Are Aliens Real?

What Are Aliens?

As a prelude to answering the question, “Are Aliens Real?” we first need to define what we mean by aliens. For the purposes of this article we will define aliens as technologically capable beings who evolved on a planet other than Earth.
So we’re not talking about beings that are simply intelligent like elephants, dogs, dolphins, chimpanzees or other such Earth animals. We’re only considering beings who have developed technology like agriculture, radio, electricity and space travel.

First let’s assume that due to the hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe that each contain at least one hundred billion solar systems, there are bound to be a significant number of planets capable of supporting life. We won’t argue about numbers here. We will simply agree that there are a bunch of them.

The only real area of reasonable debate is how often do beings evolve on a life bearing planet with the ability to change their environment in a significant way. How many develop technology? In the early days of planetary science the pure number of solar systems in the universe caused most scientists to speculate that there must be at least thousands of space-faring civilizations in our galaxy alone.

These huge numbers are impressive and do make it hard to believe that life is rare in the universe but what about aliens capable of space travel or at least radio?

This author believes that despite the huge number of Earthlike planets that must exist, technological civilizations are extremely rare. Perhaps we have the only one in our galaxy. Let’s look at why I’ve reached that conclusion.

Why No Radio Signals?

While researching this article I searched the web for information about how many solar systems SETI (The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) has checked for radio signals. I found it surprising that nearly every statement I found from SETI officials emphasized how there MUST be thousands of technological civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy alone. They’re very optimistic! What I had a horrible time finding was any statement about how many solar systems they’ve checked and found nothing. They don’t emphasize that information. In fact, they don’t seem to like to talk about it much.
The best information I found in several hours of searching is that they have checked at least thousands of solar systems at millions or billions of frequencies and found nothing. Is thousands a small fraction of billions? Absolutely! Could there be intelligent live just not quite advanced enough to have radio? Not likely. We are a very young civilization compared to the age of our universe and we have radio. Nearly all civilization would be older than ours, not younger. We’ll discuss that further in a bit.

The fact remains that there’s been a considerable effort to detect signals with no success whatsoever. That doesn’t prove that they aren’t out there but it sure doesn’t help the case for aliens being real.

Are Aliens Visiting Earth?

There have been many people who have flatly sworn to the fact that they’ve seen aliens. Eye witness testimony is very unreliable. Ask any Judge or lawyer how many times witnesses swore they saw something and then “hard” evidence proved they were wrong. It’s a very common occurrence. Some are liars. Some were convinced about what they really saw by others. Some simply saw something they couldn’t explain and felt it must have been a flying saucer or an alien. Only a few hundred people have insisted that they’ve seen what they are sure was an alien spacecraft or an alien being. Out of billions of people on Earth, that’s an insignificant number. Most so-called witnesses have claimed to have seen something they can’t explain and assumed that it must have been an alien spacecraft. That’s far short of being proof.
The facts are that there is no “hard” evidence of alien visitations. None that is verifiable by experts. Photos can be doctored. No photo has ever been authenticated by more than a few so-called experts and in most cases those “experts” have a history of belief in alien visitations. To be accepted as fact, evidence must be accepted by the overall scientific community. Not just by one or two individuals who might have human biases.

No technology has been found that is of alien origin. Area 51 does not contain an alien spacecraft. If it did, hundreds of individuals would have to be keeping the secret over a period covering decades. That never happens. People talk. Dozens of people who worked at Area 51 have gone to their deaths swearing that there’s nothing alien there. Why!

Where Are the Aliens?

Now let’s look at some undeniable facts. The universe is 13.7 billion years old. Within the first billion years the first supernovas occurred. Supernovas are responsible for converting the hydrogen and helium created by the big bang into all of the other elements. This provided the materials for planet formation and for the building blocks of life.
The first planets formed at least 12.5 billion years ago. Our planet Earth is 4.54 billion years old. So there were planets forming a full 8 billion years before Earth formed. Let’s play really fair and give evolution on other planets just half that advantage. So think of all of the planets that have had a mere 4 billion year head start on Earth. Then imagine what we might be capable of in 4 billion years. Doesn’t it seem likely that we will develop the technology over that huge expanse of time to enable us to visit a huge portion of the Milky Way Galaxy? Or even the entire galaxy? If a large percentage of those older planets did the same there should already be hundreds or even thousands of alien species visiting Earth right now. Earth orbit should be full of alien spacecraft. Where are they?

Possible Explanations:

Maybe the aliens have a “non-interference” policy and are hiding from us. To believe that you’d have to believe that they are totally different in behavior from we humans. No advanced human civilization has ever had such a policy with less advanced civilizations. I know that’s what Starfleet does on “Star Trek” but that’s television fiction, not real life. And would ALL of those different alien cultures not interfere. Come on!
Could they be hiding from us so they can perform experiments on humans? Why would they hide? They are millions or billions of years more advanced than us. They would have nothing to fear and could take as many of us as they wanted to right out in the open. It doesn’t make sense why they would hide for this reason.

Could they have destroyed themselves with wars before they developed inter-stellar space travel? It seem likely that some of them would but not all of them.

One believable explanation is that inter-stellar space travel is either impossible or so expensive that even immensely rich and advanced aliens just wouldn’t be willing to pay the cost. We know that there are serious impediments to practical travel to other solar systems. Perhaps they are insurmountable. It’s not likely with billions of years to develop science but it’s possible and believable.

Another believable explanation and the one this author feels is most likely true is that our type of intelligence is very rare. There may be millions of life forms out there that are very smart but how many will have intelligence capable of building a technological civilization? That is in my opinion where the estimates of space-faring aliens by many scientists falls short. A dolphin might have an IQ close to that of a human but it’s not the right kind of IQ. An elephant might never forget but it never learns complicated subjects in the first place.

Are aliens real or are we humans a rare or even possibly a unique case of evolution that was highly unlikely to happen but we beat the odds? If we don’t destroy our civilization, we will probably have the answer some day. If no aliens make themselves known to us, we will most likely eventually check out every possible place in our galaxy eventually and perhaps even every place in the Universe. Who knows what future advances might make possible?

Thank you for visiting our Are Aliens Real post!