Do you believe in aliens?

[hanster]

Actually, instead of alien it should be extraterrestrials. I am studying for my final tomorrow and this question really bothers me. There are so much beyond our knowledge as of today and to be honest with you i would not be even the slightest surprised if an alien comes and abduct me tomorrow.

[Morrek]

yeah. Honestly to believe we are the only life form in the entire universe seems pretty naive to me.

[Phresh]

I'm pretty sure the math supports the possibility of life on other planets. I have no idea as to whether or not they're as advanced as we like to imagine them.

[edfurlong]

[tboss888]

There are approximately 10^21 stars in the universe, the probability that no habitable planets exist is null.

[Klompy]

I don't believe in aliens.

[Suigin406]

it's been shown that life could exist on other planets, given we are just a spec in space...hard to believe there isn't life somewhere else out there...but how advanced they are, eh...

[bottomset]

seems to me its very likely life exists elsewhere in the universe, but extremely unlikely we will ever come in contact with it

[mason55]

where:

N is the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which we might expect to be able to communicate at any given time

and

R* is the rate of star formation in our galaxy
fp is the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne is average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fl is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life
fi is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc is the fraction of the above that are willing and able to communicate
L is the expected lifetime of such a civilization for the period that it can communicate across interstellar space

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

[Runkmud]

What they said...it's highly inprobable that there aren't other beings out there somewhere.