Alien life forms, do they exist?

[DaveC426913]

Guys, this is not the science fiction forum.

It's one thing to discuss the possibility of extra-terrestrial life, but speculating about machine offspring of extra-terrestrial technology is pretty far off the reservation.

 

[Tanelorn]

There is a chance that we are the highest intelligent life forms in the galaxy and even the universe at this present time. We might actually be a Trillion to one shot with all the right random events needed to make it happen.

However my view is that the universe has life giving properties and due to the vast numbers of worlds out there life exists elsewhere also. It probably can get stuck at any number of evolutionary points along the way so intelligent life is rare but I think there may be civilisations which have not self destructed and which may be 5 Billion years old already. A veritable gold mine of knowledge about our universe which they may not want to share for our own good.

 

[DaveC426913]

Undoubtedly.

Chances are, of there is life to discover, we will likely discover it roughly in the order of its ubiquity.

Think about an analogy between the galaxy and Earth. If we emerged from a tiny spaceship and started examining the few square millimetres around is, the first thing we'll discover is going to be the most pervasive forms - bacteria. We'll discover lots and lots of bacteria before we stumble upon our first ant, and we'll stumble upon lots and lots of insects before we stumble upon our first vertebrate. By the time we stumble upon a human, we will have thousands of discoveries under our belt.

So it is likely to be with discovery in our galaxy. For every planet with intelligent life, there will be 10 thousand that have bacterial life.

 

[Eyelegal]

I agree that machine based life/intelligence would have been made in the first place by biologically based life forms and didn’t say otherwise or try to compare the difference between the two. I merely stated that intelligent machine based life could be found instead of biologically based life forms. And entertained the possibility of biological non carbon based life forms (like silicon etc).

I wasn't suggesting that a machine come together by itself in the same way that chemistry brought us together or think that a collection of inert pieces that perform a task can come together by chance. And I never made a comparison between the two. of course the process of carbon based life/intelligence is different from machine based life/intelligence.

It could be possible that the makers that created the machines died out only leaving the machines?, or that the machine based life was on an exploratory mission to find other civilisations sent ahead by their creators?

Sorry I went in that direction, just wanted to cover my bases. I have always thought about us creating a race of machines, definitely very possible. There was a pretty cool documentary about first contact being between us and a machine probe, rather than life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFap3IEvGjo"

Guys, this is not the science fiction forum.

It's one thing to discuss the possibility of extra-terrestrial life, but speculating about machine offspring of extra-terrestrial technology is pretty far off the reservation.

I definitely would not have thought the idea of machines creating other machines is science fiction. By that definition your almost saying that the idea of the voyager probes is science fiction. They do not replicate but they are a form of machine life created by an intelligent civilization, drifting through space, are they not?

I thought we already had self replicating systems at certain levels, sure nowhere near the level of a lone machine creating a new machine from scratch, but we use computers/machines to create other computers/machines today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_machine"
And with the power of computers increasing in the way it is, estimates of 20 years (possibly less) for a computer as powerful as the human brain is pretty soon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/may/22/theobserver.technology"
Its something we really need to start thinking about now. And with the research into quantum computing, some incredible computing power hidden inside the atom.
Definitely not science fiction.

Ironically I found this when looking for information.
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=448369"
Same guy that started this thread, that's pretty cool.
What were the chances ? Estimate of only 10 years for artificial brain.

 

[DaveC426913]

By that definition your almost saying that the idea of the voyager probes is science fiction. They do not replicate but they are a form of machine life created by an intelligent civilization, drifting through space, are they not?

No.10 char

 

[Eyelegal]

What would constitute machine life?

 

[DaveC426913]

What would constitute machine life?

Good question. It is a made-up term.

I can think of a few things that, if I really wanted to stretch the definition, might fit, such as von Neumann devices, or virtual life, but they're still just metaphorical life.

In fact, I'm not entirely sure that 'machine life' isn't an oxymoron by definition.

But really, isn't that kind looking for zebras instead of horses when we hear hoof beats? If we are looking for alien life, why would we try to postulate some wildly speculative concept such as machine life?

 

[Integral]

This thread is wandering way off topic.

Closed for moderation.