By Bill J. Sego
Armand Delsemme, in his book Our Cosmic Origins, writes, “The questions raised by
those who feel intuitively that life is a phenomenon too complex to emerge simply by chance
no longer stand up…as expressed by [British astrophysicist] Fred Hoyle and Chandra
Wickramashing he, has proved to be totally misleading. We can in fact readily accept that ‘life’ is a very probable physico-chemical phenomenon that will appear soon after the prerequisite
conditions are met.”
Though polls vary from one to the next, roughly 65% of Americans believe
extraterrestrial life exists somewhere in the Universe, and 35% believe they have visited Earth.
Many UFO documentaries and other popular programs, such as Ancient Aliens on the History
Channel, have attributed to the steady increase in that number.
The Fermi paradox, an argument put forth by nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950,
then begs the question, “If extraterrestrial beings are commonplace, where are they?”
Just 50 years ago, it was widely accepted that no life existed anywhere beyond Earth.
Many scientists of the time dismissed any such possibility. However, life only appears to be a
rare, extraordinary phenomenon. In the future, biologists will be forced to concede otherwise
as better means of locating extrasolar planets are developed. The blueprint of the Universe
encourages life and subsequent evolution. There is too much space and too many star systems for there not to be.
Evidence of a uniform Universe continues to mount. It is only a matter of time before
astronomers discover a multitude of other star systems harbor intelligent life. Life should be
the final product of solar-system evolution for most systems, whether basic or complex. While
intelligent life might be rare, primitive life will emerge and, over time, propagate.
There are more stars in the visible Universe than all the grains of sand on all the beaches
of Earth. To assume Earth harbors the only advanced civilization throughout the cosmos is
nothing short of blind egoism. How could anyone infer there are no other intelligent beings
anywhere else throughout its vast expanse regardless of the current lack of substantiated
evidence? Giving the vast expanse of the Universe the benefit of the doubt is not as
presumptuous as the latter.
John Clute, author of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, does not believe alien beings
are visiting Earth, nor are they abducting humans for scientific experiments.
However, in a 1996
interview that appeared on a TLC documentary, Future Fantastic,
he indicates aliens would look something like what Hollywood portrays due to certain laws and patterns of evolution.
The typical gray aliens with large heads and bulbous eyes are a potential reflection of future
human evolution, perhaps not in all aspects but surely in some. He forgets that Hollywood’s rendition
of these depictions was taken from eyewitness testimony and alien abduction accounts throughout history.
Life, like stars and planets, might reflect the overall uniformity of the Universe. If so,
most life will be carbon-based and reflect what scientists know carbon-based life forms resemble.
Deviations are inevitable from one environment to the next, but the overall appearance of
intelligent beings should consist of similar humanoid characteristics.