What\'s at the end of the Universe?

Originally posted by "The One" Billy Gunn
Another thought, do you think there are planets from another solar system with living beings just like us?

Nope, I refuse to sit here and be ignorant enough to believe we..Earth are the only living beings in the solar system.

Originally posted by luckee


Nope, I refuse to sit here and be ignorant enough to believe we..Earth are the only living beings in the solar system.

yea but are they intelligent or just like a bunch of sea monkeys  :eek: or someting like that

The sheer number of planets makes intelligent life out there a certainty.  Even if you thought we were the only ones right now, our world\'s lifespan is like a blink to the universe, there\'s plenty of time for other worlds and systems to develop.

EDIT:  Stuff taken liberally from one of my old Astronomy textbooks from university.

First we start with the infamous DRAKE equation:

An early approach to this statistical problem is usually known as the Drake equation, after the U.S. astronomer who pioneered this analysis:

number of technological, intelligent civilizations now present in the Milky Way Galaxy  
=

rate of star formation, averaged over the lifetime of the Galaxy  
x
fraction of those stars having planetary systems  
x
average number of planets within those planetary systems that are suitable for life  
x
fraction of those habitable planets on which life actually arises  
x
fraction of those life-bearing planets on which intelligence evolves  
x
fraction of those intelligent-life planets that develop technological society  
x
average lifetime of a technologically competent civilization.


Several of the terms in this formula are largely a matter of opinion. We do not have nearly enough information to determine—even approximately—every term in the equation, so the Drake equation cannot give us a hard-and-fast answer. Its real value is that it subdivides a large and very difficult question into smaller pieces that we can attempt to answer separately. It provides the framework within which the problem can be addressed and parcels out the responsibility for the final solution among many different scientific disciplines.  As our requirements become more and more stringent, only a small fraction of star systems in the Milky Way are likely to generate the advanced qualities specified by the combination of terms on the right-hand side of the equation.

The reliability of the estimate of each term in the Drake equation declines markedly from left to right. For example, our knowledge of astronomy enables us to make a reasonably good stab at the first term, namely, the rate of star formation in our Galaxy, but it is much harder to evaluate some of the later terms, such as the fraction of life-bearing planets that eventually develop intelligence. The last term on the right-hand side of the equation, the longevity of technological civilizations, is totally unknown. There is only one known example of such a civilization—humans on planet Earth. Our own civilization has presently survived in its "technological" state for only about 100 years, and how long we will be around before a natural or human-made catastrophe  ends it all is impossible to tell.

One thing is certain: if the correct value for any one term in the equation is very small, then few technological civilizations now exist in the Galaxy. If the pessimistic view of the development of life or of intelligence is correct, then we are unique, and that is the end of our story. However, if both life and intelligence are inevitable consequences of chemical and biological evolution, as many scientists believe, and if intelligent life always becomes technological, then we can plug the higher, more optimistic values into the Drake equation. In that case, combining our estimates for the other six terms (and noting that 10 1 1/10 1 1 1 = 1), we can say

the number of technological, intelligent civilizations now present in the Milky Way Galaxy  =  the average lifetime of a techologically competent civilization, in years.


Thus, if civilizations typically survive for 1000 years, there should be 1000 of them currently in existence scattered throughout the Galaxy. If they live for a million years, on average, we would expect there to be a million advanced civilizations in the Milky Way, and so on.

Remember, that there are many galaxies like the milky way, and we\'re looking just at this thin 1000 year \'technologically active\' period....

To put all this into historical perspective, let\'s imagine the entire lifetime of Earth to be 46 years rather than 4.6 billion years. We have no reliable record of the first decade of our planet\'s existence. Life originated at least 35 years ago, when Earth was about 10 years old. Our planet\'s middle age is largely a mystery, although we can be sure that life continued to evolve and that generations of mountain chains and oceanic trenches came and went. Not until about 6 years ago did abundant life flourish throughout Earth\'s oceans. Life came ashore about 4 years ago, and plants and animals mastered the land only about 2 years ago. Dinosaurs reached their peak about 1 year ago, only to die suddenly about 4 months later.  Humanlike apes changed into apelike humans only last week, and the latest ice ages occurred only a few days ago. Homo sapiens—our species—did not emerge until about 4 hours ago. Agriculture was invented within the last hour, and the Renaissance—along with all of modern science—is just 3 minutes old!

Don\'t blink, you might miss us.

to me it\'s just difficult to imagine an infinite universe, even though that\'s the theory I find to be the most logical.  The thought of traveling on and on and never reaching the end is crazy.  and to picture the universe in your mind it\'s impossible to imagine it going forever, probably because our society is based on limitations.

as for life on other planets, yes I do believe strongly in intelligent non-earth life.  however the idea of three species of alien life, is kinda far fetched to me, if you don\'t know what I\'m talking about there are people that believe that there are three alien species, the grays, the reptillian, and some other which i forget.  the problem i have against this idea is that they say that certain species are inherently good, and other species are inherently evil, and in my mind there is no such thing as an inherently evil/good species of anything.  i couldn\'t say that Chinese are all good or bad, also couldn\'t sat that all chimps are good or evil.  well I\'m babbling so I\'ll shut up.

Originally posted by theomen
Yes we have a new thread that will inspire people to actually think.
Here\'s the question, what do you think is at the end of the universe?  If it does end, what is past the end?  Or does it even end at all?  And if it doesn\'t end, how far could it go?

At the end of the universe we will find a HUUUUGE Uber unbeatable TROLL !!!!!!!! So, beware !
As for alien life..... Dont we have Bobs Hardware ?

This thread reminds me of a joke;

What does the Starship Enterprise have in common with toilette paper?
.
.
.
They both swing around Uranus and wipe out Klingons.


Well, on a serious note, I don’t believe that the universe ends. I think that the universe is far larger than our own way of thinking that if we as humans even were given a glimpse of what is “the universe” we (with our finite minds) couldn’t understand it even then.

I only read the first few replys.. Lazy me. So excuse me if I say the same things and sound stupid. (that is just normal for me )

To me, the universe is an extremely intriguing mystery. When I start to think about it, I feel weird. The universe is supposed to be infinite, but how can anything be infinite? Is it just us humans with our stupid minds who can\'t comprehend infinity? (or is it just me? ) And if it isn\'t infinite, where does it end? What is beyond that? Another world? Wouldn\'t that be cool.

We are floating in this huge endless "thing" that no one knows much about. And yet I meet many people who couldn\'t care less. If I ask em those questions they\'re like "Who cares? What does it matter?" surely we could go through our lives not thinking about it at all. But for me, it\'s far too big a mystery to ignore.

simple

its a Big motorway(Freeway) Sing saying

"Last Exit to YOUR Universe "

I think small lady said it all for me.But I think I\'m lucky to have a g/f and a couple interesting friends who can spare the time for a little inteligent thought.

What\'s at the end of the Universe?

A restaurant.

Another huge universe that will soon after its discovery will lead to the same question that will plague mankind for centurys, until they find out that theres another huge universe beyond that.. which will lead to the same question...