Is it mathematically impossible for us to be the only planet with life?

So it's very probably that aliens or life on another planet DOES exist, but wouldn't they look like us?

  • Ok.. so this isn't a question about wether life another planet does exist or not.. lets just assume for a second that somewhere, life IS present, we just haven't met it yet and don't know what it looks like. (In my opinion the universe is too old and big for other life to NOT exist) But think for a second about the life that's been created on our own planet... Everything has evolved due to natural selection, I.E characteristics of species have been passed down based on what's been the most effective at surviving in different environments. Based on this, is it not possible that if the characteristics that survive today, like birds having wings like they do, soo many mammals having 4 legs, eyes on the front of their skulls with noses below and mouthes below that all linked closely with a brain... basically what we see as being a "normal" animal, couldn't it be that these are ALSO the best characteristics for survival on any other planet? Scientists agree that for life there has to be water and some kind of atmosphere, so the absolute basics of life for any other planet has to be the same as ours, so why can't more advanced life be similar to ours as well?

  • Answer:

    I think there is probably some other form of life out there, but nothing at at similar to us. We know all life to be carbon-based, but what keeps life from being different than that? On other worlds with completely different chemicals and elements that we could only dream of, who's to say there isn't a possibility that there could be some life form that is completely foreign to us? If there are aliens, which I think there probably are (but we'll never run into them any time soon,) aliens are not going to look at all like us. They're not gonna have eyes, or a nose, mouth, stomach, intestines, lungs, whatever. Hell, they might not even have skin. If all life on earth derived from a single source and evolved, aliens would have evolved from their own original source, and probably came from a different chemical base, don't need oxygen to live, etc... Aliens, if they are real, are most likely nothing at all like we would assume. Everyone who says they've seen bipedal, human-like alien is probably either lying or deluded... It's nearly impossible, out of every possibility, that other life would be humanoid. I think there's a good chance that something either is or has once lived outside of Earth, but I don't think we'll ever find them, or vice versa.

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Well to be honest with you, the basic requirements of 'life' that we agree upon, food, water, oxygen, sunlight etc., only pertain to THIS planet. It's an assumption that scientists make that life in another planet will require the above. You see, if you strictly follow evolution, and it's core concepts, I believe there might be a race/life-form out there that might breath/*insert living mechanism* nitrogen. Hell, there might be other elements that we have so far not discovered which may be able to support life. This is my ... somewhat educated and high-school like guess. You see, we as 'humans' can still be evolving, it just so happens that we look like this now, who says in another million years we might not look different? I fell into this trap too, time is relative, and we are almost forced into an assumption that humans have stopped evolving, I may be wrong, but there is no proof that we are not evolving. I am not sure if I have expressed myself correctly.

Vishwanath

Yes and No. Yes because they practically are human. They have the same basic structure. Like a head, arms, hands, legs, feet, and stomach. But then again no. They will be shaped differently because of their different living habits. What they eat. lack of gravity. such and such. Some believe most sketches of aliens have a large head because of how intelligent they are. Hope that answers your question..

Nicole Richards

All multicellular life on this planet is based upon the same DNA molecule and very similar cell structure. Any other possibilities that evolved early in the earth's environment either became extinct, or retreated to highly restricted niches that do not allow for further development. So similar is the chemistry underlying the genetics involved that there are only small percentage differences in the genes that define a human and those that define insects. All this illustrates that when nature finds a design that works, nature just keeps reusing that basic design over and over, and evolution has no need of anything radically different. Morphology in the form of head shape, position of eyes, body shape etc are a response of the biology of the organism to it's external environment. The external environment may favour a particular number or arrangement of eyes for example, but ultimately the actual arrangement will be a tradeoff between environmental needs and biological possibility. For example the environment might tend to cause the organism to have two eyes, but the underlying biology may make this either impractical or prohibitively expensive. Since all advanced organisms on earth have the same basic biology we would expect them to all respond morphologically to the environment in very similar ways. However, a planet with organisms based upon a totally different cellular biology would be expected to respond quite differently to their environment even if that environment was similar to that on earth. Hence creatures on a world where the genetics was based upon a biochemistry that is totally different to earthly biochemistry could be expected to look radically different to earthly creatures. Unfortunately, at this stage we have no idea whether life can flourish with any other form of biochemistry than what is found on earth, quite apart from the fact that at present there is not even any evidence of life having arisen at all anywhere except on earth. Cheers!

Quadrillian

It does make sense for animals and other living existences on other planets to be similar to those on Earth, but if the environment and conditions on another planet are drastically different from Earth then it would be strange if the evolution and development of life on that planet to be the same. Scientist do agree that for life to exist there must be water, but I think that it would be possible for existing life on another planet to be able to survive using another source. If life were to develop on another planet where water was not available, it would be necessary for those life forms to find another means of survival.

Trust me. I know these things.

Because the probability of getting a similar enough enviornment on another planet that would lead to the same types of species on 2 seperate planet is just so small that it is an impossibility to happen. And before you say anything is possible because the universe is so big and old, think about this. The likelihood of that happening is like finding aliens driving Cheverolet on Alpha Centari. As of now, it is impossible to prove that there aren't aliens doing this, but by common sense we can determine that there isn't. There are millions and millions of little factors that cause Earth to be the planet it is and thus caused the species on Earth to be like this. These millions of little factors are constantly changing as well. So to think basically all of these factors would be the same on another planet and then would keep on changing in the same ways that they have done to Earth is just impractical.

Yami S

I do share your belief that the universe is way to big for only humans to exist. There may be similar beings like us in another universe but i can also imagine there would be other organisms in the universe that function differently from us instead of needing water and oxygen maybe they respire using a different gas or made of different compositions or different atomic structure. Scientists haven't discovered/uncovered how the universe ticks and everything so I do believe there could be things greater than we could imagine.

DaeScope

Well their environment could be different, for example lower gravity (which means they would be lanky bastards) Higher gravity (stumpy *******) they could have 2 suns, different skin pigments and maybe even a second layer of eyelids. They could look like anything. They would have to have something similar to thumbs i'd say, otherwise they couldn't complete complex tasks. impossible to say really.

Fletch

r aliens....good or bad ?

Lilly

They could be similiar but never identical. Earth science is not all encompassing.

pc-5

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