What if humanity is the most advanced species in the galaxy?

Quote: Nareed

I'll have you know the Soyuz can take as many as three people up at once. Three is more than a couple. Therefore your argument falls by its own casual way of being made ;)

Really…really…?

We know more about "space" than we do about our own planet…not so advanced, is it?

Quote:

Wouldn't it be pathetic if we were the
most advanced? Still trying to kill each
other over silly religions? Doesn't sound
very advanced to me..

A less cynical view would indicate maybe that's the very definition of "advanced" rather than some unrealistic utopia.

Quote: aceofspades

Really…really…?

Really.

Other intelligent life probably exists, but not in our observable portion of the universe and unreachable by either us or them.

Thought of another "What if" for this.

What if the Universe is in balance of some sort where the only stable points for life occur at points farthest from each other?

If you were going to illustrate, you could put dots representing life forms on a balloon, all equidistant from each other.

Due to energy fields (dark energy?) conditions only become just right in specific areas for life. The field is uniform (I could only think of an image of magnet to demonstrate an invisible uniform field)

So, the point is, this would make the ability to discover other life more difficult or perhaps even impossible because we would potentially be very far from the nearest alien life form..



Another way to imagine the problem is to note, the two place we have conditions perfect for ice caps are at the opposite end of our planet. Something like that.

Quote: rxwine

Due to energy fields (dark energy?) conditions only become just right in specific areas for life.

This is very doubtful.

While it seems very, very likely that dark matter and dark energy make up the vast majority of the universe, they have very little or no influence on small scales. Otherwise we'd have known about them much earlier. consider dark matter was deduced by measuring orbital spins of stars around galaxies (large scales), and dark energy by measuring the rate of the expansion of the universe (the very largest scale).

Aside from that, while we don't know everything that goes on within lifeforms, nor all about how chemical elements can evolve into life, we do know plenty. We do know what energies are used by various lifefroms and to a large degree how. Mostly we can divide lifeforms into two categories: those which make many of their own nutrients and those which do not.

The first category includes plants and other photosynthetic organisms (plankton, types of bacteria, algae), as well as chemosynthetic organisms, such as live near volcanic ocean vents. The second includes all animals, parasites, other types of bacteria, some types of fungi, etc. They survive by consuming the first type, or by consuming those that consume the first type.

Either way, only solar and chemical energies are involved in sustaining life. although most organisms produce tiny amounts of electricity chemically as well, such as neurons which can transmit electrochemical impulses to one another and to other types of cells (like muscle cells).

There's no indication of any kind of "life" energy or force at all.

Quote: Nareed

This is very doubtful.

I was just happy imaging an alternate idea that I hadn't thought of before. Now merit, that's a different thing.

Quote: rxwine

I was just happy imaging an alternate idea that I hadn't thought of before. Now merit, that's a different thing.

You could use it for a science fiction story.

I've read a few, now and then, using some sort of life energy or life force, and have disliked most of them. None were about the paucity of life in the galaxy. You could try that.

Quote: Nareed

You could use it for a science fiction story.

I've read a few, now and then, using some sort of life energy or life force, and have disliked most of them. None were about the paucity of life in the galaxy. You could try that.

Oh, I wasn't intending it as a "life energy" force. Much more mundane. Just a force that organizes the right conditions for life in only certain areas of the universe. And those conditions occur uniformly, but unfortunately put each life "spot" at long distances from each other because it happens to create a uniform field across the Universe. And the uniform field is the reason they are equally distant.