Alien Contact Predicted By 2025!

Well, that's what Shostak and co-author Alexandra Barnett, an astronomer and executive director of the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California, say in their book, Cosmic Company.

Their prediction are based on a number of factors.

They include the billions of years in which extraterrestrial life could have evolved and the abundance of planets and stars elsewhere in the universe that are likely to mimic environmental conditions found on Earth.

"It's a matter of statistics, really," said Barnett. "Depending on who you talk to, the universe is 12 to 15 billion years old. Humans have only been around for 40,000 years. We really are the new kids on the block. It would just be too tough a pill to swallow to believe that nothing else has evolved in all that time and space."

The universe is indeed vast. In 1924 astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that there are galaxies beyond our own. "More than a half century later, the Hubble telescope has shown that there are at least 100 billion such galaxies," said Shostak. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is home to at least 100 billion stars.

Planets are also plentiful. Since 1995, when the first Jupiter-sized planet outside of our solar system was found, astronomers have been able to identify about 100 more planets, all of them around 300 times more massive than Earth.
news.nationalgeographic.com...

Well, I wouldn't be here to witness the grand celebration, if ever there is one! But the moot question is would the aliens feel the need to contact us seeing that we're at the bottom of the heap? Would you like to contact a toad in the marsh?

Cheers!

2025 eh? Well as long as no one tell the aliens that the world is supposed to end in 2012 its alright. I would give anything to see their faces when they are greeted by... NO ONE!

*points finger*

HAHA!

Originally posted by merka
2025 eh? Well as long as no one tell the aliens that the world is supposed to end in 2012 its alright. I would give anything to see their faces when they are greeted by... NO ONE!

*points finger*

HAHA!

Wow, merka, you made my day! That had me in splits! Darn! How didn't I think of that? But hey, they might get to meet the lone survivor, Osama. That sneaky bearded SOB! Georgie couldn't get him so far. I wish the aliens do!! And send him to Serpo!

Cheers!

It would be incredible if we did make contact. The outcome would either be incredibly beneficial or incredibly disasterous if they were hostile, although i dont see why they would be if they are so advanced, we are no threat.

why 2025 though?

When the yaer 2012 comes there will be tribulations and many things will come to pass but humanity will go on with a different perspective hopefully. This prediction of alien contact by 2025 sounds intiguing and it is something worth discussing and looking into. You will find many doors opening on this subject, lets just hope we open the correct one. Based on many theories running about contact already made behind closed doors and not made public, mabe at that aproximate time [2025] the doors will open and it will be made public knowledge at last.
It's been a long time comming!!!
Don't you think?

"Predictions" come and go all the time. None of them ever happen...

reply to post by 7seven


2025 is just them being speculative that's all, another thing, even if they were hostile, what if we made contact with a race that were no more technological than ourselves, unable to leave their own solar system. Not every civilization out there has to be super advanced.

well for 1 thing, a toad isn't sentient. We are..thats the problem with your analogy

I'm very surprised at Shostak forming this ludicrous conclusion based, literally, on nothing.

Tossing around numbers such as the size of the Universe, number of galaxies or planets is meaningless.

The important points he should be discussing are:

1. Discuss our Galaxy, not the whole Universe, first, because we can only see planets in our own galaxy. "Planets really are as common as phone poles," said Shostak. "Right now, we know that there are planets out there [orbiting] ten or twenty percent of the stars we look at."

To be clear, he's talking about planets in our Galaxy, not in the Universe. We have no way of knowing about planets in any other galaxies.

2. Discuss if any life is sentient. Again, he has literally NO information. We know that organisms on Earth can exist in hostile environments, but this says nothing about sentient life in our galaxy

3. All of the planets discovered have been large, and are probably gas giants. (Shostak admits this).

4. If there is sentient life in our Galaxy, then it has yet to be shown. It may be very likely. But talking about probability or numbers of sentient life in the whole Universe is meaningless (*)(see below).

5. If there is sentient life in our own Galaxy, are any of them spacefaring. Are any of them space voyagers (outside their own solar system)? Are any of them 'multi-planet' civilizations (needed to assure longevity and freedom of extinction by cataclysms).

6. Can any of them travel multi-light years?

7. Would, could, have any of them come here!

It doesn't matter if there are billions of civilizations in other Galaxies if none of them are spacefaring, let alone able to transverse the vast distances between galaxies.

So, imo, he's coming across here as VERY unscientific, not to mention silly and irresponsible. He must be completely deluded to be postulating a date.

Again, he seems to be 'proving' his argument by merely quoting vast numbers.

_(*)_It's the 'infinite monkeys typing out the Encyclopedia Britannica by chance' argument and it's beneath any real scientist to make such irrelevant arguments.



[edit on 6-11-2007 by Badge01]

Badge01

Then I guess you haven't chanced upon these threads:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

And Dr Michio Kaku is no layman. He is a respected scientist revered in the scientific community. So he couldn't be talking through his hat when he says he believes Aliens are real!

But yes! The question is, why 2025? Why not 2020 0r 2099? I don't know how this date has been arrived at. Unless the ETs have said so privately!

Cheers!



[edit on 6-11-2007 by mikesingh]

I predict alien contact by the year 1974. I came to this conclusion from emptying my electric razor this morning and counting the stubble. Multiplying it by the number of stubble that showed signs of intelligence gave me the number 1974. So there you have it. Sit down, be patience, and lets wait for the big show....

That's about as accurate and conclusive as Seth's postulation. I would assume he picked 2025 because it is a convenient number, and still might be possible within his lifetime...but he will be so old then if alive that no one would dog pile him when he is not right (or even remember who he is)

SETI is a highly uncredible organization IMO. They are just making this statement to keep interest in a program that as of yet hasn't announced any substantial discovery. I put about as much stock in this as any so-called oracle, or channeler.

reply to post by Smugallo


That's possible, but really unlikely. Given some reasonable assumptions, it's overwhelmingly probable that any civilization we can make contact with is far more technologically advanced than we are.

That said, they could be a civilization in decline, with a deteriorating knowledge base and lack of the highly specialized skills they need to keep their technology running smoothly.

reply to post by Badge01


There is no reason to believe that planets in other, similar galaxies would be different from those in our own, and quite a lot of reason to believe that they would be. It's true that planets in globular clusters would be metal-poor, but in other large galaxies, there is strong evidence that elemental abundances are very similar.

reply to post by disownedsky


Simple fact is we may never know, even if they did get a 'Wow!' signal in 2025, communications would still be mighty tough, ya know, having to wait years and years for a return signal.

I have heard scientists mention the year 2025 more than once but have never been able to find out why. I recall reading it and I also heard one on Nat Geo Channel say that we will know by 2025 whether we are alone in the universe but know one has ever expanded on WHY this date is chosen..

Maybe they know something we dont and they are throwing these subtle hints out to the general public..

Originally posted by Kr0n0s
I have heard scientists mention the year 2025 more than once but have never been able to find out why. I recall reading it and I also heard one on Nat Geo Channel say that we will know by 2025 whether we are alone in the universe but know one has ever expanded on WHY this date is chosen..

Maybe they know something we dont and they are throwing these subtle hints out to the general public..

I would bet the significance of it, is that it's a multiple of five (what date would most people pick 2027?). I really think SETI is just creating interest/fundraising with this pronouncement.