It seems to me that with our understanding how life began on Earth, the environment necessary, and the evolution to modern humans, that in other similar scenarios across the cosmos, intelligent life might follow a very similar path. This does not require that other intelligent life forms will resemble humans but I'm thinking how we evolved actually makes a good deal of sense. I would expect 'others' to be similar in the sense of legs, arms, digits, thumbs, brain with similar sight, hearing, smell, taste, voice, etc. Even humans have become quite diverse...
I don't, so there's probably more likelihood of 'life' existing in my scenario. For all we know, life could be amorphous blobs of electro-plasma.
Intelligent Extraterrestrials have been in recorded history, since the beginning of records, documented in virtually all religions and cultures.
I was talking with an Indian man today about the Mahabharata and Ramayana. He was quite surprised and really perked up when I brought them up in this context. I asked if he thinks its history or just a story. He just smiled and shrugged. It is a little surprising to read about flying crafts and energy weapons from 7,000 years ago. It was interesting when I visited Peru and talked with some of the old and older people. They most certainly believe they have had regular visitors. To them it is just a simple fact.
My Indian buddy was saying that they made gods of everything. Monkeys, cows, the sun, plants, vaginas and penises... I stopped him there and pointed out that vaginas qualify.
The Mahabharata and Ramayana, is an excelent source, for head scratching. My quick conclusion is they had some really good sci-fi writers for the stone age book clubs, or These people actually witnessed something.
Thanks, I think that it is a bit naive if not even a little arrogant to assume that we are the only "intelligent" form of life in the incomprehensibly vast universe & am fond of the following quote from Shakespeare's "Hamlet": "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. " - Hamlet (1.5.167-, Hamlet to Horatio
What is especially Intriguing is that the Hindu wrote volumes, most of the original writings still exist, in the same language used today, unlike judio/Christian writings, that are so vague, you have to read between the lines.
Little Billy pulls down his pants to show off to little Suzie proclaiming with what he has he is king. Little Suzie lifts up her dress and says with what she has she is Gawd and can have as many little Billies as she wishes...
Intelligent life elsewhere approaches certainty but our likelihood of finding them likely depends on our becoming a Type III civilization which appears a long way off.
There isn't anybody on Earth who knows enough to even guess that any ufo ever has been an alien craft. That's kind of the problem with even pretending any of them have been alien craft.
When we can rule out any possible technologies that exist on earth, we are only left with technologies not of this earth. It isn't really that complicated.
When you really press physicists in private, some will admit to having a muted interest in the subject. But one thing that comes up is that time travelers are a preferred explanation to that of ET. If we make the assumption that faster-than-light travel is required for there to be visiting ETs, then we are into time travel as well - the two necessarily go hand in hand. But when push comes to shove, time travel alone presents far fewer problems than voyaging across the cosmos. It would also explain how they found us, why they are interested, why they keep showing up [assuming "they" do], and why they allegedly look similar to us, with some said to be just like us - someone you could pass on the street. Of course this is all brandy-by-the-fireplace type of speculation, but that's what comes up in conversations with some physicists.
The problem with time travel is pointed out by H.G.Wells. If I go back in time, and kill my grandfather, Do I still exist.
The Many Worlds Theory might solve that problem. You don't create a paradox in the old timeline. You create a new timeline - a new branch. You were born in the original timeline and were never born in the new one but appeared from the other. And the paradox goes away. Then again, maybe time travelers have always been a part of history and no paradoxes arise. How could they not be if they are here in the first place? If they are here then that has and will always be true?
Sounds like "Back to the future" to me. If we create a new timeline it would affect the entire planet, and suppose someone creates another, then another, and so on. Seems like earth could get a little busy.
It would seem that there is no limit to how many timelines can exist. And there would be a unique earth for each timeline. In fact, the most extreme version of The Many Worlds Theory suggests that with each choice we make, every right instead of left, both timelines exist. It all arises because of Schrodinger's Cat. Recall that the cat is both dead and alive until we look and "collapse the wave function of the system" forcing it into an eigenstate - a unique reality for us. If you look to Quantum Cosmologists who have to deal with things like the wave function of the entire universe, it is suggested that rather than collapsing the observed system into a unique state by making an observation, in fact OUR wave function collapse into a unique reality - it is the observer, not the observed, which assumes a unique state. But all possible realities exist.
