maple's.fortunes
there is no central destination
Is There Life Out There?
I’ve been thinking about this topic lately. I don’t see how there cannot be other life out there. There are so many other stars out there that it seems absurd to think that we, on our tiny little speck, are the only living things in the Universe. A comment on an article I was reading about the subject said it very well.
I think it is nothing but hubris to think that, in all of space, we are the only planet with sentient life.
I think that that statement says it all. If we really are the only living things in the universe, then this is one amazing planet (which we already know that it is, but that would make it even more amazing). But, I simply cannot believe that we are the only life. Dr. Seth Shostak, the Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute had this to say on the subject:
Well, it comes down to this, there is a lot of cosmic real estate. There are four or five hundred billion stars in our galaxy. There are one-hundred billion other galaxies, each with a few hundred billion stars. You add that all up, that’s a lot of real estate. So, just on the basis of the numbers, you figure that, unless this is some sort of miracle here, there is going to be other life out there and some of it is going to be intelligent.
I think that what he said there pretty well sums up how I feel about the subject. There is so much more out there. We are just this tiny little blip in space. Bill Nye puts us into perspective with the rest of the universe quite nicely.
So, I’m this guy, standing on a planet. Our planet is pretty big compared to me. Really, I’m just a speck, standing on this big planet, but the planet compared with the stars is just another speck. The Earth is orbiting the sun and the sun is a huge star and our star may be a big deal to us, but my friends, our star is just another speck. So, I’m a guy, I’m a speck, living on a speck out on the edge of the galaxy. I mean it isn’t really in downtown Milky Way, it’s way out on the side. We’re just a speck on a speck, orbiting a speck. I’ll tell you what else, there is billions and billions of stars, billions and billions of specks. And then billions of galaxies. I mean, I’m a speck living on a speck, orbiting a speck in the middle of specklessness.
If you are interested in this subject, you should check out the first episode of The Eyes of Nye, which is titled Astrobiology. It is a pretty cool show. If you don’t know what it is, it is Bill Nye’s adult science show. Check it out!
November 16th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Hey, I just showed that episode to my nines today. At least I hope I did because that is what I left behind for the sub to show!
November 16th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
That’s strange. I just wrote out a nice little reply and then submitted it, but it disappeared instead. Oh well, I guess I’ll just write another one.
Haha, that’s awesome. I bet they’ll enjoy it. I actually started writing this a long time ago, but left it at the parts where I had to get the quotes from the episode. I finally got around to doing that tonight.
November 18th, 2007 at 10:11 am
While I do agree with you, I thought it WAS a miracle?