How likely are we to find extraterrestrial life?

[otseng]

Many NASA scientists think we're on the verge of finding alien life.

Ellen Stofan, NASA's former chief scientist, said in 2015 that she believes we'll get "strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years."

Many astrophysicists and astronomers are convinced that it's not a matter of if we'll find life — it's when.

https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-pl ... de-2019-11

Questions for debate:
- How likely are we to find extraterrestrial life?
- What empirical evidence is there that any extraterrestrial life exists?
- What are the implications if extraterrestrial life exists or do not exist?

[Clownboat]

If there is a reason to add the term 'extraterrestrial' to your experience, please share it.

The reason why I say the entity which visited me was extraterrestrial is because - while it was humanoid - it defiantly was not a human.

Then the OP is answered.
We are not just likely to encounter extraterrestrial life, VVilliam has encountered extraterrestrial life already.
Glad that's settled.

[mgb]

Why do flying saucers visit people? The reports of encounters are very revealing; a typical situation would be;

Someone is in the garden behind the house.
A flying saucer arrvies, stays for a while and goes away.
Then the 'someone' tells other people.
Most of the laugh.

What could the purpose of such a visit be? Obviously, the person they visited knows they exist so they're letting that person become aware of their reality. But if they want us to know they exist why don't they land on the proverbial White House lawn? They don't do it that way. They target specific individuals not the masses. Why?

We can conclude that they want some people to know about them but not everyone. Why?

These targeted encounters are so obviously deliberate and pre planned. Why?

They are selecting people who they can use.

[DrNoGods]

These targeted encounters are so obviously deliberate and pre planned. Why?

They are selecting people who they can use.

Isn't it far more plausible that the people who claim to see "flying saucers" are actually seeing something that was either a result of their imagination, or a human made flying object that they thought was a "flying saucer" but was actually something non-alien? That explanation is consistent with all observations to date, given that (as you say) not one of these things has ever chosen to land (on purpose, or an accident) or make itself known in any concrete way.

Given the sheer number of reports, you'd think that just one of these things would want to land and check things out closer, abduct someone for study (and how many claims of alien abduction have there been, none confirmed of course?), or crash by accident. But their operators seem to have taken a play from the god playbooks and decided to remain completely hidden and not reveal their actual existence. Most likely ... they don't exist.

[William]

New light shed on intelligent life existing across the galaxy
Date:
June 15, 2020
Source:
University of Nottingham
Summary:

Is there anyone out there? This is an age-old question that researchers have now shed new light on with a study that calculates there could be more than 30 intelligent civilizations throughout our Galaxy. This is an enormous advance over previous estimates which spanned from zero to billions.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 092753.htm

[DrNoGods]

New light shed on intelligent life existing across the galaxy
Date:
June 15, 2020
Source:
University of Nottingham
Summary:

Is there anyone out there? This is an age-old question that researchers have now shed new light on with a study that calculates there could be more than 30 intelligent civilizations throughout our Galaxy. This is an enormous advance over previous estimates which spanned from zero to billions.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 092753.htm

This even made it to CNN today:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/world/in ... index.html

[Difflugia]

This even made it to CNN today:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/world/in ... index.html

If we adjust that article to fit a young-Earth creation, then intelligent life should appear on Earth-like planets sometime between day 5 and day 7.

[mgb]

Isn't it far more plausible that the people who claim to see "flying saucers" are actually seeing something that was either a result of their imagination,

The people who report these things are ordinary people. They don't suffer from mental illness or have hallucinations in the way disturbed people do.

or a human made flying object that they thought was a "flying saucer" but was actually something non-alien?

They have been around for a long time. Do some research on dirigibles.

not one of these things has ever chosen to land (on purpose, or an accident) or make itself known in any concrete way.

Thousands of landing marks have been studied. They make themselves known in a concrete way to select individuals.

Given the sheer number of reports, you'd think that just one of these things would want to land and check things out closer,

If they want to check things out they can do it without going near humans.

have taken a play from the god playbooks and decided to remain completely hidden and not reveal their actual existence. Most likely ... they don't exist.

They are not completely hidden. Their appearances are selective and focused on particular individuals. They know what they are doing.

[DrNoGods]

[Replying to mgb in post #87]

The people who report these things are ordinary people. They don't suffer from mental illness or have hallucinations in the way disturbed people do.

But these normal people can drink alcohol, do drugs, or "enhance" their imaginations in other ways. They don't necessarily have to be mentally disturbed.

Do some research on dirigibles.

Dirigibles are man made, and do not originate from outside of our solar system. Someone may see one and identify it as a "flying saucer", but that is my point ... they see something flying which they cannot identify, and therefore it fits the acronym UFO. But it is not an extraterrestrial UFO, it is a man made UFO (to the person who couldn't identify it).

Thousands of landing marks have been studied. They make themselves known in a concrete way to select individuals.

Thousands may have been studied, but not one has been shown to be from the landing of an extraterrestrial craft of some sort. Pure speculation.

If they want to check things out they can do it without going near humans.
They are not completely hidden. Their appearances are selective and focused on particular individuals. They know what they are doing.

You claim to know a quite a bit about these supposed visitors and how they think. How did you come across this information? Or is it guesswork?

[brunumb]

The people who report these things are ordinary people. They don't suffer from mental illness or have hallucinations in the way disturbed people do.

What criteria are used to make the assessment that these are ordinary people? What exactly does that even mean? Given that the overwhelming majority of UFO sightings turn out to be natural phenomena or hoaxes, these ordinary people are just jumping to extraordinary conclusions. Then we have people who believe they have experienced something extraordinary and revel in the attention they get from sharing that experience. There are also ordinary people who nevertheless have some sort of preoccupation with phenomena like UFOs and have a low gullibility threshold.

[bjs1]

If by “extraterrestrial life” we mean creatures capable of advanced civilization and communication, then it will never happen. Space is too big. Much, much too big. If life is not found on planets in this solar system – and we can safely rule that out at this point – then the amount of time required to travel to another star eliminates any possibility of it ever happening.