HAWKINS: Is Ther Intelligent Life - on Earth?
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Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has been thinking a lot about the cosmic question, “Are we alone?” The answer is probably not, he says. He theorized that there are possible answers to whether there is extraterrestrial life. One option is that there likely isn’t life elsewhere. Or maybe there is intelligent life elsewhere, but when it gets smart enough to send signals into space, it also is smart enough to make destructive nuclear weapons. Hawking said he prefers the third option: “Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare,” he then quickly added: “Some would say it has yet to occur on earth.”
Comment by Carlyle on 23 April 2008:
My dad was obsessed with the lack of radio signals reaching earth. He thought it spelled our dome. He reasoned that if in the expanse of the universe that if we aren’t being hit with constant signals then life has not and cannot develop to where we are now. This position contains it’s own contradiction.
My solution to the contradiction is that starting from the big bang it takes time for the universe to reach the point where life is possible. By the time we reach that point the distance between intelligent life forms would prevent the signals from reaching others. This idea does not mean that we will always be alone but that contact now is unlikely. The signals will likly come first.
Comment by richard cochrane on 23 April 2008:
Carlyle, the distances and hence time are indeed staggering. Last month the brightest object that could ever been seen from earth - with the naked eye - light from a super NOVA arrived for a brief 2 hours from 250,000,000,000 (billion) light years away. Your Dad likely had it right.