Aliens

[Demonac]

Those 'microbes' are just a hypothesis.

It's a lot more probable that they are inorganic in origin.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I believ in U.F.O's. In the literal sense. At times we see something in the air that we cannot identify. It is therefor an unidentified flying object. Later on we might decide it was actually a cloud or whatever, but at the time it was a U.F.O

Alien life? Well the odds are probably pretty slim, but the universe is a big place, so I guess it's possible, bt considering the age of the earth and how long it has sustained life, I think the odds of finding another civilisation at the same evolutionary scale to us is remote.

Remember that the most successful species on the planet was the humble Trilobite, excluding our friend bacteria of course.

[SkyWarp91]

If thee be follower of Carl Sagan, then thee shall believe in extraterrestial life in the cosmos.

[liegeprime]

Someone hasn't watched Event Horizon in a while...

Id rather not cross the vastness by using that method.......... eeeewww

[Autocon]

its not what buzz siad here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlkV1...layer_embedded

[Autocon]

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/dv...Saw-DVD-Review

I Know What I Saw - interesting ufo doco

[janda the red]

Event Horizon....... man that movie freaked me out 1st time i saw it.....lol

gok: yeah.....they maybe fossilized, but life is life yeah?

dont get me wrong....i'm optimistic there is life out there in some form, but i'm not wearing a little silver foil cap as i type this

janda

[Hursticon]

Ah, Event Horizon - I absolutely love that movie!

On the possibility of life outside of our Solar System? - There is and there is no question about it, the better question is: What exactly constitutes life? what is life's definition?

On the question of Alien beings visiting us? - I'm not sure of the scientists name but he put it very eloquently:

"Now, in order for Aliens to visit Earth they would have to be many millions of times more advanced than ourselves and to them, we would be nothing but mere animals compared.
So, imagine the Aliens are Us and We are a Colony of Ants - Now, why would a Supremely Advanced Race bother to come and visit us?, How often do you go and visit an Ant Colony?

The answer is you don't and for the exact same reasons why Aliens don't visit us, as they are so much more advanced than us they would be concentrating their time and efforts on doing things and solving problems we could never comprehend - Just like an Ant cannot comprehend the things we do".

Personally, I believe if we are ever to come into contact with an Alien Species, then we're not going to live long enough to even know about it.

[GoktimusPrime]

the better question is: What exactly constitutes life? what is life's definition?

The generally accepted definition is something that exhibits all (or most) of the following characteristics:

Organisation
Structurally composed of one or more cells, the basic units of life. Cells have sub-cellular complexities and in multicellular organisms, they are organised into tissues, organs and systems.

Homeostasis
Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state. e.g. sweating, shivering, sun-basking, electrolyte concentration etc.

Movement
Some organisms like animals actively move for locomotion from one place to another. Movement in other organisms like plants is barely noticeable (e.g. growing toward a light source (phototropism)).

Metabolism
Creating energy through chemical conversions, e.g. respiration, feeding, photosynthesis etc.

Growth
Changing and developing, e.g. in size, shape etc.

Response to stimuli
e.g. single-cell organisms contracting in response to external chemicals, multicellular organisms using using their senses for complex reactions, phototropism etc.

Adaptation
The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This is fundamental to evolution and is determined by organism's genes as well as the environment (and how the species can genetically evolve and adapt).

Reproduction
Ability to produce new individual organisms within its own species either sexually or asexually.

-----------------------------

By this definition, a virus is NOT considered to be a living organism because it fulfills some of the definitions, but not all of them. A virus does possess genes and evolve by natural selection, however they are not made from any cells (not even one - they don't even possess DNA, which is considered to be the basic building block of life), they lack their own metabolism and are unable to naturally reproduce on their own (they need to use a host organism to reproduce, much like a Xenomorph!).

This definition would also exclude non-biological entities like Cybertronians or any form of life that has evolved to become energy beings (considered by some as being the penultimate form of evolution). Of course, this definition was created by humans based on what they've observed on their own mudball. Cybertronians initially didn't consider non-mechanical organisms to be living... in the G1 comics the Transformers initially thought that Earth's vehicles were the dominant life forms on Earth. It was only after a while that they discovered that Earth machines are non-living and that organic creatures are.

...except for Tailgate who's always believed that Earth's machines are slaves and hopes one day to emancipate them. "I have a dream!"

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

: What exactly constitutes life? what is life's definition?

On the question of Alien beings visiting us? - I'm not sure of the scientists name but he put it very eloquently:

I visit an ant colony, mainly in an effort to kill it. I think we would be in trouble!