Survey
Results Survey
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| Survey results include both scientist and student responses. Students responded to their own survey questions before viewing any information from scientists. | |||
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| #1
Do you think Earth is the only planet/moon in the universe that contains organisms? |
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| #2
Do you think Earth is the only planet/moon in the universe that contains organisms with technological capabilities? |
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| #3
Do you think the Goldilocks Conditions are necessary for life outside of Earth? |
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| #4
Do you think humans possess evidence of extraterrestrial life? |
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| #5
Do you think Earth has ever been visited by an extraterrestrial life form? |
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General Survey Comments
| The
survey answers are too absolute, in my opinion. So when I answer "No",
I mean, "Almost certainly not, although I would not completely rule
it out. If someone showed me convincing evidence otherwise, I would have
to seriously consider what it meant." When I answer "Uncertain",
I mean, "I think it could be possible, but I have no hard evidence
to back that up. Again, I need to see the evidence in order to consider
what it means." Please notice that I did not answer any of the questions
"Yes". It is my belief that in science it is very difficult, if
not impossible, to absolutely prove something. Usually, the best we can
do is to accumulate evidence that makes us confident we are on the right track. In other words, one can never truly prove a theory. On the other hand, all it takes is one contradiction or inconsistency to disprove a theory, or part of it. That doesn't mean the whole theory is wrong, just the part that is being tested by whatever experiment is being performed. I don't like surveys, but the facts are: (1) we have no solid evidence at all for any extraterrestrial life; (2) all we know about terrestrial life, and especially intelligent life, indicates that it is the result of long series of improbable accidents. From these facts I conclude that life, and especially intelligent life, is a very special and improbable phenomenon. We have no way to estimate how improbable, but I don't expect that we'll ever find extraterrestrial life. I plan to spend my time studying things that we have more hope of actually learning something about. Of course, all answers are uncertain. They are educated guesses based on current knowledge. The only question to which there is an essentially certain answer is number 4. (More precisely, I would say "unlikely", not "no".) I think the answers to the above question depend on the definition of the term 'organism'. Is it necessary for organisms to have DNA? Is it necessary for organisms to be carbon based? The answers to these questions lie in biological research into the origins of life and what may have generated the original 'organisms'. Once such a definition is provided, answering the above questions requires a statistical analysis of the occurrence of different chemical environments in the vicinities of stars. Too general. Define life. A bit too black and white. Though I suspect it is unlikely that the solar system is the ONLY place where intelligent life exists, I have to reply 'uncertain' as we have no definitive evidence either way. If we ARE the sole location, there are massive implications for how we should be treating our environment.If I had to bet, I'd say there's life out there. But in truth we don't know one way or the other. For
more answers to questions like those below (student
questions), particularly about cosmology, see my web-page: A lot of these I have checked "no" because it is impossible to prove a statement like "only" without checking every other planet. I think technological life is probably quite rare, but that it would be unique in the universe does seem unlikely, for example. |
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