On: Ask HN: Do you believe we'll ever encounter aliens?

[emilsedgh]

Forget stuff you watched on Stargate. Probably first encounters would be much less interesting. Like we find a few bacterias there. Or with best luck, an animal or something like that.

Really, encountering inteligence life on other planets would be very damn interesting, but IMHO, highly unlikely.

[paol → emilsedgh]

Still, even finding non-intelligent alien life would make it much more likely that intelligent alien life exists somewhere.

(Basically there are 2 probabilities we can't estimate now, other that they are != 0: the probability of life appearing on a given planet (P1), and the probability of intelligence evolving once life is present (P2). The probability of intelligent life then is P1 x P2)

[proexploit → paol]

Finding non-intelligent alien life would not make it more likely that intelligent alien life exists. It either exists or it doesn't. :)

[byoung2 → proexploit]

I think he meant that finding non-intelligent alien life might make the possibility that there is also intelligent alien life more believable.

[InclinedPlane → proexploit]

This is semantics.

Finding non-intelligent alien life would raise our current estimate for the likelihood that intelligent non-human life exists.

Is that better? :P

[proexploit → InclinedPlane]

Yes, much better, I was just having a little fun.