Are we Alone in the Universe? Perhaps yes, and here's why.

Is it possible that the hundreds of scientists around the world that are looking for intelligent life are on a futile mission to nowhere –because there is actually NO OTHER intelligent species in the entire universe – The shocking answer could be – YES. I’ll explain why.

There are more stars and planets in the universe than all the sands on all the beaches of the world. How is it possible that we could be the only intelligent life out there. I am talking about intelligent life, not just any kind of life. I think ordinary life is probably everywhere in the universe, and I predict there is life within our own solar system. See my other video on this subject. Intelligent life is a completely different animal, no pun intended, than simple forms of life like bacteria and viruses. There is a good chance that there is NO other intelligent life…and here are 5 reasons why:

5) Earth has a very large moon compared to its home planet. And this moon was formed due to a colossal impact with another planet early in earth’s history. This collision caused the earth to almost completely melt, which led to molten iron being pulled to the center of the earth. The reason this is important is because it is the flow of this iron that allows earth to have a relatively strong magnetic field. Without this field, life would not exist, because cosmic rays would have wiped out any early life. The moon also gives the earth orbital stability, and has absorbed potential meteor impacts that would have otherwise devastated earth. Such massive collisions are probably rare in the universe.

4) There was a massive extinction event that occurred on earth about 500 million years ago – long before the age of the dinosaurs.Over 80% of all life on earth was wiped out. But luckily for us, a tiny creature less than 2 inches long, called Pikaia, which had a backbone, survived. This creature is the ancestor of all animals with a backbone – including us. If it had not survived that extinction, we would not be here.

3) For over a 100 million years, mammals were small mousey shrew-like creatures that lived under the shadow of the dinosaurs. They only came out at night because during the day, they would be easy prey for the huge dominant species of the day - dinosaurs. The only reason mammals dominate the earth today, and by the way, we are the most dominant of the mammals, is because the dinosaurs were wiped out by a huge 6-mile-wide asteroid that fortuitously killed our overlords, about 65 million years ago. It if wasn’t for that lucky asteroid, we wouldn’t be here.

2) Arid conditions hit East Africa millions of years ago. It didn’t happen anywhere else, but only in East Africa. It so happens, that living in east Africa at that time were tree dwelling apes, that were forced to leave the trees and journey into the grasslands below to find food to eat. Not only did this force these primitive primates to stand upright, which freed up their hands for using tools, but it also forced a huge increase in brain size… Because these animals needed a much bigger brain, and higher processing power to help them find food. We are a direct descendant of these primitive apes. If these arid conditions had occurred anywhere else on the globe, it would not have resulted in us.

1) There have been millions of species of animals that have lived on earth. In fact, many more animals have gone extinct on earth than are living today. But out of all those species of animals that have evolved nearly every feature and trait that you can think of….only ONCE. That’s right, only ONCE has the trait of higher intelligence evolved. We are the only animals that have ever lived on earth over its 4 billion year life-span, that has evolved to be super intelligent. Intelligence is by no means an inevitability in the course of biological evolution. If it was, then there would have been many such evolutions of highly intelligent species who would have inhabited the earth over its 4 billion year life span.

Had we not had many strokes of luck and multiple events going our way, we would not be here at all. Thus, it is quite possible that we may be listening with our radio telescopes to complete silence because there is no one else out there…other than us…imperfect humans on a tiny rock…orbiting an unremarkable star…in an ordinary galaxy…in a generic point in the universe. All we have is each other. So, there is a cosmic reason that we should be kind to each other.

[ArvinAsh]

Given how quickly life started on earth, life may well be abundant in the universe. However, given that highly intelligent life only evolved once on earth, over billions of years of evolution, it is probably extremely rare. Keep in mind, that this is all speculation. We are making extrapolations based on exactly ONE data point. So, people can quote all the statistics they want. Until we find at least one other life form, the stats are meaningless. Truth is we are ignorant about life in the rest of the universe.

[henrikpersson]

Sometimes it seems harder to find intelligent life on earth than in the universe.

[vincentcausey]

There are a number of flawed assumptions underpinning his argument, which I will now try and unpack. Taking Ash's numbered points in order:
5. Earth underwent a collision, leading to an iron core which in turn generates a magnetic field, essential in protecting the Earth from solar wind. Indeed it is. But there is nothing improbable about magnetic fields. In fact Mercury and Venus also have magnetic fields generated by molten iron cores, and if Mars had been a bit bigger, it would still have it's own.
4. The massive extinction even that occured but Pikaia survived. What is the probability of that? Well Ash tells us 80% of life was wiped out, so we now know - The chance of Pikaia surviving is 20%.
3. The only reason mammals dominate is because of the extinction of the dinosaurs. The premise being smuggled into this argument is that only mammals can lead to intelligent life. I know of no exo biologist who believe such a thing, and it is quite preposterous. It is also a classic case of backward reasoning: We are intelligent and we are mammals - therefore intelligence requires mammals.
2. There was drought in east Africa - only in east Africa - millions of years ago, and this lead to pre human apes leaving the trees and venturing out into the grasslands. The unspoken premise this time is that the drought had to happen at that particular time 4 million years ago. In other words, if it happened sooner or later, the evolutionary change would not have occured. Obviously, he hasn't even considered the possibility that the drought may happen any time in the span of 10s of millions of years. In fact, climate undergoes periodic swings (when the Sphinx was carved, Egypt had a wet climate).
1. Only once has high intelligence evolved over the 4 billion year history of the Earth. Actually, 4 billion years ago, there was no life to speak of. From 3.5 to 0.6 billion years ago, life consisted of little more than slime and bacteria. Come the Cambrian explosion 550 million years ago and things happened very rapidly. By 65 million years ago, life was becoming more intelligent, with velociraptors as a good example. Unfortunately for them they were wiped out - quite a set back. Then when mammals took over intelligence was reset backwards, but by 10 million years ago, it was on the rise again with apes and dolphins. In only 10 million years, intelligence reached is pinnacle with homo sapiens. So it appears that the development of intelligence over the entire history of life has increased at an exponential rate. Based on this observation, intelligence seems more likely the longer time goes on.
Conclusion: The universe contains 10s of billions of galaxies each containing 100s of billions of stars. Most of the nearby stars have planets. Based on these numbers there are no reasons given by Ash to conclude that intelligent life does not occur anywhere else. Most likely, the huge distances make finding them exceedingly difficult.

[Sasanthropas]

As Neil Degrasse Tyson put it, so far our search is equivalent to scooping a glass of water from the ocean and saying yeah there are no Whales here 😂

[benjaminamarante]

your point is that it was extremely unlikely for our ancestors to have survived, therefore we are alone in the universe...
that's not even remotely an argument...

[TalismancerM]

I think you missed the most likely possible reason: The immense timespan of the Universe vs the possibly limited lifetime of intelligent species.

[AfricanLionBat]

In addition, having gas Giants like Jupiter and Saturn keep impact events low enough to evolve. It is also not very common to have gas Giants further out in the solar system. I believe they're usually closer in orbit. ALSO, our sun is unique compared to other stars like it in that it is relatively calm.

[megamillionfreak]

I saw not one reason as to why we would be alone in the Universe in this video.

[sorennilsson]

Being alone in a 40 lightyear bubble so small that it from a cosmic perspective is not measurable. Nor is there anything that say that an advanced civilization uses radio. Nor is it unlikely that there are civilization miljons of light years from us.

[benrechakiewicz]

Even if there is other life out there. It's to far away to be contactable any way.

[kevinodom]

Who says Intelligent life only forms one way. We think we’re so much smarter than we are. We don’t have a clue when it comes down to it about life and the universe.

[kevtherev]

This video answers a DIFFERENT QUESTION: "Why earth-humans are lucky". Its nothing about alien life!

[BirdYoumans]

We only began to understand electro magnetic waves about 200 years ago or less. Since it is an invisible medium so to speak, what else is there in another dimension that we don't have a clue about yet? We could be exceptional or primitive, the jury of course is still out and will be for some time to come as we make new discoveries. All things being relative, even writing is a very recent discovery. We are but babies in the grand scheme of things. But it was indeed a long string of unusual coincidences that brought us to this point. Something else to ponder, do all lifeforms have to be carbon based?

[thecaptainsarse]

I’ve said it before.

We might as well be alone.

The size of the universe is unimaginable.

Distances are beyond human comprehension and reach.

We do not have the tech or power to reach, contact or interact with any living thing other than ourselves.

We aren’t going anywhere until we, as a species, pull our heads out of our collective asses and stop dithering with futile and narcissistic behavior. Politicians I’m looking at you.

The saddest part is we are going to go extinct from war and fighting long before we learn that we aren’t alone.

Given all the parameters and conditions needed to create advanced intelligent life (us) ;
The biggest hurdle is time.
We are fleeting. Our life spans too short to coherently advance mankind into an era of REAL space exploration and discovery.

We are alone. On a small rock in a suburb of a random galaxy among trillions.

Or.

I’m wrong and the universe teems with intelligent life and it like Star Trek out there.

But most likely not.

In 15, 000 years when another civilization Finally shows up and alien archeologists study our desolated world they will wonder why we didn’t do more given our apparent intellect.

Because we are human. We tend not to think bigger than ourselves or beyond our limited life spans.

#Sad

[nickpeterson]

Space is an amazingly vast crazy place. These huge distances in time and space offer unimaginable possibilities in life, knowledge, and technology. We have a lot to learn before we assume were alone...

[denniss]

Star Trek has spoiled us into thinking there is a M class planet always with in range of a broken shuttle craft

[arguspanoptes]

You only have Earth as an example . The sheer colossal number of galaxies out there with all their stars in each means that the maths is absolutely against your argument

[ReactiveTraction]

You can't even comprehend how large the universe is. Actually, none of us can. The vastness and the immense timeline is incomprehensible for all of us. All your arguments have much better counter-points. I call clickbait.

[mspointsfre]

People who disliked this missed the point. He's giving 5 reasons why we could possibly be alone, not that we definitly are.

[jacksmith]

You didn’t mentioned the advantage of having large gas giants protecting us from meteors
( Like a magnet)