This is a poll in companion to the Rare Earth thread. Feel free to comment along with your vote.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

What about other countries. \/

Wot? no zero??

PS: link

I goofed. Meant to click 1,000 and hit 100 instead. #-o

As for as my 1,000 I actually think it's probably higher but 10,000+ was too high IMO. My reasoning? The fact that I think there are other intelligent civilizations out there coupled with the enormous amount of stars in our galaxy. A couple thousand is really not that much when you think about it and goes with my (unsupported) opinion that intelligent ET life is not all that prevalent, especially in our neck of the woods.

I voted 10k+, if you define both intellegence and civilization very broadly.

Edit to add: I would consider several other species on Earth to have an intellegent civilization, in my broad definitions.

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Do try not to take me too seriously.

Well...we only have proof of 1 (us).
I think we can speculate, but without proof, I'd say we're the only ones!

It would be great to live in a "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" type of galaxy, but for some reason I don't think that is very likely.

Technologically speaking, we are very, very young, so who knows what/who we will find in maybe a few thousand years or so as our technology advances to a level where we can really search the galaxy and beyond.

I think any alien civilizations are so few and far between that I doubt if they would ever overlap in the time that they could communicate with eachother. Maybe someday we'll find the remnents of an ancient (millions of years ancient) technological society.

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"If we ask for something more than simplicity, it is silly then to complain that the something more is not simple." C.S. Lewis

I voted for 100, by which I mean 100 or more, but probably less than 1000. Just a hunch, really.

As I understand it, we have discovered very few planets outside our solar system. This doesn't mean that they don't exist so much as they are far more difficult to detect than are stars. Am I correct?

OMG! I'm more conservative than you, Archer! I chose only 100 but I actually think it's probably more likely to be 200 to 400 but not as many as 1,000. Then again...any guess could be correct about this subject.

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An open mind is like an open window...without a good screen you'll get all sorts of weird bugs!

I get the feel our Milky produced 100 - and I think some are already gone, due to extinctions

SETI will take a long time to find them

I agree that it seems unlikely that we live in a galaxy full of human beings in robes with light sabers and samurai mannerisms or sporting red or gold cloth uniforms and beaming up and down from starships to and from Earthlike planets - (where everyone speaks English.) Not to mention all the robots. :wink:

However I do feel, without proof, and based on the diversity of life on our tiny earth, that life-forms with their own intelligence (not our intelligence,) likely exist in the galaxy.

We have a tendency to define intelligence too narrowly, based not only on ourselves and the way we think, but unconsciously on our present day culture, including our concepts of abstract thought, logic and the cultural aspects of science; as well as philosophy, ethics and religion. Western culture, which permeates our civilization, and our abilities with technology, color our underlying assumptions when speculating about alien civilizations. (Civilizations being our concept, not theirs.)

Ok, perhaps I'm a spoil-sport... but I'd have preferred to see an option for "we don't know"... consider my vote cast as such.

In compliance with my traditional stance on this subject, I vote for 10. Life and intelligence must come in unexpected forms.

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If you're careful enough, nothing bad or good will ever happen to you.

Just right. My thoughts too.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Or the option, "1...ourselfs...we don't know of any others."

...but that option is up there --- 1(us)

I picked 100, implying hundreds. Something like a fraction of a percent of the stars should have some life, and of that fraction, a fraction might be what we would deem as "intelligent."
Now down to the business of defining intelligence. :-?

(I also agree with the fact that "1 sample" is far too little to draw any conclusive numbers, but just for fun, I'd like it to be hundreds... and have one of those hundreds meet us, be nice, and share some sweet sweet tech with us! )

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Feynman
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Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.

Why would they, though? What can we offer them?

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Apple Pie, Iced Tea, The Bahamas, Carnavl Cruise, Disney Land! :wink:

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Feynman
>~~~~<
Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.

Cultural things, sure. But those simply wouldn't be a match to the technological knowledge that they'd want to trade.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

The last several posts assume they are just like us. Practically identical in fact. It seems more likely that an intelligent alien group would be very different. Their behavior may not relate to lifeforms on our planet. We still might still be able to communicate however.

First we will have to discover some Earthlike planets. Or intercept a SETI signal that indicates an artificial source. Then we can take it from there.

BTW - I voted 100. No reason, just felt right.

You're right, of course. It's hard to get away from thinking of extraterrestrial life as similar to us. Look at your own post: you say we need to find Earth-like planets to find life. Not necessarily. :wink:

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?