Human Kind and Extraterrestrial Life Essay

For centuries ever since man has first looked up at the darkness sky and wondered what opposite things existed beyond Earth he has continued to explore the sector in search for answers. Over a few nose candy years the quest for truth has yield substantial amounts of data. It is true that antiquated astronomers did nonhing more(prenominal) than than just attribute mythical and religious core to different celestial phenomena. Stars retain been given their respective namesa group of them ar notwithstanding linked to gods and mythical figures as constellations, and were use as a periodtable for various adult male activities wish navigation and agriculture.However, the improvements in modern astronomy postulate changed the rules of the game from chaste nomenclature to a more profound exploration of quadriceps and the myriad possibilities that it brings. The quest for cognise other keep outside the planet has never been more evoke and providential as it had been origi nally. Slowly we be beginning to realize that the chances that on that geological period argon advanced carriage-forms out there waiting to be discovered are significantly high to support the claim that we are not al matchless. To say that the entire founding is a big place is to trade name the biggest scientific understatement.Science has revealed that the universe is so big that there are no mathematical figures to approximate its size. In order to define the know borders of space there is a need to express terms in a special unit c tout ensembleed a Light Or the hold that light turn ons in unitary year. Recently, the Hubble Space telescope has pegged the perimeter and edges of the universe to a width of millions and millions of light years (OBrien, Long Live Hubble). much(prenominal) distance alone beggars description. Within that given space, there are billions of case-by-case galaxies each with roughly 400 million stars in the system on average.There could be less but there could also be a dozen fourth dimensions more. At any rate, there are an estimated millions of stars with global systems like our own. Roughly a fraction of a share of that number may come planets that host organic elements of look two simple and complex. Some of the complex sprightliness-forms may evolve into intelligent life capable of developing competent scientific knowledge and even maybe communicate with their neighbors using advanced radio technology just like we had been doing at the turn of the last century. Planet Earth appears to be the further planet in the Solar System viable for life.Most planets subscribe noxious environments and harsh atmospheres. Our closest planetary neighbors, Mars and Venus, are each too cold or too hot (Sagan, Heaven and pitf totally, 76-79). The primordial soup which made life on Earth practical will freeze or dry up anywhere else in the Solar System. Indeed, religion waxes poetic that our world is an astounding and thought -provoking miracle of life. However, evolutionary scientists would say that we are just fortunate that the environment, at one point of our planets news report, has been conducive to the formation of life and the same has not been interrupted by any outside cause (Dawkins 19).Some planets in other stars may theoretically be as lucky to be able to give rise to life, and theoretically intelligent beings too (21). hardly just like Mars, Venus and other planets in the Solar System, the chances of life are rare. sluice with Earth alone, the statistics reflect how fragile the occurrence of life began millions of years ago. Unless there are kinds of biological species that can withstand even extreme environments and thus would continue to develop de besprinklee harsh conditions, whence Earth life might just all there is in the universe.Thanks to recent discoveries, however, scientists are inclined to believe that a authorized kind of bacterium can choke in the highest or last-place t emperatures, impervious to both heat and cold, makes it possible that life may soothe develop or artificially introduced in Mars and Venus or elsewhere regardless of hostile environments (Sagan 9). If that is the case, the chances of life may be higher(prenominal) than previously demanded. While scientists are busy in attempting to find life out there, the rest of the world is perpetually fascinated with the idea of the origination of extraterrestrial life.Science simile and Hollywood movies are in the straits of providing us with hypothetical images and scenarios of strangers visiting our planet. Alien invasion is one of the just about titillating themes that fire up our imagination. H. G. Wells War of the Worlds and Steven Spielbergs license Day bespeak both our usual desire to feel that we are not alone and the irrational fear that beings more intelligent than us would destroy the planet. The realm of the unknown viz. extraterrestrial life has never been simultaneously a we-inspiring and scary.In addition, fiction writers and film-makers present extraterrestrial beings as creatures that appear, behave and live entirely different from human beings. Similarly, if we are to accept the supposal that conditions for life in other planets were vastly peculiar, then it is fair to expect that the aliens would probably have tentacles, communicate through ESP, possess superhuman powers, spit venomous saliva, eat through metal or have human like bodies but with pasty white skin and large, black oviform eyes.Although they seem to be portrayed differently, the literature on aliens share the viridity feature that they are antagonistic creatures out to invade and kill all humans Scientists theorize that if other life-forms were capable of making interstellar travel they must have evolved as a species and as a finish to eschew violence. Otherwise, if much(prenominal) aliens were warmongers as movies and science fiction stories would suggest, then they would hav e obliterated themselves way before they have developed complex subject matter of space travel.In fact, alien tourists, if there have been some, would have more reasons to fear us than we would have to fear them. Carl Sagan writes that it is more likely that the mere fact that they have survived for so long is because they have learned to live with themselves and others (258). Similarly, he adds that perhaps our fears reflect our own backward thinking as a civilization, an expression of our guilty conscience about our past history The ravages against civilizations only slightly backward than we (259).In other words, the conquests done by Western civilization against their contemporaries time and again are so imbedded in our history that we expect advanced life-forms to have the same colonizing tendencies. The enchantment for extraterrestrial life grows with such gusto that several(prenominal) years by and by alien hype has reached feverish pitch, numerous sights Unidentified Flyi ng Objects all over the world have been reported. Likewise, people claim to have been abducted and subjected to eery experiments by our curious alien visitors.The encounters are few and far mingled with but each of them fuels our imagination. Thus far, none of the sightings have been confirmed to be true although we desperately believe that one or two are real (Cook, UFOs the Secret Evidence). As several critics of alleged alien encounters rightly observes, the relation between alien encounters and spiritual and wacky people who report them only proves the fact that these reports are a hoax. Meanwhile, humanity has yet to mature as a civilization before we even begin to welcome other intelligent species.Accordingly, science fiction writers posit the theory of the Fermi paradox stating the reason why aliens have not paid us a visit is because they, the advanced alien community has cordoned off the earth in a galactic nursery, until the time that we have reached an adequate stage, ready for contact (Tee, foreigner Life). except scientists and writers remain optimistic about the existence of intelligent life-form. The famous Drake par translates the disaster of extraterrestrial life into a mathematical formula where N is the number of advanced civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy.It is the product of set assigned with respect to the number of stars in the galaxy, the fraction of which that have planetary systems, a percent of which are suitable for substantial biological formation, the opportunity that life arises, the variable pertaining to its evolution, intelligence and further multiplied to the reasonable time that intelligent life is able to survive taking into account the possibility of self-eradication due to wars, environmental changes and the like (Ford, What is the Drake Equation?). The value of N could be any number more than one what with the number of stars and galaxies in the universe. Even if the estimate hovers on an insignificant value of 1 or 3, the prospect, that one or more planetary systems have intelligent life and such have survived and evolved into complex societies, is truly astonishing. The statistical computation of the probability that unknown beings exist leaves little to the imagination.Scientists are convinced that life exists in other planets that they have established extravagant methods of getting in touch with them. unity of the most ambitious projects of making contact to outer beings to date is the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program. The name of the project sums up what it sets out to doto search the heavens for signs of intelligent life. It sends radio signals and broadcasts them to specified points in space, such as nominee stars and planets. 50 years of sending the messages, a reply has yet to be received.Of course, this does not disprove the claim of alien life, what with the distance that the radio signals have to travel to and fro the recipient, but rather, this onl y inspires other scientists to develop quicker and more effective means of communication (Shostak, Finding Them, Finding Us). In addition, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been continuously sending gilt discs into outer-space, ever since it sent the first men into the moon, containing details about human civilization and how far it has approached (Sagan 264-265).To this day, the discs hurl into the infinite void with the hope of one day crash-landing into a planet with beings capable of deciphering the code. We have long been fixated on our earthly problems and conflicts, and took pride with all our achievements, but the moment that contact is made, the moment would change how we look at ourselves and how we appreciate our place in the universal magnitude of things. If before we could not care much about how severely we treat our close neighbors in the planet, we might fare better as an intelligent species by the mere thought that we are not alone.As such, we have to find ways to learn how to live peacefully and progress scientifically if only to survive long enough to meet our interstellar neighbors. Nevertheless, the question whether or not there is extraterrestrial life the Great Compromiser to be answered conclusively, whether we are alone or not Either purpose is mind-boggling.Works CitedCook, Nick. UFOs The Secret Evidence. 18 Mar. 2006. BBC Online Documentaries. 1 may 2008 . Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. London Oxford University Press, 1990. Ford, Steve. What is the Drake Equation? Aug. 1995. The SETI League. 1 May 2008 http//www. setileague. org/general/drake. htm. OBrien, Miles. Long Live Hubble. 31 Oct. 2006. CNN International. 1 May 2008 http//edition. cnn. com/2006/TECH/space/10/31/hubble. obrien/index. html. Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. New York Ballantine Books, 1980. Shostak, Seth. Finding Them, Finding Us. 28 Feb. 2008. SETI Institute. 1 May 2008 . Tee, Brian. Extraterrestrial Life. The Ten Big Questions. 1 Ma y 2008 http//www. 123infinity. com/extraterrestrial_life. html.