact that our ability to detect anything ends at the speed of light. We are highly dependent of on the electro-magnetic spectrum. But, that is NOT the entire universe. science is already speculating about "dark matter / energy", and there is a whole new physics belonging to FTL.

You issues with time dilation may not be as significant as once thought. At very high velocities factors such as inertial frame dragging, doppler effects will become significant and may offset any effect of time dilation.