Aliens

I don't like humans because we're destructive by nature. I really dislike that about our species.

As for aliens having two arms and legs, maybe, maybe not.
I watched Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking on Discovery Channel tonight. In the episode about aliens, he says it's likely aliens would have some sort of legs, especially if their planet resembles our own at all. Legs come in handy for walking on ground.

^Wheels might be better...

Xsoteria:

I'm not sure what you meant by this. Is this what you meant to type?

Natural selection has made some very damn weird looking things, here on Earth. If our DNA was off just by a few percent, we would be ducks. Imagine what would be the difference with something that has 95% difference, or has no DNA at all.

And mutations that occur in nature, on which evolution is based on, are random. So the fact that we look the way we do is pretty much a direct result of randomness. It's not like we're this perfect schematics plan nature everywhere strives for.

So to better answer the previous question, yes there is a possibility that they may be humanoid. But there is also a possibility that there is an extraterrestrial race of Joe the Truckers, feeding off of each other's head lice. It's just not very probable.

Mutations in nature are random, but typically only the mutations that contribute to the survival of the species will survive. In the long run, it is based heavily on the environment and the survival capabilities of the species with specific traits. It's not the species that is random, it's the environment being random that causes randomness in the species.

And something that has no DNA would likely use RNA instead, so chances are it would be a form of virus, which is a form of life, but not one which we commonly associate the term of "living" to.

The Fantasy:

I don't like humans because we're destructive by nature. I really dislike that about our species.

As for aliens having two arms and legs, maybe, maybe not.
I watched Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking on Discovery Channel tonight. In the episode about aliens, he says it's likely aliens would have some sort of legs, especially if their planet resembles our own at all. Legs come in handy for walking on ground.

Well when we do find aliens, they may be as destructive as us, or less, or more. Who knows.

And Sing:

^Wheels might be better...

Yes... let us find a species that evolved from the common automobile... xD

^Random mutations caused all the various life on Earth as well. We very well may have had tendrils for limbs. And as I said several times already - the variation in DNA of all animals on Earth is rather small, bringing all the strange life forms around us to being.

Even the smallest changes in the mass of the planet, the atmosphere, the planet's satellites, chemical balances or environment could drastically affect the life forms and their appearances.

And this is only us talking about life that is almost an exact copy of life on Earth. For all we know, life may not need water to exist, may not even necessarily be carbon based or has to exist on a planet which is in the so called "safe zone", which is the planet's distance from the Sun needed for life on Earth to continue as it did so far.

The changes and possibilities are endless, and I think it's very closed-minded to think that life can only happen and evolve the way it happened and evolved on Earth.

pen. leaf:

Yes... let us find a species that evolved from the common automobile... xD

I was being half serious. I had a discussion with someone at SciTech, and he reckons beings on earth would be better to have wheels than legs.

But with wheels it would be difficult to jump and holding your footing. I honestly think legs are more convenient.

And Sing:

I was being half serious. I had a discussion with someone at SciTech, and he reckons beings on earth would be better to have wheels than legs.

I wasn't being serious at all. And... I suppose, if the world was a lot more flat. Legs are far superior to wheels unless your only walking down a road.

I was able to catch just a little bit of Steven Hawking's show, and didn't he say that he's sure that aliens exist, but he thinks that we should not try and make contact with them? Because I thought I read/heard him saying that if aliens were advanced enough to journey to our part of the galaxy, they were most likely nomads who might try and take resources from our planet.

That scares the utter crap out of me.

pen. leaf:

I wasn't being serious at all. And... I suppose, if the world was a lot more flat. Legs are far superior to wheels unless your only walking down a road.

If the creatures had a mechanism where they could turn & turn off friction on their wheels to their own desire then the wheels may be more desirable. Such as braking mechanisms or the extesnsion & retraction of strong fibers like that of the a cat's claws. Also it also comes down to the terrain of the planet as well, if it is rocky then they would be more suited to that of legs, compared to that of a less mountainous world where maybe wheels may be more desirable.

Xsoteria:

The changes and possibilities are endless, and I think it's very closed-minded to think that life can only happen and evolve the way it happened and evolved on Earth.

I agree with your point just the current deductions we have on evolution is based off our planet alone, therefore we use logical deductions from what we currently know to suggest what possible life could exist in the universe.Though it may seem closed-minded, it assits us to deduce where to commence searching for other life.

equivocal:

If the creatures had a mechanism where they could turn & turn off friction on their wheels to their own desire then the wheels may be more desirable. Such as braking mechanisms or the extesnsion & retraction of strong fibers like that of the a cat's claws. Also it also comes down to the terrain of the planet as well, if it is rocky then they would be more suited to that of legs, compared to that of a less mountainous world where maybe wheels may be more desirable.

I could see us doing something like that to our bodies in that not-too-distant future, using cybernetics and machines, but I just can't correctly picture something like that occurring naturally... I... suppose it's possible, but the odds of that actually happening... I have no idea.

Every time I watch something scientific about universe where they talk about whether there is or isnt life out there, it has the same conclusion.
It wouldnt be a surprise if there was, it would be surprise if there WASN'T.

The question isnt if there's life out there, the question is how developed that life is.

Life itself is no longer a question according to a show I watched recently. The question now is complex and/or intelligent life. I believe somewhere there has to be another race questioning the universe much like we are doing right now. The universe is too huge for it to be just us asking, y'know?

Given the tenacity of life an the possible wide ranging aspects of how life would come to fruition, I would consider that we are definitely not alone.

There are millions of galaxies, each holding millions of planets, I doubt we live on the only populated planet in the Universe. In my opinion, the question is if we will contact them. In my opinion, aliens exist.

Of course theres other life out there. Weather we really want to contact them or not is...questionable.

Of course they exist! The universe is not big, it's COLOSSAL, of course there ought to be another planet out there somewhere where there is life! Maybe not human beings or elephants or dogs or trees as we know them, but there is life! Maybe even more evolved than us humans. And I doubt they're green with hammer heads, but oh well. But there is life out there, that's for sure.

I think it would be ignorant of us not to believe that other life could exist. But I don't think their appearance would be how it is in movies or tv shows.

I wonder if these "aliens" think we exist?

@ the reverend.
I agree, the universe is so large it seems selfish of us to think that we are the only 'intelligent' life.

I believe in aliens. I believe in some ideas of the ancient astronauts theory. For example, I think it's highly likely that ancient gods were actually aliens.

This whole universe and just humans as an example of 'intelligent' life? Wow, that would be really depressing.

@ for dru's sins.
I think it's arrogant of people to say "oh we must simply be the only intelligent life form!" It just doesn't seem plausible when you consider how insanely large the Universe is, combined with the fact that we haven't even explored a fraction of it. It seems so unreasonable that there'd be no other planet that could contain any intelligent life forms. Now, I don't believe in alien probing or whatever, but that there's something somewhere out there - definitely.