WINNER & RESULT ANNOUNCED!! 50/50 FOH's Weekly Poll Comp: #26

[MoeFOH]

50/50 this week puts ET's head on the polling block. No, not Entertainment Tonight. The question of Aliens... 

You know the drill: read the question, vote on the poll, elaborate in the thread if you so desire. Voting participants go into the draw for an El Pres sampler! - Drawn next Wednesday (Aus local time). 

All about 50/50...

50/50 is a weekly poll where we find out whether or not some serious bones of contention questions can be finally be buried or will instead remain above ground as a fleshy 50/50 debate... you know, such weighty issues as these...

If given no other option:

do you prefer Hunnicutt or Trapper in M*A*S*H? 

Connery or Moore as Bond?

Apple or PC?

Smooth or Crunchy peanut butter? 

do you prefer wearing men's or women's underwear?

 Sacrificing chickens or virgins?

...that sort of standard fare. 

Vote in the poll and further bolster your standpoint in the thread below if you wish. Poll Votes are public and there's a couple of sticks up for grabs for participants. 

Also, PM me Polls that you'd like me to conduct on 50/50 and there'll be a prize for those we decide to use. 

[OldEasy]

I think Intelligent aliens definitely exist, but I doubt that we have had meaningful contact, and even more so that they have visited earth, so I voted no. I don’t know that I would be shocked if we had, but I’m definitely in the skeptic camp until I see credible evidence.

[tigger]

15 minutes ago, OldEasy said:

I think Intelligent aliens definitely exist, but I doubt that we have had meaningful contact, and even more so that they have visited earth, so I voted no. I don’t know that I would be shocked if we had, but I’m definitely in the skeptic camp until I see credible evidence.

Exactly this.

[Cairo]

This is one of my hobbies--I have attended UFO conferences, have a library worth of books (yeah, the actual physical books), and have strong views on the topic.

My view is that they have always been here and actually live here--so that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is a red herring.

I won't bore everyone with a long rant on why I believe this. 

I am happy to report there is no evidence they enjoy Cuban cigars.  ?

[Corylax18]

Intelligent life somewhere other than earth is a statistical certainty. The Universe is far to vast for Humans to be unique. However, it is very unlikely, due to that vastness, that we have, or ever will have contact with another intelligent species. 

[Corylax18]

13 minutes ago, Cairo said:

This is one of my hobbies--I have attended UFO conferences, have a library worth of books (yeah, the actual physical books), and have strong views on the topic.

My view is that they have always been here and actually live here--so that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is a red herring.

I won't bore everything with a long rant on why I believe this. 

I am happy to report there is no evidence they enjoy Cuban cigars.  ?

I love the "Men in Black" movies. If I understand you correctly, you are of the mind that these movies are actually closer to reality then fiction? 

[Cairo]

1 minute ago, Corylax18 said:

I love the "Men in Black" movies. If I understand you correctly, you are of the mind that these movies are actually closer to reality then fiction? 

This stuff is a hall of mirrors--not the appropriate forum here imho.

[MD Puffer]

31 minutes ago, Cairo said:

This is one of my hobbies--I have attended UFO conferences, have a library worth of books (yeah, the actual physical books), and have strong views on the topic.

My view is that they have always been here and actually live here--so that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is a red herring.

I won't bore everything with a long rant on why I believe this. 

I am happy to report there is no evidence they enjoy Cuban cigars.  ?

 

Were you...probed?

[Cairo]

Just now, MD Puffer said:

 

Were you...probed?

Happily--no--but I have talked to a lot of folks who claim they have been.

[Fuzz]

Aliens are already here.... us.

[Bucky McSwensen]

I mean they for sure exist but almost zero chance they have been here

[Hadroxity]

Definite yes for me. 

[lovethehaze]

We r not alone but here .... hard to accept this without something better than these random odd stories. 

[MD Puffer]

23 minutes ago, Cairo said:

Happily--no--but I have talked to a lot of folks who claim they have been.

So have I. 

[Ritch]

8 minutes ago, Bucky McSwensen said:

I mean they for sure exist but almost zero chance they have been here

Ah good old maths eh?

In an infinitely large and growing universe statistically there MUST be another life form. Whether that life form is capable of interstellar travel, is within distance of being capable of travelling to us and can do as such in the small time window that a)they are evolutionary available and b)that we are in existence, remains to be seen.

(the human race has been about for what? 200,000 years? A fraction of the age if the universe.)

 

 

 

[IanMcLean68]

I can't vote on this one because it really is two separate questions and I would vote differently on each.
Statistically probable they exist. We may the the first though and it will eventually be us that seeds alien worlds. Either way, the proof would be mind blowing.
Have they been here is really a separate question from whether or not they may or may not exist. Physics tends to get in the way here in ways unlike the existence question.
 

[Jal154]

THEY WALK AMONG US. Usually in Walmart.

[MountainMilG]

Statistically must exist, just doubt they’ve visited us.  

[Optic101]

Definitely yes !

[BarryVT]

This is a big universe, I totally believe that others share it with us.

[Justin]

The vastness of the universe is simply too much to for me to believe that we’re the only intelligent beings out there.  

[Meklown]

It's funny how a majority of movies or fictional stories of aliens involve them coming to destroy us (mainly for resources). 

Couldn't they do it star trek style and just "observe"? 

The other thing for me is that some engineering feats in human history (pyramids, Stonehenge, Pantheon) are still technically "impossible" to be done even with today's technology. Alien help anyone?

[IanMcLean68]

Another difficulty is whether we are asking the question 1) do aliens exist right now elsewhere in the universe, or b) have they ever existed

I don't think option (1) is meaningful to humans at this stage in our evolution unless we find something close by. Not only are distances a barrier, but getting to them, or indeed them getting to us in any meaningful sense would involve time dilation.

If SETI were to receive an unquestionably alien signal today, however that signal comes from a star system millions of light years away, or even from a star system within our own galaxy thousands or 10's of thousands light years away, all that proves it that aliens existed several 1000's, 10s of thousands or millions of years ago to us, even though, to the signals themselves, they have travelled for much less time or possibly for no time at all.

[Ken Gargett]

i'm looking at the way the voting is going and then at the comments and they do not match. 

it seems most people believe that there is alien life. i should point out that the question makes no mention of intelligence. so basically if another planet has pond scum, you should be voting yes. then the 2nd part of the answer about possibly visiting. sure, possible (as in it is possible i'll start dating supermodels but extremely unlikely) but the way i read it is that whether or not they have, the vote should go to yes. but that is not happening. does that make sense? 

[Phillys]

I voted yes, but only for the existence, not visited.

It's highly unlikely that we are the only intelligent life form (and even that might be debatable) in the universe. There is an estimated 100 billion to 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe, not stars, not planets, but galaxies, let that sink in... Also, the building blocks of life are abundant in the universe. The time factor is also a consideration, if there is intelligent life right now, millions or billions of light years away, the evidence of their existence won't be detectable by us for millions or billions of years. 

Visited, again highly unlikely, the evidence supporting such a claim is weak at best, but who knows.