NationStates Jolt Archive

Do you think that aliens exist? Have they visited us? Or is that all just bullshit?

As Bill Waterson put it in one of his Calvin and Hobbes cartoons: "The biggest proof of intelligent life out there is that they haven't contacted us yet."

I think you have to be pretty much a dumbass to think they don't exist. The universe is too expansive and contains too many galaxies, and those galaxies contain too many stars, and those stars have too many planets around their orbits for Earth to be the only life bearing planet in the universe.

Do you think that aliens exist? Have they visited us? Or is that all just bullshit?

My opinion is simply put:
They very likely exist (the size of the universe simply implies that), but they're probably very far away (thousands, maybe even millions of light years), and they definitly haven't visited us. They're also likely to be on a tech level nowhere similar to ours (either more primitive or vastly more advanced). Oh, and they're gonna be as different and utterly alien from each other as we from them.

As Bill Waterson put it in one of his Calvin and Hobbes cartoons: "The biggest proof of intelligent life out there is that they haven't contacted us yet."

Nicely put.

I'm not too sure about if there IS life... But at the very least I think there WAS life at some point.

That there is life elsewhere in the Universe I believe is a certainty.

That there is intelligent life elsewhere I consider a possibility.

That they have visited Earth I consider extremely unlikely.

I believe that if life is discovered elsewhere in our own solar system, it raises the expected commonality of life in the Universe by a considerable level - although I accept the possibility of cross-contamination between bodies in our own system (for example, evidence of life on Mars may not be evidence that that life originated there). If life is discovered on any of the nearby exoplanets that have so far been located then again the chances rocket.

But even so, I've seen no evidence yet of any realistic sort that aliens have visited Earth.

My opinion is simply put:
They very likely exist (the size of the universe simply implies that), but they're probably very far away (thousands, maybe even millions of light years), and they definitly haven't visited us. They're also likely to be on a tech level nowhere similar to ours (either more primitive or vastly more advanced). Oh, and they're gonna be as different and utterly alien from each other as we from them.

i disagree. maybe, because the earth is pretty much the perfect life supporting environment, any other life supporting planets are going to be very similar, and therefore the life on these planets would be similar to us?

just my little hypothesis.

Jesus has been busy visiting other planets in the meantime, hence his delay back to Earth.

i disagree. maybe, because the earth is pretty much the perfect life supporting environment, any other life supporting planets are going to be very similar, and therefore the life on these planets would be similar to us?

just my little hypothesis.

Well, i disagree that they would be similar, looking at what different lifeforms Earth has produced... and some of them are rather alien compared to us. Go back 500 million years into the Cambrian period and look at animals there. Imagine these animals (http://www.paleoweb.net/pal-ges/bilder/burgess_shale2.jpg) would have become the ancestors of land animals. I don't think that's anywhere similar to us. :D

Well, i disagree that they would be similar, looking at what different lifeforms Earth has produced... and some of them are rather alien compared to us. Go back 500 million years into the Cambrian period and look at animals there. Imagine these animals (http://www.paleoweb.net/pal-ges/bilder/burgess_shale2.jpg) would have become the ancestors of land animals. I don't think that's anywhere similar to us. :D

sorry, i was unclear. i think thats any evolution on a far away planet is going to be similar to the evolution we experienced here, so what i should have said was life will be similar, not we will be similar, because the other planet may be at a different stage of evolution.

sorry, i was unclear. i think thats any evolution on a far away planet is going to be similar to the evolution we experienced here, so what i should have said was life will be similar, not we will be similar, because the other planet may be at a different stage of evolution.

Well, that depends as well. In general, yes, but completely different paths are possible as well. Think about ecosystems in lightless environments, for example.

Given the sheer number of test cases, the probability that life has not arisen on any other planet is as close to nothing as makes no odds, and while the odds that no INTELLIGENT life exists apart from humanity aren't quite so infinitesimal, they are still ridiculously small.

As for why I don't think they've knocked on our doorstep yet? Insert Physics Here. Even assuming faster-than-light communications and propulsion, we are one of some trillion-trillion test cases for them? Imagine how busy they'd be just on the nearest globular cluster, let alone all the stars between them and us.

We as a race are obsessed over the question of whether or not we're alone in the universe. From the size of the universe, we can deduce that it's very unlikely that we're not. However, the concept that alien races could be far more advanced than us technologically (so much so that they can visit us over vast stellar distances) is flawed. I doubt there's any mega-advanced races in our section of the galaxy, otherwise we'd have detected them by now.

We as a race are obsessed over the question of whether or not we're alone in the universe. From the size of the universe, we can deduce that it's very unlikely that we're not. However, the concept that alien races could be far more advanced than us technologically (so much so that they can visit us over vast stellar distances) is flawed. I doubt there's any mega-advanced races in our section of the galaxy, otherwise we'd have detected them by now.

I didn't say that there are any super-advanced races nearby, just that they may exist out there (even if it is 100 million light years away).

Regarding our vicinity, nobody beyond a radius of some 80 light years can know of our existence yet, anyways (since we haven't been leaking radio signals before that), which is relatively tiny in galactic scales...

Well, that depends as well. In general, yes, but completely different paths are possible as well. Think about ecosystems in lightless environments, for example.
He does have a point though - evolution does have a habit of repeating efficient designs, (take the re-evolution of the sabre toothed tiger many times in the past as an example). However, if the basic principles of their evolutionary path were even slightly altered, the entire chain would be totally distinct. Perhaps they evolved larger insects than Earth because their soil prohibits the dense growth of trees, giving them more room to move. Then, from insects, perhaps six-legged reptiles evolve.

(I'm not a biologist, so these assumptions should only be taken as examples).

Actually, it's possible that life on some other planet is something like life on earth. I just think that life itself is such a rare thing to be born anywhere in the galaxy that it's much more likely that life has come on earth on an asteroid or something.
Who knows if that asteroid belt between mars and jupiter has once been a life bearing planet which was blown into pieces by an asteroid or something.

I didn't say that there are any super-advanced races nearby, just that they may exist out there (even if it is 100 million light years away).

Regarding our vicinity, nobody beyond a radius of some 80 light years can know of our existence yet, anyways (since we haven't been leaking radio signals before that), which is relatively tiny in galactic scales...

Well, any race with slighty better telescopes than ours would see an Earth-like planet orbiting this nondescript sun and assume life had evolved in some form.

Yes we have been to your planet.. We liked it so much we decided to stay and spend all of our time on Nationstates.

Who knows if that asteroid belt between mars and jupiter has once been a life bearing planet which was blown into pieces by an asteroid or something.

That wouldn't have worked, considering the combined mass of all the asteroids in the asteroid belt would yield a body about the size of the moon.

i disagree. maybe, because the earth is pretty much the perfect life supporting environment, any other life supporting planets are going to be very similar, and therefore the life on these planets would be similar to us?

just my little hypothesis.
Just remember that in this case "perfect" means between -100F and up to 300F, in between (inclusively) highly acidic and highly basic solutions, in a presure range of some fraction of an atmosphere to many thousands of atmospheres of pressure surviving by eating rocks, leaching chemicals, photosynthesis, eating other organisms, in methane, sulfurous, carbondioxide, nitrogen, or oxygen rich enviroments.

Life is nothing if not surprising.

Given the size of the universe, the number of galaxies, and the frequency with which planets appear, it's practically certain that life exists beyond our world, I'd bet even money on in our own solar system.

Is some of this life intelligent enough to build radios and radio telescopes? Maybe. Is it near enough to communicate even something as meaningful as "We're here too"? Who can say.

We as a race are obsessed over the question of whether or not we're alone in the universe. From the size of the universe, we can deduce that it's very unlikely that we're not. However, the concept that alien races could be far more advanced than us technologically (so much so that they can visit us over vast stellar distances) is flawed. I doubt there's any mega-advanced races in our section of the galaxy, otherwise we'd have detected them by now.

Unknown. Assuming they shared our species' inquisitive nature, they would have found us.

Some people would suggest we'd hear them by now; this is severe ignorance of physics right here. No one sends a reactor's worth of signal strength in all directions just to knock on a few doors thousands of lightyears away, and any reasonably powered signal would be overshadowed by background radiation before it got to another receiving civilization.

Add in that other signals may not be ABLE to be picked up at our level or design of technology, or that the intelligent race is significantly less populous (by crisis, most likely), or the possibility of a developmental asymptote (which would leave the species far too advanced to be likely to WANT to deal with us) and it's rather easy to see why we haven't any sign of them yet.

Well, any race with slighty better telescopes than ours would see an Earth-like planet orbiting this nondescript sun and assume life had evolved in some form.

Judging from this picture (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/71/PaleBlueDot.jpg), would they? And as I said, if they were millions of light years apart (that would be some far-off galaxy), i doubt they could see us.

I have a theory on this subject.

Its goes thusly...

There are about 250 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Out of those, lets say that there are 0.001 % of those planets are capable of supporting life one them.
That leaves 2,500,000,000 planets in the galaxy capable of sustaining life.
Out of that number, lets say that 0.001 of those planets, actually DO have life on them.
This gives us 2,500,000 planets with intelligent life.
Going further, lets say that 0.001 of those planets have the technology to acheive interstellar travel.
This gives us 250 worlds that actually CAN travel to Earth.
Last one kids...
Lets say that out of that number...that 0.001 actually HAVE traveled to Earth.

Conclusion:

Its almost a fact that other intelligent life exists that is capable of interstellar travel, but its a slim possibility, although not miniscule..that Earth has been visited by such beings.

So..looking at that, it seems entirely believeable to think that yes

That wouldn't have worked, considering the combined mass of all the asteroids in the asteroid belt would yield a body about the size of the moon.
Well, I don't know about that but it's possible that some bacteria have stayed alive inside asteroids even during interstellar travel.

Well, I don't know about that but it's possible that some bacteria have stayed alive inside asteroids even during interstellar travel.


Still, you have to ask, if live has not arisen here, where else? Earth is pretty suitable for that to occur. Why assume it would have arisen somewhere else?

Still, you have to ask, if live has not arisen here, where else? Earth is pretty suitable for that to occur. Why assume it would have arisen somewhere else?
Actually, Earth WAS suitable for that to occur. Nowadays there is too much free oxygen in the atmosphere for any new life to arise.
Some people simply don't understand how delicate life actually is.

Actually, Earth WAS suitable for that to occur. Nowadays there is too much free oxygen in the atmosphere for any new life to arise.
Some people simply don't understand how delicate life actually is.

Well yeah, the appearance of organisms capable of photosynthesis changed the atmosphere quite a lot. Still, saying life formed elsewhere and then somehow got to Earth doesn't really solve the problem. It's more likely life formed on Earth (possibly in the vicinity of some 'black smoker' in deep sea), instead of some asteroid or something. Of course, the base materials (amino acids etc.) can and do form out there, but that's a different story.

"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little" -George Carlin.

:D

(hmmm...my first post...)

It shouldn't be surprising that someone has already thought about this.

I read a while back about a person named Frank Drake. He formulated an equation in 1961 that would, "focus on the factors which determine how many intelligent, communicating civilizations there are in our galaxy."
The Drake Equation is this

R*Fp*Ne*Fl*Fi*Fc*L=N

R-the number of stars like our sun that form in our galaxy each year
Fp-the fraction of stars that have planets
Ne-the number of planets like our Earth within each planetary system
Fl-the fraction of planets like our Earth where life develops
Fi-the fraction of "life sites" where intelligent life develops
Fc-the fraction of "intelligent life sites" where communication develops
L-the lifetime (in years) of a communicative civilization
N-the number of communicative civilizations within our galaxy today

well, for clarification on this you can go here (http://www.pbs.org/lifebeyondearth/listening/drake.html)

I believe there is life out there, more abundant than the grains of sand on every beach on every world made by God, Chance, Zorro or Eric Cartman.

Instead of focusing on "whethers" and "whatifs", I'll just try to shift perceptions a bit....

It would be nice for a change to consider that Life as we know it, might not be the only life Available in the universe. For some reason we seem to consider that Life, and Intelligence needs to possess a body, have a brain, two legs and so on, and so forth... A few years back we though there is not life in the abysal depths of the oceans.
Point is, our perceptions limit our imagination and it always helps to visualize, doesn't it?

Because otherwise, we'd be several types of -ists' including but not limited to : spiritualists, or even worse (good god!!!) contradict the tenets of most popular religious doctrines that swarm our simple material intelligence...

So I ask a bunch of pretty blatant questions :

What do You consider the top of the evolutionary ladder, where does the material world cease to be of evolutionary interest, when does the perception of other dimensions than the familiar four, become an evolutionary necessity, and when the smeg does Time become a manageable evolutionary obstacle?

I don't think we know enough to be even close to visualizing anything but our own ignorance of the World.

Could it be that quite intelligent entities, (you choose the names please, I hate that business) are "floating" all around us, simply looking at us, waiting for the time when we evolve enough to perceive and someday, even approach a methodology with which to understand them? Could they be screaming their existence in a billion languages and frequencies we simply are not sophisticated enough to understand, yet?

The Universe has much more imagination than us...

Heres a little something i wrote: bassically there is some other intelligent life in the universe, but it is far outweighed by simple life forms like bacteria and aliens have most probly not visited our planet, and if they have such an advanced civilisation would not make themselves known unless that was there intent.

>Aliens>Logistics

Aliens. Im not talking about the ones that cross our borders and enter our country illegally, im talking about the ones that exist in the depths of space. Some would say that there existence is false and to them I would indulge the following fact: There are 9 Planets orbiting our sun, our sun is one of 200 Billion similar stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and finally, our galaxy is only one of a discovered 400 Billion Galaxies found in our local region of the universe. It is possible that we have only found a small portion of the galaxies in existence in our universe. And let’s just be insanely optimistic for a moment and assume that the universe consists of the highest possible number of planets, to do this we would times planets by stars by galaxies and would receive the number: 720,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 720 quintillion. Of which the Earth, our home, is one of. And so from this number comes a realisation that the universe is a big place, infact the universe is so large that its size is beyond conceivable thought. Who is to say that just one of these countless plants had the chance to develop life?. But let us assume that for one instance in time that people who don't believe in the existence of extra terrestrials are correct, well then I wish only to quote the words of Carl Sagan: "If it is just us, seems like an awful waste of space."



Of course any logical person given these facts would assume that the existence of life, even if it is rare, would infact be relatively common among the universe, unless of course they belived in some divine intervention. Unto here comes the common misconception among people who speculate on the possibility of life outside our home: That life out-side our own is intelligent, space-travelling and commonly evil. The truth of the matter is that by numbers this is infact possible, but it is insurmountably more likely that the life existing throughout of universe is that of primitive bacteria. That is not to say that intelligent and advanced races could not exist, for we are one of them. It is arguable that our existence is the very sum of a "perfect storm" of events such as the presence of the plant Jupiter, which protects our planet from possible asteroid impacts with its immense gravitational pull, or the position of our world from the sun, or the large quantity of water on our world. But again, even if this is the case, on one hand "Life will find a way" and given the possible number of planets it is quite possible that numerous sister Earth's exist in our galaxy alone.



>Aliens>Universal Theory

Now that it appears logical that the existence of life would be quite common throughout our universe let us consider the place of a "Devine Being" in our reasoning, but first let us tackle some basic knowledge: It is widely accepted, even by many churches, including the Catholic Church that the universe originated over 11 Billion years ago in the immense fires of the "Big Bang". In this explosion and subsequent reactions, all the matter of the universe was created in the form of Hydrogen (the most basic element known), unexplainably the universe was created unevenly and through the force of gravity the hydrogen started to form larger and larger spheres, which inevitably heated up though rotation and friction until such a time that a critical mass was reached and these balls of hydrogen formed a Star. Over the million's to billions of Years of these stars lifetimes they went through a process called "fusion" where two hydrogen atoms fused together under extreme heat and pressure to release immense amounts of energy and most importantly formed the new atoms of the periodic table which included Helium and so on. This is the process that caused our sun and all other stars to shine, this also accounts for the power of a hydrogen bomb. It is also the reason that there is such a variation in the type of matter in existence today. In time these stars ran out of hydrogen fuel and depending on their mass either exploded or released their matter to form black holes and dwarfs respectfully. The matter given off by these stars was reused in the creation of new ones and so on, this process repeated for billions of years until one day....



A cloud, made of hydrogen and every other natural element, in the outer region of the Milky Way which had been growing in dentisy for millions upon million of years, which was surrounded by smaller clouds that would later become planets, reached critical mass and became our Sun. Over millions of years matter clumped together around this Sun to form our planet and all the water, air and solids it is comprised of. As the planet stabilised and water cooled enough to become a liquid, larger and larger molecules formed and through an early form natural selection the first simple bacteria formed. And thus Life. Over the next 4 billion or more years life evolved through a process of natural selection. Then came a period in the last 100,000 or so years, where a very unique animal evolved which came to call itself "human". And that ladies and gentlemen is what I believe a brief history of the universe is. Of course new discoveries could change this theory, or I could have made mistakes, but this is the general consensus.



>Aliens>God?

"If you do things right, no one will be sure you've done anything at all" - Futurama. Is there a place for god in all this? Defiantly Yes. On one hand the universe and subsequently our existence is probably the product of a god. But where does god come into the existence of aliens? It would be nice to think that all the powers in the universe, for the past 20 Billion Years, had conspired only for us. A wiser and broader view is to know that life, our own personal lives, and everything that we are, are so tiny and insignificant but so rare and precious in the scope of the universe. It is here that I come to the end of my knowledge, for I cannot account for and probably never could account for the existence or lack of life in our universe if God is indeed added to the equation. I would think that a righteous god would not abandon us, to the depths of space for all eternity because if I allow myself to quote Carl Sagan again: "The only thing that makes the loneliness bearable .... Is each other."



>Aliens>Invasion

I didn't want to discuss this issue, as it deviates from my main argument by never the less i found no harm in dealing with the hypothetical attack of aliens on earth. What many people don't realise, partly because of Independence Day, is that there is no magical shield that could defend against the energy released in a thermonuclear bomb, it isn't an ordinary explosion and unless the aliens shields can defend from heat, light, radiation, matter and kinetic energy on an immense scale which I seriously doubt, then I would say that we humans have a good chance. Even if a shield was practical there is just no way based on the laws of physics and universal constants that any technology would be able to deal with the energy whether it be shields or a space craft hull (the matter making up the hull would be instantly vaporised in the initial fusion at an atomic level. Of course seeing as shield technology although unknowingly practical, is pointless against the immense and different types of energy released in a fusion bomb, that's not to say the aliens would have no defence. Infact not letting the explosion happen in the first place would be the best idea, we humans can already do this to some "degree" per the disabling missiles with lasers and missile interceptions. But realistically, if we were dealing with a total war scenario we would have no chance against a far superior, space faring civilisation that took us by surprise. Forgetting the idea of invasion, i.e. Signs, the most likely tactic on part of the aliens would be to simply arrive in orbit, then using some sort of advanced, clean, easily deployable fusion warhead wipe out our cities and towns, then proceed with progressively smaller payloads for smaller targets.



The idea of hiding too is pointless, as the aliens would already posses far in excess of the microwave, magnetic, radar, infrared detection systems we have in place.It would then be understandable to land devices i.e. robots, to prepare for colonisation. The best way to understand this is by thinking: If I was a unbelievably advanced civilisation desperate enough to attack another planet, how would I do it? Would I risk alien lives? Would I attack from space then colonise? A present day example of this situation is the recent Coalition-Iraq war, where the two armies were separated only by a few decades of technological progress. In this case the coalition took out military positions from the air then moved in heavy machinery to occupy the territory. Thus an alien attack on Earth would by over in a matter of minutes or hours. The aliens would be quick and efficient. Of course this scenario would never occur because it is logical to assume that such a race would only have reached such a technological stage through peace and even then there is no need to attack earth: Resources, such as hydrogen which would probably be the main element used by the aliens, is abundant through out the universe, and a planet would be easily triformed by such advanced beings. It is far more logical to assume that an advanced race would realise the prospects of peace on it society rather then a pointless hour long war for reasons which cannot even be imagined, all the reasons that we could possibly come up with would be already deemed obsolete by such an advanced civilisation.



>Aliens>SETI

I'm proud of how far we have come. The perception of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence was once thought as heresy, but now thanks to a generally more educated western society many people are coming to recognise the slight chance of the existence of alien life. I study in the year 2005 found that over 60% of western civilisation populations considered alien life a strong possibility. though lets face a few fundamentals first: Aliens could look like anything, it is highly doubtful that they have visited our planet in the majestic way perceived by many, although as stated above the chance of an intelligent civilisation is highly likely, there is infact more chance of alien life forms existing as simple bacteria or microbes. The chance of intelligent life is a game of numbers, if there is event the slightest light of hope that an advanced civilisation exists between the possibly countless signs of life as simple bacteria, then even a small ratio of intelligent life to basic life would give a comprehendible number. Infact it is belived that if life was to be as tough as it is on earth, and if it was the numerous throughout the galaxy as hoped, then many scientists believe that the number of alien civilisations intelligent enough to be communicated with is 10,000 or more in our galaxy alone. Right now it is hoped the radio is the means by which we will most likely contact an alien civilisation, but many now suspect that visible light may also be a form of communication. The "Drake Equation" deals with such numbers and as such the search for alien civilisations is not so much speculation. It is thought though that communication between an alien civilisation would be slow to occur, and would most likely be one way, this is because of the considerable distance of stars from our own and the associated travel time of light. The search nether the less goes on, not for communication purposes, but more so for the hope that we are not alone and that making contact will enlighten our sense of the universe.

The Drake Equation.

I think you have to be pretty much a dumbass to think they don't exist. The universe is too expansive and contains too many galaxies, and those galaxies contain too many stars, and those stars have too many planets around their orbits for Earth to be the only life bearing planet in the universe.

OMFG then the universe must also contain God for it is he who makes life and SHAZAM let the furious religious debating commence!

nah, just kidding. feel free if you want, though.
I'm not trying to flame/troll, i just had too much coke today and i dislike the backspace key.

I beleive there is probably life of some sort 'out there', but then as i'm one of these people who sits thinking about odd things like a 4-D shape (http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/7997/whatis4d.html) i can think od things.

but if three are traditional little grey men with brains more powerful than ours by a hundred score, they wouldn't come here for one reason - George bush's reactions to anythig not american. I feel that you can all already see the little smilies with guns so i won't even bother.

(hmmm...my first post...)

It shouldn't be surprising that someone has already thought about this.

I read a while back about a person named Frank Drake. He formulated an equation in 1961 that would, "focus on the factors which determine how many intelligent, communicating civilizations there are in our galaxy."
The Drake Equation is this

R*Fp*Ne*Fl*Fi*Fc*L=N

R-the number of stars like our sun that form in our galaxy each year
Fp-the fraction of stars that have planets
Ne-the number of planets like our Earth within each planetary system
Fl-the fraction of planets like our Earth where life develops
Fi-the fraction of "life sites" where intelligent life develops
Fc-the fraction of "intelligent life sites" where communication develops
L-the lifetime (in years) of a communicative civilization
N-the number of communicative civilizations within our galaxy today

well, for clarification on this you can go here (http://www.pbs.org/lifebeyondearth/listening/drake.html)

That bastard!

He stole my theory!
Well...sorta..and his is probably not as simple as mine..and his may be a bit more accurate...BUT STILL!!

DAMN YOU DRAKE!!

but then as i'm one of these people who sits thinking about odd things like a 4-D shape (http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/7997/whatis4d.html) i can think od things.

I like to think everything is 4D, at least would hope so considered the 4th dimention is time, and the other 3 are up-down, left-right, back-forward

Aside from the optical illusions of 3d objects ie drawings on paper or depth in tv picutres, there cannot be a 4 dimentional shape as you know it, simply because there is not a 4th dimention of space other then time. Of course if you want to believe in string theory there is somewhere in the realm of nine....but thats another story.

Anyways, all objects are 4D because all objects exist in 3 spacial dimentions and exist in time...the 4th dimention.

On balance of probability - intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. On balance of probability - it hasnt visited earth yet, nor will it ever do so.

Unless we visit them with our phaser blasters and our warp space hyper engines.

I rather doubt the existence of life more developed than us. Why? Because whenever a species gets to our stage, it destroys itself!

The chance of some sort of developed life is pretty high. If modern scientists can stick a fluid in a jar, apply ultra-violet light and watch as proteins form under purely physical laws, it seems reasonable to assume that such a thing can happen elsewhere. I mean, all it needs is a suspensory medium within which molecules can construct themselves out of free atoms and develop into replicators, then enough time to watch as the replicators engage in a sort of biological capitalism over matter to develop the first organisms.

Whether the sort of replicators eventually triumphant will be anything like our D/RNA is another matter. It may well be that different molecules reside within fluid substances at different temperatures on other planets, thus causing a completely different set of criteria for "stability" than our own climate. Life from other planets could be structured completely differently than our own simply due to a variation in available stimuli and conditions.

Could we communicate with such life? Probably not beyond simple E-M pulses saying "Look! We're here!". How do we know these things will even be able to see or hear? Maybe they talk via subtle changes in scent or give off photons of varying energy levels. Your guess is as good as mine, but it's fair to say that the chance of interactive conversation is slim in itself.

So, life, yeah, intelligent life, probably, but would anything positive come out of it if we can't even make a vague expression of ideas?