How small we actually are in the universe

[WRATH]

But back to general intellegence, sadly rules like the 20/80 rule fall into place here every time.

I'm not very familiar with the 80/20 rule to be honest. Could you explain what you mean?

[Verios44]

I'm not very familiar with the 80/20 rule to be honest. Could you explain what you mean?

The 20/80 rule is fairly simple. It can be used in almost every circumstance that involves a population.

Example
You have a group of 10 close friends. Lets say you guys are discussing your next get together. 2 of those 10 people will will naturally take the lead while the rest will naturalky follow.

That is the principle of the 20/80 rule and if you think about it can be applied to almost anything.

http://management.about.com/cs/gener...reto081202.htm

Way better explanation in that link

[Fiancee]

Hmm, universe is as small as you are on Earth.

[Faria]

I also find it fascinating to think about how young our species is when considering the fact that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old. From a universal scale, the life cycle of 1 person is pretty insignificant.

[Archon_Timoshi]

Yeah we're pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. if our species disappeared, would the galaxy notice? ^^

[Moosk]

Yeah we're pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. if our species disappeared, would the galaxy notice? ^^

Short answer: no
Long answer: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[AGuyWithNoName]

I also find it fascinating to think about how young our species is when considering the fact that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old. From a universal scale, the life cycle of 1 person is pretty insignificant.

See, it's statements like this that make me reflect on the "Alone in the universe" question. The amount of things that had to go right for us to arrive at the concious level we are at now just sort of befuddles me. Not being one that pursued education into college, I could only imagine what that formula would look like if you were to put it in mathmatical terms.

Though now that I've actually written that out and looked at it; perhaps, it not so far fetched to believe that there could be intelligent life out there somewhere. I mean just because values and the like change within the formula does not necessarily mean that evolution wouldn't eventually arrive at a certain level of intelligence (intelligence in the sense of understanding and self awareness I guess is what I mean). Does it?

So considering where we derived from, if you fancy that line of thinking I mean, and considering that life does exist in microscopic form throughout space, then could it be possible to arrive at the conclusion that were the "perfect circumstances" to exist somewhere else, would we still evolve into intelligent beings just of a different form? Or would what we consider intelligent here in itself change? I suppose that's where you could get into your multiverse/parallel universe type discussions I suppose?

*Oh, ty for the link Op. Spent 10 mins zooming in and out lol.

[Bradtus]

Nice, thanks!
Love this kind of stuff

[WRATH]

See, it's statements like this that make me reflect on the "Alone in the universe" question. The amount of things that had to go right for us to arrive at the concious level we are at now just sort of befuddles me. Not being one that pursued education into college, I could only imagine what that formula would look like if you were to put it in mathmatical terms.

Though now that I've actually written that out and looked at it; perhaps, it not so far fetched to believe that there could be intelligent life out there somewhere. I mean just because values and the like change within the formula does not necessarily mean that evolution wouldn't eventually arrive at a certain level of intelligence (intelligence in the sense of understanding and self awareness I guess is what I mean). Does it?

So considering where we derived from, if you fancy that line of thinking I mean, and considering that life does exist in microscopic form throughout space, then could it be possible to arrive at the conclusion that were the "perfect circumstances" to exist somewhere else, would we still evolve into intelligent beings just of a different form? Or would what we consider intelligent here in itself change? I suppose that's where you could get into your multiverse/parallel universe type discussions I suppose?

*Oh, ty for the link Op. Spent 10 mins zooming in and out lol.

I'm a firm believer that we are definitely NOT alone in the universe. Now the best we could do is theorize about what kind of "intelligent" life is out there. Since we know so little, it's hard to come up with any accurate ideas of what could be out there in terms of other life forms. I was talking to Verios about the nature of "intelligence" and that in itself is a tough one. We would like to think that we are intelligent, but for all we know actual intelligent life is all around us and we are simply idiots trying to figure out the simple working of the universe, while it could simply be second nature to these other life forms. But like I said it's all theoretical babble. But it should be known that we as a planet are not that special. The majority of the elemental make-up of our planet directly correlates to the majority of elemental make-up of space. Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon are all abundant on Earth as well as in space. Our life on earth is based off carbon, which is not surprising. Carbon can form more molecules than all other elements by quite a bit. So to wrap this novel up, yup I believe other "intelligent" life forms are out their, but it's hard to say how similar in terms of intellect they are to us. (AKA I don't know anything T-T)

[teccho]

To go boldly where no man has gone before...