Are We Alone?

For thousands of years man has looked up into the stars with wonder. We have wondered many things throughout the ages, but perhaps the most important question when looking at the stars is, "Are we alone?" That is a question I have asked many times myself, and want to take some time share what I've come up with for an answer. This goes a bit deeper than do aliens exist or not. This also deal with what their existence would mean.

Do I believe in Aliens?
I believe that the possibility of aliens is existing is greater than the possibility of them not existing. However, I do not adamantly believe they exist. I also admit that while unlikely it is possible for aliens to have visited earth and/or for world governments to be covering up their existence. I'll explain all of this in more detail later of course.

Do Aliens Exist?
This is an obvious one. Honestly we don't know. While there are a good number of people who believe that they have seen UFO's or that the government is housing secret aliens at Area 51, until we have physical proof of them we can't know for sure. What we do know is a bit about our galaxy and the ones we can see in the night sky. This knowledge leads to two separate theories on the existence of extra Terrestrials.

The Drake Equation:
The Drake Equation is an argument based on mathematics for the existence of Alien life. While quite complicated itself, it simplifies down to a few key ideas.

1. In the known universe, science conservatively estimates that there are 6 septillion or 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets. That is if each star we can see has only 1 planet around it. There are also rogue planets with no stars, and most stars have more than one planet around them. 
2. Out of all these planets, if life needs a conservative 1 in 1,000,000 chance to succeed (we have proven life exists in a variety of forms in our solar system already, such as bacteria or other very simple organisms), then that means that there should be 6,000,000,000,000,000 planets with life on them. 
3. If on those planets, life developing to a state where the species is space faring (while in our infancy, we still are a space faring race) was 1 in 1,000,000,000 (considered a very conservative estimate based on how many other species on earth have reached a level of evolution that is only a step away from sentience) then that means 6,000,000 planets have sentient space faring life on them. 
4. Once space faring, it can be assumed that colonization efforts would become a high priority, leading to more planets becoming inhabited.  

Now, you might have a hard time wrapping your head around that many numbers, but think of it this way. If you play the lottery and buy a single ticket you have about a 1 in 120,000,000 chance of winning. The chance of alien life existing is  1 in 1,000,000. The chance of that life being sentient is 1 in 1,000,000,000. That means the chances of alien life existing that is on our level is only about 8 times worse than your chances of winning the lottery. 

The Fermi Paradox:

This is much easier to understand and explain than the Drake Equation. The Fermi Paradox states that: given the high probability of life existing, the fact that we haven't seen any must mean one of two things.

1. Humans are a fluke of nature, and exist alone in the universe.
2. Alien life may have existed, or may exist in the future, but the lifespan of a species is so short that they will never interact with each other. 

That's pretty much it. This came about after a couple of decades of actively searching for alien life and coming up empty. 

Effects of Alien Life in Modern Culture: If aliens did and exist and we were aware of their existence what would that mean for us? It would effect every facet of our culture, from our views of ourselves to our views in the belief in God.

Personal Level: Despite the fact that we have the technology to go to space, and have been actively discussing colonizing the Moon and/or Mars, many people just cannot admit that there is even a possibility of alien life. It's discovery would come at the very least as a shock, and at worst turn most of our lives upside down. Many people would feel depressed or confused, and as if their god had betrayed or lied to them. Others would be happy they they were right all along, and a few (like me) wouldn't be surprised at all. There would also be a lot of fear and panic in individuals because we naturally fear the unknown. The word alien implies the greatest unknown, and so most people would be afraid, no matter what the alien's intent was.

Global Level: While the response is largely dependent on how the aliens come (peace, war, ect) there will still be at least massive initial panic. World governments would squabble over who should talk to them, what to do, and how to go about doing it. The world economy would take a dip because all things this large and culturally shocking do that to the economy.  World transportation will grind to a halt, at least temporarily, and there is a chance that our communication networks would be overwhelmed. Not by the aliens, but by us. In panic trying to talk to everyone and find out information all at the same time.

To Humanity: This is solely dependent on the intentions of the aliens. If peaceful it would simply change life as we know it and what it means to be a human. If they are not peaceful then humanity could come to an end. Not simply as we know it, but perhaps all together.

I'm sure there would be many more ramifications as well, but delving so deep into the hypothetical is hard to do, and becomes nothing more than my speculations and imagination.

So, Aliens? Are they real, I think so. Have they been here before? Perhaps, perhaps not. No matter what though, the existence of Aliens would change everything for us. Their non existance could change everything as well, but that is for another time. Thanks for reading. See you next time.