I find debate about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe fascinating...there is no right or wrong answer, as we simply do not have enough information to form a valid opinion. What we can be almost certain of, is that so far, inter-planetary travel is non-feasible (if not impossible) as any intelligent life form that possesses this ability would surely have already been in contact with our planet (they've only had 13.1 billion years to perfect this)...the same can be said of time-travel, as any species with this ability would already have travelled back in time, thus making themselves known to us, and the technology shared/stolen/replicated. I wonder what odds Hammersmith J would offer on a) us being the only intelligent lifeform in the Universe, and b) there being inhabited planets out there in the cosmos.......although we'd have to wait a long long long time to cash in our coupons (bit like us betting on QPR to win the Champions League?)
I reckon conspiracy theorists have been invented by government agencies to make us think that there are hidden stories behind our inane existences.
The last time i talked conspiracy on here i had to send out 20 apologies. Although i did see a program with the actor out of the film 'Predator' who was an ex-navy seal which was quite interesting.
Reckon some blokes in black suits and Ray-Bans came for him - he's now living in a cardboard box under Putney bridge, leaking conspiracies into the city via a network of tramps, winos and cheap prostitutes - and loving every minute if it!!
There's undoubtedly life out there but I don't think it's the kind that would travel trillions of miles in spaceships that inefficiently leave the lights on, dancing around the sky like epileptic glow worms before unsuccessfully reverse parking in the Nevada desert.
Undoubtedly? I'd say probably. It's another one of those things that we can only either believe or not right now, isn't it? Isn't it true that an infinite universe suggests infinite possibilities, rather than certainties? I like jam in my sandwiches.
I can completely understand why you'd pick that up and it's fair enough. The point I'd make is are we sure that all life that we do know about (down to a cellular level) has emanated from the same single source here on Earth? I couldn't be. Could you also be sure that there's no life in our solar system that isn't from that same source? Intelligent life is a different matter but not that different. Philosophically, it seems that only a dominant (sentient) species with a God complex would have any conviction that they're the most intelligent life in the Universe. I'm not sure my scale would do that improbability justice but it would be akin to sticking a pin in the planet and assuming the nearest example of life just happening to be the cleverest person alive.
Or even better that the universe had been created specifically and only for the God complexers. When I look at the life of luxury, pleasure and zero responsibility that my dog leads I'm pretty certain that I'm not the highest form of life in my living room.
Perhaps the reason we've not been visited is that we are so far behind other civilisations, maybe millions of years behind, rendering us amoebic in their scheme of things. Equally, we could be amongst the most advanced and space travel will depend on our discoveries and that of others at similar stages of advancement.
Maybe, if there is life out there on another planet, they are so backward in their thinking that they use whatever resources they have to look after each other and probably don't even have an armaments industry; we don't want their sort here. . .