Simple math, ancient Egypt:

Originally posted by @sonhouse
There is no way in hell humans could ever prove Earth is the only planet sustaining life. For one thing, even if we could travel at the speed of light, there is a big portion of the universe forever out of our reach because the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light and even if humans were around for a billion years and spent all that time lo ...[text shortened]... galaxy alone. And remember, there are literally hundreds of billions of galaxy. So do the math🙂

I get all that but my point is that it hasn't been PROVEN. Any more than an omnipotent God figure has. Maths. 0 = 0. I'm good at equations. See?

However, we do have proof of there being humans and that humans have technological capability. More advanced equation but along the same lines. 1 = 1. * shaves nutsack with Occums razor*

Originally posted by @christopher-albon
I get all that but my point is that it hasn't been PROVEN. Any more than an omnipotent God figure has. Maths. 0 = 0. I'm good at equations. See?

However, we do have proof of there being humans and that humans have technological capability. More advanced equation but along the same lines. 1 = 1. * shaves nutsack with Occums razor*

My guess is we will find life here in our own solar system and maybe using IR telescopes in space or large radio telescopes we may find the signs of life on planets around stars not too far from Sol, say 100 ly or so, we may find anamolous readings of methane or O2 or even smog.

But I think before we see that we will find life right here in our back yard so to speak, say one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn or even underground in Mars, maybe just microbes but it will be life and then the question is, does it resemble our DNA or is it something completely alien? News at 11....

Cockroaches will survive, I reckon.

Originally posted by @sonhouse
My guess is we will find life here in our own solar system and maybe using IR telescopes in space or large radio telescopes we may find the signs of life on planets around stars not too far from Sol, say 100 ly or so, we may find anamolous readings of methane or O2 or even smog.

But I think before we see that we will find life right here in our back ya ...[text shortened]... en the question is, does it resemble our DNA or is it something completely alien? News at 11....

Do you reckon that'll happen before humankind can extend it's life indefinitely?

Originally posted by @christopher-albon
Do you reckon that'll happen before humankind can extend it's life indefinitely?

That would be an untenable situation, if we could live say, 10,000 years and still have children, what do you thiink the population would be after the first thousand years?

In order for that to happen, to make people immortal, they would have to forgo the idea of having children.
That would lead to a situation where the civilization would be stuck in a static zone, nobody coming up with new ideas, only the old ideas rewrapped.

Civilization would stagnate.

Don't think i would like to be part of a society like that.

But I think we will find life within the next 100 years or so when we get good probes to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn and really dig deep into Mars. Just a guess of course.

Originally posted by @sonhouse
That would be an untenable situation, if we could live say, 10,000 years and still have children, what do you thiink the population would be after the first thousand years?

In order for that to happen, to make people immortal, they would have to forgo the idea of having children.
That would lead to a situation where the civilization would be stuck in ...[text shortened]... probes to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn and really dig deep into Mars. Just a guess of course.

I think it might stabilise the population. People wouldn't be in a rush to have children if they knew they could live for a very long time. Maybe it would impact acts of malice and greed too when people aren't in such a rush to cram everything in to a short life span.

At the current rate of progress, it should only take another 50 years to double our life spans and that's with just a few monkeys on the job. Then another 20 to double it and so on. So we're kind of at the precipice.

Why do you think nobody would come up with new ideas? I suggest leaving drugs on the menu. That way we can wipe our memories.

edit. Also didn't you say there's probably some aliens about. Surely the coalition of ideas in a cooling universe that tends towards greater and greater civilization would be an unending source of opportunity for new ideas.

Originally posted by @christopher-albon
I think it might stabilise the population. People wouldn't be in a rush to have children if they knew they could live for a very long time. Maybe it would impact acts of malice and greed too when people aren't in such a rush to cram everything in to a short life span.

At the current rate of progress, it should only take another 50 years to doub ...[text shortened]... wards greater and greater civilization would be an unending source of opportunity for new ideas.

Maybe if you actually were able to talk to aliens. But with the speed of light as a limitation, the amount of talking would decrease dramatically if your alien buddy was more than 10 light years away, there, 20 years for hi, Hi back, how are you.

100 light years, 200 years to reply.

1000 light years, 2000 years to reply. The galaxy is about 100,000 light years across so someone on the other end, 200,000 years for a reply. Then think, perhaps there is only one high tech civilization per galaxy. We would have free reign of our whole galaxy with nobody to stop us.

That would leave Andromeda, say ITS one high tech civilization tries to talk to us. It's about 1 million light years away. So 2 million years for each reply. See the problem?

Alien buddies would have to be really close, under 100 light years away for any kind of dialog or tranmission of the galactic encyclopedia🙂

Even supposing there were two civilisations capable of communicating across vast distances, there is no reason to think they would achieve such capability at roughly the same time. One could flower, wither, and turn to dust before the other even got out of the primordial soup stage.

Originally posted by @sonhouse
Maybe if you actually were able to talk to aliens. But with the speed of light as a limitation, the amount of talking would decrease dramatically if your alien buddy was more than 10 light years away, there, 20 years for hi, Hi back, how are you.

100 light years, 200 years to reply.

1000 light years, 2000 years to reply. The galaxy is about 100,000 l ...[text shortened]... under 100 light years away for any kind of dialog or tranmission of the galactic encyclopedia🙂

Well, we'll have to build some massive simulators then and simulate entire galaxies. We'll miss out on the club points but could then do anything we wanted. I fail to see how we'd get bored, stagnant.

If I understand it correctly it would take a computational mass the size of a planet using todays (known) technology to simulate the entire of human history.

Of course, we'd need a system of rules to implement balance and limit suffering and then we'd need some way of making sure the computer itself wasn't suffering. Tall order.

Originally posted by @moonbus
Even supposing there were two civilisations capable of communicating across vast distances, there is no reason to think they would achieve such capability at roughly the same time. One could flower, wither, and turn to dust before the other even got out of the primordial soup stage.

Oh yes, the magical soup. Might as well believe life is a result of pink elephants farting as they dance.

Originally posted by @eladar
Oh yes, the magical soup. Might as well believe life is a result of pink elephants farting as they dance.

Do you really expect to turn people into your POV with such arrogance?

Originally posted by @sonhouse
Do you really expect to turn people into your POV with such arrogance?

What? You don't like it when the tables are turned.

I do not care what you believe. I do not wish to convince others to believe anything. I suppose that's a fundamental difference between me and you.

The mythical magical soup is a key belief for those who claim their beliefs are rooted in empirical data.

Originally posted by @moonbus
We have over-populated the planet and are in the process of rendering large parts of it no longer suitable for human habitation, in less than ten thousand years. Idiots are chopping down the last unspoiled rain forest in Brazil as fast as they can drive bulldozers in there, and thereby eliminating one of the last best carbon sinks.

Our pesticides and other ...[text shortened]... hink so. Any species which over-populates and spoils its habitat is on the fast track to extinction.

I haven't heard of a space-faring species which died off.

Originally posted by @eladar
What? You don't like it when the tables are turned.

I do not care what you believe. I do not wish to convince others to believe anything. I suppose that's a fundamental difference between me and you.

The mythical magical soup is a key belief for those who claim their beliefs are rooted in empirical data.

There are three stages to santa-belief.

Originally posted by @apathist
There [b]are three stages to santa-belief.[/b]

So you believe Santa is the source of life? Just as much support for Santa as the magical soup.