Asklemmy

As a metaphysical solipsist, I haven’t decided yet.

Growing up in a devout Muslim society, I was made to believe that aliens don't exist.

But I simply thought that this couldn't really be possible since there's at least a few other planets that have signs of life, surely there's a civilization in there, even if it's as smart as the animals on earth.

Yep. Not in the crazy conspiracy theorist kind of way, but considering that the universe is so small, it feels pretty hard to believe that there isn't anyone else out there.

I’m sure there is intelligent life out there but if we ever cross paths is very uncertain.

I am certain that intelligent life in the universe is realively common, but that there is no real way to break or even bend the laws of physics to allow for FTL meaning that the chance of one ever enountering another is basically zero unless there are more than one species of intelligent life in a single star system.

I just read that as "Do you believe in Asians?" and at first I wondered whether that was racist, then I went like "Nooo, Asians, go!! I believe in you!! You can do it!!"

I believe in the boundless depths of the self. Beyond that I'm not sure.

Understanding why and how we're even conscious entities, assuming I believe you guys even exist, is the question that still needs to be answered regardless of aliens becoming known to us.

I'm agnostic. If you find the statistical probability argument for the existence of aliens salient, then by the same token you should believe that our reality is a simulation. In which case, the existence of aliens once again becomes questionable; the statistical probabilities of an infinite simulated universe are outside the realm of our current knowledge.

edit: See comment below on Nick Bostrom's Simulation Hypothesis.

Do I believe in them? I don't know that I'd phrase it that way, but I think they more likely than not, do exist in some form.

Do I think the governments of the world are successfully covering up some sort of pact with them? That seems much less likely, have you seen our governments? There's basically no way they could keep it a secret.

Sure. Immigrants have that can-do attitude that makes them much more likely to become entrepreneurs and small-business owners. I've worked for several.

I lean towards no, which is a minority scientific position. The Fermi paradox is strong evidence against technological aliens, and of all the evolutionary history we have immediate abiogenesis is the most weakly supported. It happened early, but there's still a 10% chance of a thing randomly happening in the first 10% of geological history (to oversimplify the math).

If it's not that, it's eukariogenesis, but that seems a bit more inevitable given how cooperative bacteria can already be. The development of technology seems inevitable once a thing by chance becomes smart and dexterous enough, and every other step along the way has happened more than once. Earth-like planets are still thought to be abundant.

Edit: Oh, and no to any conspiracy. It would be really hard to hide obvious alien life, and there's no real motive for all world governments to unanimously do so. And conspiracies don't exist, because we're too disorganised to keep a huge secret for long.