I agree that aliens may be very different than us, but humans are one of many bipedal primates. We are the only survivors of the hominins. There were bipedal australopitheicines, paranthropines and than the homo genus. I have heard michael talk about the other hominins in previous videos.
He shouldn't speak of chance as being irrefutable evidence. I know that it's unlikely but chance is rendered redundant when a series of events happens to defy the odds, there are an unlimited amount of times for chance to be broken especially in a universe so unfathomably huge. Oh and by the way I don't deny that Shermer is smart as he is a lot more intelligent than I will ever be, I just wanted to through my two cents in,
Though I don't believe in the alien abduction phenominon I don't agree with Shermers main point here. There is a phenominon known as covergent evolution where organisms can devolop similar bodies if they evolve with similar selective pressures. Therefore an intelligent alien having a humaniod body is not out of the real of possibility
@SternMann93 i went to one of Shermer's talks and wasn't impressed, he makes too many assumptions which are downright unscientific. the presentation above i would class as pop science at best which makes an attempt at humour when its science we're looking for. that's not to say that Shermer hasn't written some great papers on topics for which he is an authority
@SternMann93 Some questions to think about. Bipedal primates. How does Shermer know that modern humans are the only species in the entire history of planet Earth that are/were bipedal primates? Simple answer. Its based on the existing fossil record. Question... what is the percentage of species that have ever lived on Earth that have left bones around for us to dig up and examine? 0.01%? 0.001% I don't know. But I could go on and on and waste more time debunking Shermer haha :p
People like Micheal Shermer just have to see it for themselves. I can understand that.
It's not like the visitors want attention, they are here to observe. Think of the prime directive from Stat Trek - it's something like that. Think of them observing us like we'd observe an anthill. Some of the ants may notice we're there, and others may never notice. If we just watch the ants - there is no real disruption in their world - and it doesn't change the fact that we are still observing them.
As one here who has seen a craft up close, less than 500 feet away, I can assure you all they are REAL. They're here, and have been here observing us for millennia. You can chose not to believe what I am saying, & that is fine, but that doesn't change the fact they are here.
I can understand that it is hard for some people to come to this knowledge. It's on of those things you just have to experience for yourself, and when you do - your life will never be the same.
I love how he is just SO SURE of how they will or won't look. All these skeptics know about is a very small corner of our universe, and they think they have it all figured out. That is the high of ignorant arrogance.
I think the real issue is that something in their psyche doesn't allow them to say, "I don't know" or "I am wrong". I see it over and over again, in countless debates.
Shermer is not a skeptic, a skeptic relies on science, information, data, facts, and is willing to accept evidence contrary to one own world view and admit they not knowing is part of the scientific and learning process. No, Shermer is a professional debunker. And he proves that by declaring he has special knowledge and absolutely knows unknowable things. Complete absurdity.
@Agent4Bauer Truly is disheartening when a person, like Shermer, who is taken seriously by the so called scientific community and lame stream media, yet when he debates UFO researchers he never bothers to actually study the data and instead his responses are in the form of ridicule and denial.
I had an experience as you described and when this happens to you there is no going back, it changes you, and there is absolutely no one, who ever they are, that's going to tell you it wasn't real.
humanoid aliens are simply the special effects department getting lazy. I honestly think that an humanoid alien can follow a basic body plan (two arms, two legs, and a head) but other than that they could be bugs, lizards, fish, machines, squids imagination run wild.
I see you mentioned bugs, lizards, fish, machines, squids... Does that mean there are no mammalian aliens out there? Does that mean in the entire universe, we are the only mammals???
Well, it could also be possible that bipedalism is a sort of natural "equilibrium" for intelligent life. Our bipedal stature and primate brethren may not purely be coincidental, rather, it could be the form of life that naturally gravitates toward developing intelligence.
Why can't aliens be bipedal? If they're intelligent I don't think they'd be running around on all fours, like dogs and cats. I've never seen a dog or cat be able to pick up anything.
Michael Shermer you're very good at analyzing religion and other ridiculous things but the logic behind this video is actually severely flawed. You might want to delete this video and save face in the skeptical community. You have NO idea what a being from another part of the universe could look like and you KNOW it. Don't play yourself out bro. I'm not sure if aliens exist because I haven't visited every square inch of the universe (known and unknown), so, saying I have facts would be ignorant.
they wont look like us because they are us visiting us from the future attempting to alter us from becoming so horribly genetically mutated ...physics allows for time travel afterall
@Viktir666 thanxs for finding aliens somewhere and proving me wrong...btw I see you are against the bible so you already go against truth, there would not be a point arguing because people like you are too ignorant to accept the truth.
@Sasuke90000000 You understand logic and debating as well as the KKK understands Black pride. Go fuck yourself bible thumping retard. The bible is not truth, you're just a terrible troll or a psycho who believes in magical Jewish zombies.
@Viktir666 good job at showing me you have nothing intelligent to say and that you are one of the most ignorant people on youtube. The fact that you're swearing at me only shows that you've nothing to say that will actually help your point of view. Then again atheism is faith in nothing so I guess you would have to talk bullshit when you've been told bullshit.
@Sasuke90000000 Look psycho, I'm not interested in communicating with you until you've been cured of your religious-psychosis. Run along now. I never said I was an atheist you foolish punk, stop assuming without facts.
@Sasuke90000000 Prove the bible is the actual word of god and not a man-made invention based upon mythology, Can't? Thought so. I win, kill yourself and see if you meet your god.
@Viktir666 lol why would you assume I can't? This is what all of you atheists think, that we have no evidence, but in reality we do- Noah's ark has been found, there is evidence of a worldwide flood, archeologists have found human footprints on dinosaur footprints of that time period, they found mt. Sinai and saw proof of everything written about it in the bible like the rock where water came from and the place where they set up camp. shall I go on?
@Sasuke90000000 Aren't you being ignorant in calling him ignorant, and declaring your beliefs outright the truth? Isn't that rather... Moronic statement?
I may be an atheist, but both of you are in the wrong here, and you're going in bloody circles. Granted, it is entertaining, it is also idiotic and a waste of time. On a side note, I'd like to see detailed research on this "World-wide flood" which happened, not done by creationists. I'd also like some information on this "ark". Thanks. ;D
@Sasuke90000000 "you are against the bible so you already go against truth"
Bwhahaha!
This made my day. The bible and truth in one sentence.
Get an education dumbass, the bible has been proven wrong just about everything. Its a work of ignorant savages, who beleived the world is flat and the sky stands of four pillars, that insects have four legs, bats are birds, and that whales are fish. The bible betrays the ignorance of its authors on about evry second page.
@Hyeesa In whatever way the bible seems stupid, atheism, evolution and the big bang look even more stupid. Thinking the world came from nothing and everything with it's complexity just randomly occurred is the stupidest bullshit I've ever heard come out of an atheists mouth (then again it's mostly bullshit anyway so I'm not surprised) and also thinking that nature decides to change animals is also crap. Really the bible makes the most sense out of any religion including atheism
@Sasuke90000000 "Thinking the world came from nothing and everything with it's complexity just randomly occurred "
If either would say what you just said then i would agree that it is stupid. However, this is not the case. As usual you misrepresent evrything. This is knowkicking out strawman, this is either your lack of education, or outright lying about what evolution or the big bang theory is. Neither is saying what you just did.
@Sasuke90000000 Plus you say atheism is a religion. You relaly need to get your definitions straight.
Come back when you actually know what evolution is, what the big bang theory says and why it says it, and most importanty, when you have learned the definition of "religion". I mean its quite embarassing that i am of the same species as you, and you can't even comprahand the meaning of a word that is supposed to mean a lot to you, somone "religious" You make me lose my faith in humanity.
@Sasuke90000000 You think a 6000-10,000 year old Earth makes sense; that the 1.5 million know species just came right into existence and have stayed the same ever since? (BTW, 99.9% of that 1.5 million are extinct, which would say alot about a creator: a failed creator at best).
If you want to have 'Faith' in all that, then that's one thing, but it's quite another to give the absurd assertion that your bronze age model of how biological life & the universe works is the more sensible position.
@Sasuke90000000 What the hell makes you think "they" would want to or ever tell the general population, a population that mostly still believe in magic, demons, evil spirits, zombies, and that the Earth is the center of the Universe, that humans are not special, that life is everywhere and likely is and has been studying us for a long time.
@mattghtpa if THEY were aliens and they lived on another planet they wouldnt have to tell us. We would be able to find them and we havent....The beings ppl are being abducted by are fallen angels because there are plenty of stories with people rebuking them with the name of Jesus Christ. If you seriously cant find them then tell me and I'll send you these vids.
@Sasuke90000000 Oh, I see. So you believe in magic, demons, evil spirits, zombies (Yeah that's right, I'm refering to Jesus), and that the Earth is the center of the Universe?
@mattghtpa well lets see... considering the evidence yeah. lol its funny how ur not even trying to disprove it. You're just trying to make it seem stupid. I could do the same with your belief. pshht u believe in aliens? XD
@Sasuke90000000 Hhm...that’s strange, I don't recall writing anywhere my beliefs in anything? Without evidence, I hypothesize. And what am I supposed to be disproving, that magic isn’t real, there are no such things as demons, evil spirits, zombies, and that the Earth is not the center of the universe? Hey what about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny? Can’t forget about leprechauns, fairies, and elves, do they need disproving too? Or do we, well let’s see, realize they are fantasy and grow up?
@mattghtpa oh ok so if one thing isn't real that automatically makes something else not real? WHat you're saying is that since Santa Clause isn't real God isn't which is the same as saying since theres no bottle of water there's also not a soda. It's just sad. Anyway have you heard these abduction stories where people have rebuked these "aliens" by saying "In the name of Jesus get out" and they did?
@Sasuke90000000 Why do you keep trying to put words in my mouth? That's a logical fallacy trick called a "strawman", but I apply the idea of logic loosely here concerning your subject matter.
So here we go, I never said "God", and I was referring to the superstitious, supernatural, and magic often associated with religion. If you want to have a personal faith in a creator, I have no problem with that. However, as soon as a person starts babbling make believe non-sense, I do, it’s just silly.
@Sasuke90000000 All that means is that THEY do know of the power of the Christ, or the faith we have in something more powerful than them, and it frightens them. It does NOT mean they are fallen angels.
It has been shown many times that if you show courage to them, and put up a fight in your mind, the abduction experience stops, and that is because they know you have the will power to break through their thought control, and can physically overpower them. We are much stronger than them.
@Agent4Bauer ugh. Why can't people just admit that the name of Jesus Christ is power? Why do people curse in the name of Jesus? Why not in the name of Albert Einstine? Because it has power. Anyway getting back to the topic. It makes sense that they are fallen angels because they do the things that are described in the bible that fallen angels do (for example they have sex with women of this earth).
@Sasuke90000000 I never said his name wasn't powerful - I said just the opposite. They DO know the power of our spiritual beliefs - but I don't think it is any one religious deity over another that scares them - it is the fact that we fight them with courage, and they know their control can be broken if they have a willful human. It creates a real problem for them. That's probably why you never hear of more strong willed people being taken by them.
@Agent4Bauer Also there are stories of people standing up against them without Jesus and the "aliens" laughed at it. I'll try to find it and sent it to you...
@Agent4Bauer Im sorry I didn't mean demons exactly (they are the things people like to qualify as ghosts or shadow people). The "aliens" are more like the nephilim- the sons of these demons mentioned in the bible. I'll send you another vid for you to watch when you have time. It explains the nephilim.
@Sasuke90000000 Yeah, it says the universe is a very big frickin' place, and there is NO WAY we can really know what will encounter in the years to come. Oh, BTW you did hear about the microbes they found on Mars? FAIL.
Oh, and BTW I do believe in a creator. But I DON"T believe the Christian bible has all the answers.
Finding a primate somewhere else in the universe is almost impossible, bipedal or otherwise. However there were other species on earth that were bipedal primates, but were not Homo Sapiens. You have homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis, homo floresiensis and many others. They were all different primate bipedal species.
And bipedal structure itself isn't that rare or unlikely. Let's not forget that many dinosaurs were bipedal and all modern birds are.
While we could say that an alien must have useful forms (e.g. hands/fingers, binocular vision), it is important to note that it is the function rather than the form itself that is significant. In this sense, we must first consider useful functions (e.g. manipulation, observation) and only then extrapolate to possible forms, considering the multitude of variables (e.g. form fitness to environment). Despite some similarities, aliens will likely be more alien to us than we can currently imagine.
God works with percentages. Electrons, DNA mutations, planetary orbits, bombardment of comets to supply abundance of water, despite Jupiter, and now that humans are here, Jupiter randomly feels like protecting us from space bodies. wow
The real "UFO" phenomenon has nothing to do with E.T.s. Have any of you read any of the relevant papers (e.g., Vallee)? The UAP has been around for thousands of years most likely. We're dealing with something unknown - maybe an extension of human consciousness.
i think of it like this. how did we elvolve our brains, we had hands that could grasp and make tools, we stood upright staring at the stars pondering the wonders of the night sky. if aliens didnt have any of those qualities i doubt they could evolve into intelligent beings. what our evolution showed us is that bipedal hominids are the only form after 500,000,000 years of life on this planet that can become intelligent. god i hate michel shermer what a deutsche
@MichaelShermer Good points. I can envisage scenarions in which occupants of flying saucers would look like us, though. E.g., they ARE us. Well, our descendants, at least. That might also explain why they would visit, as well as why they go to great lengths to "keep off the grass". Tourists, perhaps? Another scenario might be complex machines designed to look like us. Y'know, for the sex experiments ;)
@parlezuml There is speculation that the "Greys" are biological "robots" created for experimentation, of only a scientific analytical mind - and that emotion has been engineered out of them. Many who can recall their abduction experience more lucidly, have expressed often sensing NO emotion whatsoever from them.
Our basic form - a bilaterally symmetric quadruped, with a head and a tail, is DEFINITELY the primal animal form
Bipedalism & evaporative cooling were both necessary to support us as flesh-consuming predators
Our design (big brain & 2 legs) is THE MOST LIKELY to reoccur in the position of TOP PREDATOR, & most likely ALL "space-faring aliens" are going to be THAT
We are THE most dangerous muthas around here, & so will THEY be, if we ever meet any
majorly disagree...how do we know we weren't "created" in their likeness. some purport that "aliens" are actually our ancestors .study up on ancient alien astronauts. I accept that as a possibility and still unsure if I believe since there is no definitive proof although there are many theories out there.
I disagree. I read an article just earlier today in a science magazine that actually linked to this video. There are multiple evolutionary paths that came from primates. I don't know the exact scientifical reference to them, but I hope you'll see my point. There are humans, neanderthals, and even a real life hobbit. They all co-existed, yet in different parts of the world. Eventually dying off from competition with humans (assumed).
Point is, 3 intelligent creatures on one planet at same time.
Probaby right; but convergent evolution postulates multiple paths to a similar result. Why not appendages; and bipedal vision? Certainly different; but these are solutions to the problem of locamotion and survival. Different sure; but with some similarities.
"If you think about it for a second" is not an argument, but a condescension. Why do so called "skeptics" like Shermer think that expressing skepticism constitutes an argument. There seem to be many facts which, at least considered a priori, might justify a hypothesis that alien life (if it exists at all) would parrallel earth life. Consider the many cases of convergence in evolution in which similar problems have been solved by similar structures.
Generally, if a species is going to be technological it has to be big enough to haul logs for fire and build buildings and such, yet small enough to manipulate fire and build radios and things. It would need dexterity in the hands, and a way to get around that works on basically all terrain. On earth, that all worked out to mean we move by walking, have two hands with thumbs, and range from 4-7 feet tall generally.
Intelligent species would also be warm blooded and able to move around in all but the most extreme weather. Plus, a being would generally need to have a short connection from its sensory organs to its brain, so its reasonable to assume that an alien's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth would all be right close to the brain, and the brain would be armoured in a skull. So an intelligent alien would likely have a head like any earth animal.
@czechzboy Assuming an intelligent alien race has the same senses as us and only one brain location... sure. Why do they even need blood again? What about an intelligent plant species? Why should carbon even be its primary building block?
We just don't know enough about the frontiers of life to make definitive predictions like that.
@czechzboy I disagree, before a meteor stroke earth it was dinosaurs, cold-blooded animals that ruled the earth and were becoming slowly more sophisticated, and it's just one example. Also, an enormous amounts of animal species here on Earth have their sensory organs close to the brain yet they look totally different from us on the whole. So I think that an intelligent alien look like us is one chance amongst alot of possibilities. It's obvious they wouldn't have eyes 1 km away from a brain
The little green man is plain stupid but you cant deny the possibility that there might be life somewhere in the universe. There are hundreds billion of galazies and earth is the only place that can support life is just stupid.
ah, humans aren't the only bipedal primates on earth.... maybe they will be bipedal, perhaps bipedalism is a necessary precursor to the manipulation of simple machines and therefore technology.
I don't think so. About 50 billion species have already lived on Earth and one has became a bipedal primate. But what if we give an alien planet the same amount of chances? Or even more? Maybe after 100 billion attempts it'll bring forth something that resembles us.
Yet, I agree that a lot of other shapes are possible and it should be most likely to find out aliens a lot dissimilar to us.
I wonder what are the chances that they are like Xenomorphs ;) The first thing that comes into my mind , when you say "aliens" , is xenos , lol.I can't help it , it just comes :D
For those interested in seeing Shermer having his ass handed to him by the brilliant and far more "Bright" Stephen C. Meyer, check out my profile. Once you see the intellectual beatdown Meyer gives him you'll never look at Shermer the same again.
Bipedal aliens is more likely. We evolved from monkeys. how? Simple. To mate and carry on our genes we needed a female. Mating was determined by two things, the amount of food you have, or how strong you are. More often than not, brute strength determined who mated. UNTIL moneys started carrying food, thus bypassing fighting. Since carrying food and walking upright was a hell of a lot easier than fighting we adopted bipedalism and so on. Walking upright is vital to advanced life forms!
well i do understand your point, however brute strenght is not enough to increase your fitness. Natural selection has nothing to do with "strenght", only how adopted you are to the enviroment.
@KiiLLAHoLiiCSucks this is very true, however you are assuming there are only 4 limbs to choose from. a creature with six limbs could be quadrupedal with two free hands. it is not walking upright that is vital, it is the freeing up of limbs that in humans happens to result from walking upright
you guys also forget the concept of alternate universe, a concept accepted by a majority of physisitsts including Stephen Hawkings and Michio Kaku. There is a large possibility that exact copies of ourselves exists in other universes, with countless possibilities for outcomes.
WRONG, there are plenty of examples of hominids from Homo Neanderthalensis to Homo Habilis, hell, the ENTIRE "homo" genus are bipedal primates with at least rudimentary brain size. All in all, the prospect of human-looking aliens IS extremely low, but it's still quite possible that we will encounter a planet like Earth that has ecosystems whose evolutionary path mimics our own. There's TRILLIONS of planets, and some have had BILLIONS of years longer to evolve than us.
The universe is just so absolutely fucking humongous that even odds of 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% can (and, VERY POTENTIALLY) happen.
So true! We have creatures in our deep blue, that are much more "alien" in concept than what is currently purported!
Plus- I always thought it to be ridiculous to assume that an intelligent species would evolve in the same manner- with the same near-infinite variables and conditions that resulted in our evolutionary line..!
you are right though very few intelligent aliens would look like people but actually i'd say the oposite of what you're saying, the odds are that out of all the planets in the universe, there's probably one or two out there somewhere with a race almost exactly like us.
true only one race on this planet has become an intelligent bipedal primate out of billions, but to say the chances of that happening anywhere else are virtually zero implies that every other planet capable of supporting life has only one species each. what about a supper-sized earth, with far more varyied climates and habitats? wouldn't those planets theoretically spark the evolution of times and times more species than we see here on earth? continued above...
Not necessarily, organisms won't evolved twice in the same way just because they have similar conditions... that's basically what bioiversity on a same acosystem is showing.
Shermer would be right, however he is missing some information. We were genetically engineered by bipedal extraterrestrials in the ancient times by the Annunaki. They were also bipidal, so really, we're the copy-cats. Not them. They were bipedal before we even existed.
Shermer is the master of pseudoskepticism. The guy's got a serious jesus complex... that and he wants to sell magazines. He's about as scientific as Oprah.
i believe you mean the only bipedal primate that survived is humans... there were many bipedal primates leading up to us and one species, homo neanderthalensis, lived at the same time as modern humans.
Granted! Star Trek is a bit fake, however the same evolutionary process that allowed humans to evolve this specific shape can happen elsewhere. Not all, but certainly the "humanoid" shape is plausible on some other worlds.
Some people can "Astral Project" and there are plenty of witnesses whom have encountered extraterrestrials.
Some E.T's are made of pure light.
1:18 .....What do you mean Zero Chance? You just mentioned the entire Cosmos which is over 14 billion light years across.
Aliens is they exist are probably just things from out of space, another planet so they might just be like animals or something and not intelligent species so I agree with what he says
the most common life giving element in the universe is water, so wouldn't that lead you to assume that a super intelligent life form would be heavily dependent on water, if not need to be submerged in water to survive?
I think the main reason people see a bipedal alien is because, if an intelligent life form does exist out there, they wouldn't have tentacles, or useless stuff like that. The most advanced form is the bipedal structure, and hands, legs, ect; are more simple yet more helpful and fitting to an intelligent specie.
Why the hell would an alien need three legs, or 5 arms? - it is impractical and useless. It would just get in the way. My 2 cents.
You do have a point, Jase. Michael is not giving us a good argument against the reasons why bipedal form is superior and therefore more likely to be the common form of intelligent life. He should elaborate is he is serious about his toughts.
@manuel, the bipedal form is in no way the 'superior' form, because evolution is not a guided process with any particular form as an ultimate goal. and as i pointed out below, the human body could use lot's of, if you will, 'upgrades'. but your right in that if there where any chance of life emerging somewhere else in the universe, that it would most likely be in a very similar (depending of the environmental conditions) evolutionary process.
what i meant by superior is not that (in any case I am free to believe in an ultimate goal as long as i keep apart my faith from science)I meant something along the lines of "refined" or simply more evolved and efficient for certain tasks that the concept of life has in compatibility of what we see as our universe. I agree that, since we are limited in observation, there might be distant workds in which the universe might not look like our most modern theories expect but that's beside the point.
"Why the hell would an alien need three legs, or 5 arms?"
why not? wouldn't you agree that humans could have better eyesight like that of owls or some sea creatures, like the mantis shrimp that can see the full spectrum of light. and i'm sure you could think of hundreds of ways an extra arm or two would help out in our daily lives.
the point i think shermer was making is that people have simply anthropomorphiszied these 'aliens' into creatures very similar to humans (humanoids), in the same way that those who believe in 'god(s)' have given them human characteristics that are dependent of the origin of the particular myth:
Actually, there have been several bi-pedal primates in the history of the Earth. Homo Heidelbergensis, Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Australopithicus Afarensis, Australopithicus Africanus, Homo Floresiensis, and Australopithicus Ardipithecus all walked upright and not all of them are in our direct ancestral lineage.
We aren't the only bipedal species on earth, yes. However, he wasn't saying the bipedal part was unrealistic. It's the fact that they're too humanoid. Humans are just bipedal primates, so he's just talking fancy-shmancy-like. You misinterpreted what he meant.
For a species on another planet to evolve into bipedal primates is completely unrealistic. It's just us being narcissistic little bastards.
Think of it like this: How different are we from plants?
Why bipeds? What about an alien with more than four limbs? Why hands? what about tentacles arranges in a ring around the mouth, like in squid? Also, consider parrots, which are able to manipulate objects with just two feet and a beak, and approach primates in intelligence.
it dont really matter what the E.T.s would look like.when an advanced society encounters a primitive society, the outcome isnt so good for the primitive.when we know the truth ,we all better hope they are nice!!!
they would have to be tool makers like us thus as they evolve they would to be able to carry things whilst moving which would mean hands and feet.
nature has shown us common solutions to common problems such as eyes etc. in divergent species.
aliens might not be primates but they would likely have many attributes in common with us unless they have a symbiotic relationship with some kind of "monkey" to build their tools / spaceships etc.
Well, they probably won't have hands and feet if they evolved in some kind of aerial or marine environment. They may have organs used for grasping but not necessarily hands or feet, or even arms or legs.
but then they wouldn't be making spaceships. I think mastering fire will be a prerequisite for persuing technologies that would lead to space travel, aside from language.
here on earth nature has been thru a myriad of limb combinations etc yet the common skeletal arrangement in all vertabrates must of had some distinct merits for it to win through.
also, similar problems tend towards similar solutions, so aliens being upright bipeds is not unlikely but its not the only possibility :)
I agree entirely. :-) But universe is quite vast, and I believe there is quite a lot of ways life could evolve. But what ever the life looks like I guarantee it will be interesting even if it is just a bacterium.
I would expect it to be almost a 100% chance that they would be bipedal or descendants of bipedals. I don't know where you are going with this. You need to have spent time in the trees to have developed claws or hands, to then be able to manipulate your environment. Develop a medium of exchange and so forth. We cannot hope to evolve a coin-belt. Any fishy life-form faces the problem that water is the universal solvent. Hence the accumulation of capital goods becomes virtually impossible.
I agree that aliens may be very different than us, but humans are one of many bipedal primates. We are the only survivors of the hominins. There were bipedal australopitheicines, paranthropines and than the homo genus. I have heard michael talk about the other hominins in previous videos.
Spaceman2451 6 days ago
He shouldn't speak of chance as being irrefutable evidence. I know that it's unlikely but chance is rendered redundant when a series of events happens to defy the odds, there are an unlimited amount of times for chance to be broken especially in a universe so unfathomably huge. Oh and by the way I don't deny that Shermer is smart as he is a lot more intelligent than I will ever be, I just wanted to through my two cents in,
CowboyFromHell93 3 weeks ago
Love how they have Carl Sagans face with all the aliens
Key3812 3 months ago
Well then he'd better be surprised! As of course that's what some of them look like.
MrStig691 3 months ago
Though I don't believe in the alien abduction phenominon I don't agree with Shermers main point here. There is a phenominon known as covergent evolution where organisms can devolop similar bodies if they evolve with similar selective pressures. Therefore an intelligent alien having a humaniod body is not out of the real of possibility
Jimboman300 4 months ago
i wasted 1 minute 39 seconds of my life watching this, and even more typing time typing this!! stupid...
ididjaustralia 5 months ago
@ididjaustralia Allow me to waste more of your time. Right. Why is that?
SternMann93 1 month ago
@SternMann93 i went to one of Shermer's talks and wasn't impressed, he makes too many assumptions which are downright unscientific. the presentation above i would class as pop science at best which makes an attempt at humour when its science we're looking for. that's not to say that Shermer hasn't written some great papers on topics for which he is an authority
ididjaustralia 1 month ago
@ididjaustralia Why do you think this youtube channel exists? It's obvious purpose is popular science, not peer-reviewable articles and texts.
SternMann93 1 month ago
@SternMann93 true true... :)
ididjaustralia 1 month ago
@SternMann93 Some questions to think about. Bipedal primates. How does Shermer know that modern humans are the only species in the entire history of planet Earth that are/were bipedal primates? Simple answer. Its based on the existing fossil record. Question... what is the percentage of species that have ever lived on Earth that have left bones around for us to dig up and examine? 0.01%? 0.001% I don't know. But I could go on and on and waste more time debunking Shermer haha :p
ididjaustralia 1 month ago
There are A LOT more bipedal creatures on Earth than just humans.
Viktir666 5 months ago
@jaguarclaw Yeah, Michael Shermer - if you have the BALLS, debunk the Starchild evidence. I won't be hold my breath waiting for you to jump on that.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
@JimTheHermit No one really knows, but i think it would be the most ironic joke ever on Michael Shermer if they did!
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
People like Micheal Shermer just have to see it for themselves. I can understand that.
It's not like the visitors want attention, they are here to observe. Think of the prime directive from Stat Trek - it's something like that. Think of them observing us like we'd observe an anthill. Some of the ants may notice we're there, and others may never notice. If we just watch the ants - there is no real disruption in their world - and it doesn't change the fact that we are still observing them.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
As one here who has seen a craft up close, less than 500 feet away, I can assure you all they are REAL. They're here, and have been here observing us for millennia. You can chose not to believe what I am saying, & that is fine, but that doesn't change the fact they are here.
I can understand that it is hard for some people to come to this knowledge. It's on of those things you just have to experience for yourself, and when you do - your life will never be the same.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
I love how he is just SO SURE of how they will or won't look. All these skeptics know about is a very small corner of our universe, and they think they have it all figured out. That is the high of ignorant arrogance.
I think the real issue is that something in their psyche doesn't allow them to say, "I don't know" or "I am wrong". I see it over and over again, in countless debates.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
Shermer is not a skeptic, a skeptic relies on science, information, data, facts, and is willing to accept evidence contrary to one own world view and admit they not knowing is part of the scientific and learning process. No, Shermer is a professional debunker. And he proves that by declaring he has special knowledge and absolutely knows unknowable things. Complete absurdity.
mattghtpa 5 months ago
@mattghtpa SO TRUE!
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
@Agent4Bauer Truly is disheartening when a person, like Shermer, who is taken seriously by the so called scientific community and lame stream media, yet when he debates UFO researchers he never bothers to actually study the data and instead his responses are in the form of ridicule and denial.
I had an experience as you described and when this happens to you there is no going back, it changes you, and there is absolutely no one, who ever they are, that's going to tell you it wasn't real.
mattghtpa 5 months ago
this man just works for coverups :))
Magdaleena129 6 months ago
@JimTheHermit No ancient text confirms that, at all.
theBartone9119 6 months ago
Comment removed
MELJ34 7 months ago
humanoid aliens are simply the special effects department getting lazy. I honestly think that an humanoid alien can follow a basic body plan (two arms, two legs, and a head) but other than that they could be bugs, lizards, fish, machines, squids imagination run wild.
jbadger30 7 months ago
@jbadger30
I see you mentioned bugs, lizards, fish, machines, squids... Does that mean there are no mammalian aliens out there? Does that mean in the entire universe, we are the only mammals???
Thekherham 6 months ago
Well, it could also be possible that bipedalism is a sort of natural "equilibrium" for intelligent life. Our bipedal stature and primate brethren may not purely be coincidental, rather, it could be the form of life that naturally gravitates toward developing intelligence.
maynrdjkeenan 7 months ago
@maynrdjkeenan
Why can't aliens be bipedal? If they're intelligent I don't think they'd be running around on all fours, like dogs and cats. I've never seen a dog or cat be able to pick up anything.
Thekherham 6 months ago
@Thekherham
Did you read my comment? I said nothing about how aliens couldn't be bipedal, quite the opposite, in fact.
maynrdjkeenan 6 months ago
what an ass, he remind me the people who belived the earth was flat
grobber13 7 months ago
@grobber13 You are an idiot, he said aliens might be real they just wouldn't look like that......Did you even watch the thing? Ass..
theBartone9119 6 months ago
@grobber13
You have to remember that he is speculating, and that's all it is - speculation.
Thekherham 6 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Thumbs up if you checked this link after seeing it referenced in the endnotes of Shermer's "The Believing Brain"?
Howsonify 7 months ago
right now i wished that a alien life form came to earth and looked just like us
just to make that guy STFU.
-deh random guy with a keyboard.
odair96 8 months ago
Michael Shermer you're very good at analyzing religion and other ridiculous things but the logic behind this video is actually severely flawed. You might want to delete this video and save face in the skeptical community. You have NO idea what a being from another part of the universe could look like and you KNOW it. Don't play yourself out bro. I'm not sure if aliens exist because I haven't visited every square inch of the universe (known and unknown), so, saying I have facts would be ignorant.
Viktir666 8 months ago
@Viktir666 Thank you. I still say this man is not a true skeptic, but a paid, professional debunker.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
they wont look like us because they are us visiting us from the future attempting to alter us from becoming so horribly genetically mutated ...physics allows for time travel afterall
zorbatheok 8 months ago
nice video i really agree that aliens will not look like us and i am sure that there are aliens but we just make so many rumbers about them
so these ideas about attacking the earth and things like that our just a interesting story and have a very low chance to happens
its just look like you live in england and then you take the whole people to brazil to take a banana from other people who lives there....
F4rl30d 8 months ago
There are no aliens.
Sasuke90000000 8 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Thanks for scouring the entire universe and coming up with that fact for us... tard.
Viktir666 8 months ago
@Viktir666 thanxs for finding aliens somewhere and proving me wrong...btw I see you are against the bible so you already go against truth, there would not be a point arguing because people like you are too ignorant to accept the truth.
Sasuke90000000 8 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 You understand logic and debating as well as the KKK understands Black pride. Go fuck yourself bible thumping retard. The bible is not truth, you're just a terrible troll or a psycho who believes in magical Jewish zombies.
Viktir666 8 months ago
@Viktir666 good job at showing me you have nothing intelligent to say and that you are one of the most ignorant people on youtube. The fact that you're swearing at me only shows that you've nothing to say that will actually help your point of view. Then again atheism is faith in nothing so I guess you would have to talk bullshit when you've been told bullshit.
Sasuke90000000 8 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Look psycho, I'm not interested in communicating with you until you've been cured of your religious-psychosis. Run along now. I never said I was an atheist you foolish punk, stop assuming without facts.
Viktir666 8 months ago
@Viktir666 well you were criticising me for believing in the Lord, so I would assume you don't. You still don't get the fact that you're wrong.
Sasuke90000000 8 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Prove the bible is the actual word of god and not a man-made invention based upon mythology, Can't? Thought so. I win, kill yourself and see if you meet your god.
Viktir666 8 months ago
@Viktir666 lol why would you assume I can't? This is what all of you atheists think, that we have no evidence, but in reality we do- Noah's ark has been found, there is evidence of a worldwide flood, archeologists have found human footprints on dinosaur footprints of that time period, they found mt. Sinai and saw proof of everything written about it in the bible like the rock where water came from and the place where they set up camp. shall I go on?
Sasuke90000000 8 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Yes.
Viktir666 8 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Aren't you being ignorant in calling him ignorant, and declaring your beliefs outright the truth? Isn't that rather... Moronic statement?
I may be an atheist, but both of you are in the wrong here, and you're going in bloody circles. Granted, it is entertaining, it is also idiotic and a waste of time. On a side note, I'd like to see detailed research on this "World-wide flood" which happened, not done by creationists. I'd also like some information on this "ark". Thanks. ;D
Gs3DDesign 8 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 "you are against the bible so you already go against truth"
Bwhahaha!
This made my day. The bible and truth in one sentence.
Get an education dumbass, the bible has been proven wrong just about everything. Its a work of ignorant savages, who beleived the world is flat and the sky stands of four pillars, that insects have four legs, bats are birds, and that whales are fish. The bible betrays the ignorance of its authors on about evry second page.
Hyeesa 8 months ago
@Hyeesa In whatever way the bible seems stupid, atheism, evolution and the big bang look even more stupid. Thinking the world came from nothing and everything with it's complexity just randomly occurred is the stupidest bullshit I've ever heard come out of an atheists mouth (then again it's mostly bullshit anyway so I'm not surprised) and also thinking that nature decides to change animals is also crap. Really the bible makes the most sense out of any religion including atheism
Sasuke90000000 8 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 "Thinking the world came from nothing and everything with it's complexity just randomly occurred "
If either would say what you just said then i would agree that it is stupid. However, this is not the case. As usual you misrepresent evrything. This is knowkicking out strawman, this is either your lack of education, or outright lying about what evolution or the big bang theory is. Neither is saying what you just did.
Hyeesa 8 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Plus you say atheism is a religion. You relaly need to get your definitions straight.
Come back when you actually know what evolution is, what the big bang theory says and why it says it, and most importanty, when you have learned the definition of "religion". I mean its quite embarassing that i am of the same species as you, and you can't even comprahand the meaning of a word that is supposed to mean a lot to you, somone "religious" You make me lose my faith in humanity.
Hyeesa 8 months ago
@Hyeesa exactly what an atheist would say when he has nothing useful to say, I mean I already know what all those meanings are so what else you got?
Sasuke90000000 8 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 You think a 6000-10,000 year old Earth makes sense; that the 1.5 million know species just came right into existence and have stayed the same ever since? (BTW, 99.9% of that 1.5 million are extinct, which would say alot about a creator: a failed creator at best).
If you want to have 'Faith' in all that, then that's one thing, but it's quite another to give the absurd assertion that your bronze age model of how biological life & the universe works is the more sensible position.
Howsonify 7 months ago
@Sasuke90000000
How do you know? Have you explored the universe?
Thekherham 6 months ago
@Thekherham They havent found any life outside of our earth... not even a little sign...tht says something my friend
Sasuke90000000 6 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 What the hell makes you think "they" would want to or ever tell the general population, a population that mostly still believe in magic, demons, evil spirits, zombies, and that the Earth is the center of the Universe, that humans are not special, that life is everywhere and likely is and has been studying us for a long time.
mattghtpa 5 months ago
@mattghtpa if THEY were aliens and they lived on another planet they wouldnt have to tell us. We would be able to find them and we havent....The beings ppl are being abducted by are fallen angels because there are plenty of stories with people rebuking them with the name of Jesus Christ. If you seriously cant find them then tell me and I'll send you these vids.
Sasuke90000000 5 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Oh, I see. So you believe in magic, demons, evil spirits, zombies (Yeah that's right, I'm refering to Jesus), and that the Earth is the center of the Universe?
mattghtpa 5 months ago
@mattghtpa well lets see... considering the evidence yeah. lol its funny how ur not even trying to disprove it. You're just trying to make it seem stupid. I could do the same with your belief. pshht u believe in aliens? XD
Sasuke90000000 5 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Hhm...that’s strange, I don't recall writing anywhere my beliefs in anything? Without evidence, I hypothesize. And what am I supposed to be disproving, that magic isn’t real, there are no such things as demons, evil spirits, zombies, and that the Earth is not the center of the universe? Hey what about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny? Can’t forget about leprechauns, fairies, and elves, do they need disproving too? Or do we, well let’s see, realize they are fantasy and grow up?
mattghtpa 5 months ago
@mattghtpa oh ok so if one thing isn't real that automatically makes something else not real? WHat you're saying is that since Santa Clause isn't real God isn't which is the same as saying since theres no bottle of water there's also not a soda. It's just sad. Anyway have you heard these abduction stories where people have rebuked these "aliens" by saying "In the name of Jesus get out" and they did?
Sasuke90000000 5 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Why do you keep trying to put words in my mouth? That's a logical fallacy trick called a "strawman", but I apply the idea of logic loosely here concerning your subject matter.
So here we go, I never said "God", and I was referring to the superstitious, supernatural, and magic often associated with religion. If you want to have a personal faith in a creator, I have no problem with that. However, as soon as a person starts babbling make believe non-sense, I do, it’s just silly.
mattghtpa 5 months ago
@mattghtpa Sure if it's nonsense but in this case, it's not. There IS evidence...
Sasuke90000000 5 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Yeah surrre...
mattghtpa 5 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 All that means is that THEY do know of the power of the Christ, or the faith we have in something more powerful than them, and it frightens them. It does NOT mean they are fallen angels.
It has been shown many times that if you show courage to them, and put up a fight in your mind, the abduction experience stops, and that is because they know you have the will power to break through their thought control, and can physically overpower them. We are much stronger than them.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
@Agent4Bauer ugh. Why can't people just admit that the name of Jesus Christ is power? Why do people curse in the name of Jesus? Why not in the name of Albert Einstine? Because it has power. Anyway getting back to the topic. It makes sense that they are fallen angels because they do the things that are described in the bible that fallen angels do (for example they have sex with women of this earth).
Sasuke90000000 5 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 I never said his name wasn't powerful - I said just the opposite. They DO know the power of our spiritual beliefs - but I don't think it is any one religious deity over another that scares them - it is the fact that we fight them with courage, and they know their control can be broken if they have a willful human. It creates a real problem for them. That's probably why you never hear of more strong willed people being taken by them.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
@Agent4Bauer Also there are stories of people standing up against them without Jesus and the "aliens" laughed at it. I'll try to find it and sent it to you...
Sasuke90000000 5 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 So I suppose the real physical craft I saw wasn't really there?
Not saying some of your opinion doesn't have merit, but why would "demons" need a spacecraft?
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
@Agent4Bauer Im sorry I didn't mean demons exactly (they are the things people like to qualify as ghosts or shadow people). The "aliens" are more like the nephilim- the sons of these demons mentioned in the bible. I'll send you another vid for you to watch when you have time. It explains the nephilim.
Sasuke90000000 5 months ago
@mattghtpa Great point! I think it will be a real shocker to them when they finid out that we're not all that special.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 Yeah, it says the universe is a very big frickin' place, and there is NO WAY we can really know what will encounter in the years to come. Oh, BTW you did hear about the microbes they found on Mars? FAIL.
Oh, and BTW I do believe in a creator. But I DON"T believe the Christian bible has all the answers.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
@Sasuke90000000 And you know this, how? Please, share this knowledge with us all.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
Finding a primate somewhere else in the universe is almost impossible, bipedal or otherwise. However there were other species on earth that were bipedal primates, but were not Homo Sapiens. You have homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis, homo floresiensis and many others. They were all different primate bipedal species.
And bipedal structure itself isn't that rare or unlikely. Let's not forget that many dinosaurs were bipedal and all modern birds are.
Kuba022 9 months ago
While we could say that an alien must have useful forms (e.g. hands/fingers, binocular vision), it is important to note that it is the function rather than the form itself that is significant. In this sense, we must first consider useful functions (e.g. manipulation, observation) and only then extrapolate to possible forms, considering the multitude of variables (e.g. form fitness to environment). Despite some similarities, aliens will likely be more alien to us than we can currently imagine.
PashaAntipov 10 months ago
God works with percentages. Electrons, DNA mutations, planetary orbits, bombardment of comets to supply abundance of water, despite Jupiter, and now that humans are here, Jupiter randomly feels like protecting us from space bodies. wow
masonhosey 10 months ago
thanks 4 the info its going on my debate project thanks very very much!
wegotf8th 11 months ago
there are infinite possibilities in infinite universes, so basically anything we can imagine can and will exist.
MrJonmccarthy13 11 months ago
The real "UFO" phenomenon has nothing to do with E.T.s. Have any of you read any of the relevant papers (e.g., Vallee)? The UAP has been around for thousands of years most likely. We're dealing with something unknown - maybe an extension of human consciousness.
trevorcarterva 1 year ago
i think of it like this. how did we elvolve our brains, we had hands that could grasp and make tools, we stood upright staring at the stars pondering the wonders of the night sky. if aliens didnt have any of those qualities i doubt they could evolve into intelligent beings. what our evolution showed us is that bipedal hominids are the only form after 500,000,000 years of life on this planet that can become intelligent. god i hate michel shermer what a deutsche
AneierHSNO4 1 year ago
haha what is this redneck ignorant nonsense? what a rubbish video
TheWorldIsRound2012 1 year ago
@TheWorldIsRound2012 your a rubbish video
whoneedsskittles 1 year ago
@MichaelShermer Good points. I can envisage scenarions in which occupants of flying saucers would look like us, though. E.g., they ARE us. Well, our descendants, at least. That might also explain why they would visit, as well as why they go to great lengths to "keep off the grass". Tourists, perhaps? Another scenario might be complex machines designed to look like us. Y'know, for the sex experiments ;)
parlezuml 1 year ago
@parlezuml There is speculation that the "Greys" are biological "robots" created for experimentation, of only a scientific analytical mind - and that emotion has been engineered out of them. Many who can recall their abduction experience more lucidly, have expressed often sensing NO emotion whatsoever from them.
Agent4Bauer 5 months ago
I really disagree & I'm surprised.
Our basic form - a bilaterally symmetric quadruped, with a head and a tail, is DEFINITELY the primal animal form
Bipedalism & evaporative cooling were both necessary to support us as flesh-consuming predators
Our design (big brain & 2 legs) is THE MOST LIKELY to reoccur in the position of TOP PREDATOR, & most likely ALL "space-faring aliens" are going to be THAT
We are THE most dangerous muthas around here, & so will THEY be, if we ever meet any
beachcomber2008 1 year ago
majorly disagree...how do we know we weren't "created" in their likeness. some purport that "aliens" are actually our ancestors .study up on ancient alien astronauts. I accept that as a possibility and still unsure if I believe since there is no definitive proof although there are many theories out there.
dcwolfe 1 year ago
how does he know the probability is zero?
SinfulMessiah 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
How he can say "zero", if we have only ONE example to compare with - life on Earth. And we reached only few planets in our solar system.
myshambhala 1 year ago
How he can say "zero", if we have only ONE example to compare with - life on Earth. And we reached few planets in our solar system.
myshambhala 1 year ago 2
I disagree. I read an article just earlier today in a science magazine that actually linked to this video. There are multiple evolutionary paths that came from primates. I don't know the exact scientifical reference to them, but I hope you'll see my point. There are humans, neanderthals, and even a real life hobbit. They all co-existed, yet in different parts of the world. Eventually dying off from competition with humans (assumed).
Point is, 3 intelligent creatures on one planet at same time.
asdfgoogle 1 year ago
@asdfgoogle Yes but the species did not evolve as bipedal primates independently. They all had a common ancestor.
thisisnotanick 1 year ago
This guy's mathematical equation of impossibility is illogical and flawed. I like his other videos though.
Viktir666 1 year ago
Comment removed
XSoulStormX 1 year ago
@coradoxenox Such as?
autumnsylver 1 year ago
@autumnsylver Neanderthals and the "real-life hobbit" (homo floresiensis). Those are the only two I know of that are confirmed.
asdfgoogle 1 year ago
surely he means probably wont look like this, in the vast expanse of space i wouldn't like to put a definate answer on any point of conjecture.
johnaquos 1 year ago
Probaby right; but convergent evolution postulates multiple paths to a similar result. Why not appendages; and bipedal vision? Certainly different; but these are solutions to the problem of locamotion and survival. Different sure; but with some similarities.
newmac 1 year ago
This guy needs to wake up.
xxMafia101 1 year ago
"If you think about it for a second" is not an argument, but a condescension. Why do so called "skeptics" like Shermer think that expressing skepticism constitutes an argument. There seem to be many facts which, at least considered a priori, might justify a hypothesis that alien life (if it exists at all) would parrallel earth life. Consider the many cases of convergence in evolution in which similar problems have been solved by similar structures.
tumbleweedjoe 1 year ago
Why E.T. has to be humanoid?
Generally, if a species is going to be technological it has to be big enough to haul logs for fire and build buildings and such, yet small enough to manipulate fire and build radios and things. It would need dexterity in the hands, and a way to get around that works on basically all terrain. On earth, that all worked out to mean we move by walking, have two hands with thumbs, and range from 4-7 feet tall generally.
czechzboy 1 year ago
Intelligent species would also be warm blooded and able to move around in all but the most extreme weather. Plus, a being would generally need to have a short connection from its sensory organs to its brain, so its reasonable to assume that an alien's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth would all be right close to the brain, and the brain would be armoured in a skull. So an intelligent alien would likely have a head like any earth animal.
czechzboy 1 year ago 5
@czechzboy ya I think shermers kind of jumping the gun here..
SHIBBYiPANDA 10 months ago
@czechzboy Assuming an intelligent alien race has the same senses as us and only one brain location... sure. Why do they even need blood again? What about an intelligent plant species? Why should carbon even be its primary building block?
We just don't know enough about the frontiers of life to make definitive predictions like that.
TacticusPrime 10 months ago
@czechzboy I disagree, before a meteor stroke earth it was dinosaurs, cold-blooded animals that ruled the earth and were becoming slowly more sophisticated, and it's just one example. Also, an enormous amounts of animal species here on Earth have their sensory organs close to the brain yet they look totally different from us on the whole. So I think that an intelligent alien look like us is one chance amongst alot of possibilities. It's obvious they wouldn't have eyes 1 km away from a brain
2CSST2 9 months ago
The little green man is plain stupid but you cant deny the possibility that there might be life somewhere in the universe. There are hundreds billion of galazies and earth is the only place that can support life is just stupid.
donggiao3000 1 year ago 8
ah, humans aren't the only bipedal primates on earth.... maybe they will be bipedal, perhaps bipedalism is a necessary precursor to the manipulation of simple machines and therefore technology.
pimpwacker 1 year ago
they are us in the future thats why your monotonous supercilious pos
Seththeone99 1 year ago
If the human race comes from extraterrestrials and not primates then this argument is completely invalid.
Ev3ntum 1 year ago
I don't think so. About 50 billion species have already lived on Earth and one has became a bipedal primate. But what if we give an alien planet the same amount of chances? Or even more? Maybe after 100 billion attempts it'll bring forth something that resembles us.
Yet, I agree that a lot of other shapes are possible and it should be most likely to find out aliens a lot dissimilar to us.
gabrieldcf 1 year ago
I wonder what are the chances that they are like Xenomorphs ;) The first thing that comes into my mind , when you say "aliens" , is xenos , lol.I can't help it , it just comes :D
cyberdaemon 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
For those interested in seeing Shermer having his ass handed to him by the brilliant and far more "Bright" Stephen C. Meyer, check out my profile. Once you see the intellectual beatdown Meyer gives him you'll never look at Shermer the same again.
Thanks
signatureinthecell 1 year ago
Bipedal aliens is more likely. We evolved from monkeys. how? Simple. To mate and carry on our genes we needed a female. Mating was determined by two things, the amount of food you have, or how strong you are. More often than not, brute strength determined who mated. UNTIL moneys started carrying food, thus bypassing fighting. Since carrying food and walking upright was a hell of a lot easier than fighting we adopted bipedalism and so on. Walking upright is vital to advanced life forms!
KiiLLAHoLiiCSucks 1 year ago
On our planet, yes. Your logic is destroyed by the fact that they'll be on a different planet with probably very different makeup.
MissEmsily 1 year ago
@KiiLLAHoLiiCSucks
well i do understand your point, however brute strenght is not enough to increase your fitness. Natural selection has nothing to do with "strenght", only how adopted you are to the enviroment.
AsgardProductionsSE 1 year ago
@KiiLLAHoLiiCSucks this is very true, however you are assuming there are only 4 limbs to choose from. a creature with six limbs could be quadrupedal with two free hands. it is not walking upright that is vital, it is the freeing up of limbs that in humans happens to result from walking upright
phishUMup 1 year ago
I wish we would've evolved something different for eyes. They're way too damn sensitive. I mean technically you can be blinded by ANYTHING.
BECK26x 1 year ago
This is funny. It's the reiteration of the universal anti-life argument to which one need only reply, "Then how us?"
ayethereztherub 1 year ago
this guy has a point but hes wrong in the beginning several species have become bipidal primates were just the ones that survived
nookdew 1 year ago
Unless it turned out we had like the winning formula for DNA, and that to be smart anything else would have to follow the same rules or something.
Frusciantefan77 1 year ago
you guys also forget the concept of alternate universe, a concept accepted by a majority of physisitsts including Stephen Hawkings and Michio Kaku. There is a large possibility that exact copies of ourselves exists in other universes, with countless possibilities for outcomes.
reargef 1 year ago
That's not how it works..
IIIRodrigoVegaIII 1 year ago
WRONG, there are plenty of examples of hominids from Homo Neanderthalensis to Homo Habilis, hell, the ENTIRE "homo" genus are bipedal primates with at least rudimentary brain size. All in all, the prospect of human-looking aliens IS extremely low, but it's still quite possible that we will encounter a planet like Earth that has ecosystems whose evolutionary path mimics our own. There's TRILLIONS of planets, and some have had BILLIONS of years longer to evolve than us.
dreapster 1 year ago
if the universe if infinite there is a VERY good chance countless be-pedal humanoids exist and maybe even an exact copy of us and our planet.
MaximumStackz 1 year ago
Exactly.
The universe is just so absolutely fucking humongous that even odds of 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% can (and, VERY POTENTIALLY) happen.
Gooseheaded 1 year ago
So true! We have creatures in our deep blue, that are much more "alien" in concept than what is currently purported!
Plus- I always thought it to be ridiculous to assume that an intelligent species would evolve in the same manner- with the same near-infinite variables and conditions that resulted in our evolutionary line..!
sypin 1 year ago
you are right though very few intelligent aliens would look like people but actually i'd say the oposite of what you're saying, the odds are that out of all the planets in the universe, there's probably one or two out there somewhere with a race almost exactly like us.
Philllllll 1 year ago
true only one race on this planet has become an intelligent bipedal primate out of billions, but to say the chances of that happening anywhere else are virtually zero implies that every other planet capable of supporting life has only one species each. what about a supper-sized earth, with far more varyied climates and habitats? wouldn't those planets theoretically spark the evolution of times and times more species than we see here on earth? continued above...
Philllllll 1 year ago
Actually you would get humanoid aliens easily on planets with conditions identical to that of Earth.
amalwaysawsome 1 year ago
Not necessarily, organisms won't evolved twice in the same way just because they have similar conditions... that's basically what bioiversity on a same acosystem is showing.
IIIRodrigoVegaIII 1 year ago
@amalwaysawsome the probabilities for that to happen are astronomical.
mestresombra 1 year ago
Shermer would be right, however he is missing some information. We were genetically engineered by bipedal extraterrestrials in the ancient times by the Annunaki. They were also bipidal, so really, we're the copy-cats. Not them. They were bipedal before we even existed.
BTNH24 1 year ago
lol are you serious?
MaximumStackz 1 year ago
@BTNH24 lmao....... did you get that from Avatar or something?
asdfgoogle 1 year ago
Shermer is the master of pseudoskepticism. The guy's got a serious jesus complex... that and he wants to sell magazines. He's about as scientific as Oprah.
swanlaker02 1 year ago
i believe you mean the only bipedal primate that survived is humans... there were many bipedal primates leading up to us and one species, homo neanderthalensis, lived at the same time as modern humans.
corey02346 1 year ago
Granted! Star Trek is a bit fake, however the same evolutionary process that allowed humans to evolve this specific shape can happen elsewhere. Not all, but certainly the "humanoid" shape is plausible on some other worlds.
Some people can "Astral Project" and there are plenty of witnesses whom have encountered extraterrestrials.
Some E.T's are made of pure light.
1:18 .....What do you mean Zero Chance? You just mentioned the entire Cosmos which is over 14 billion light years across.
ZionNeo1 1 year ago
I bet he knows how to spell 'this'.
mcmonkey001 2 years ago
Take the mask off dingus, and pick some better backround music.
superpsilocybin 2 years ago
i knew it was fake cuz most aliens don't speak english.
punkrockefeller 2 years ago 2
Aliens is they exist are probably just things from out of space, another planet so they might just be like animals or something and not intelligent species so I agree with what he says
JulkaWilCZuR 2 years ago
Comment removed
AristotleP 2 years ago
He makes total sense. Thank you for all you do in the name of rationality and logic Mr. Shermer!
AudiophileTubes 2 years ago
I wonder why "god" created man in his image....I guess this "god" was a member of the biological superfamily Hominoidea.
Happy New Year Michael
PhysicsGuerrilla 2 years ago
watch?v=ph_YCOIjNXk
NatralisticPantheist 2 years ago
the most common life giving element in the universe is water, so wouldn't that lead you to assume that a super intelligent life form would be heavily dependent on water, if not need to be submerged in water to survive?
ph33ric 2 years ago
I think the main reason people see a bipedal alien is because, if an intelligent life form does exist out there, they wouldn't have tentacles, or useless stuff like that. The most advanced form is the bipedal structure, and hands, legs, ect; are more simple yet more helpful and fitting to an intelligent specie.
Why the hell would an alien need three legs, or 5 arms? - it is impractical and useless. It would just get in the way. My 2 cents.
Jasexxxxx 2 years ago
You do have a point, Jase. Michael is not giving us a good argument against the reasons why bipedal form is superior and therefore more likely to be the common form of intelligent life. He should elaborate is he is serious about his toughts.
manueljesusarredondo 2 years ago
@manuel, the bipedal form is in no way the 'superior' form, because evolution is not a guided process with any particular form as an ultimate goal. and as i pointed out below, the human body could use lot's of, if you will, 'upgrades'. but your right in that if there where any chance of life emerging somewhere else in the universe, that it would most likely be in a very similar (depending of the environmental conditions) evolutionary process.
elgringos 2 years ago
what i meant by superior is not that (in any case I am free to believe in an ultimate goal as long as i keep apart my faith from science)I meant something along the lines of "refined" or simply more evolved and efficient for certain tasks that the concept of life has in compatibility of what we see as our universe. I agree that, since we are limited in observation, there might be distant workds in which the universe might not look like our most modern theories expect but that's beside the point.
manueljesusarredondo 2 years ago
esta bien ;)
elgringos 2 years ago
"Why the hell would an alien need three legs, or 5 arms?"
why not? wouldn't you agree that humans could have better eyesight like that of owls or some sea creatures, like the mantis shrimp that can see the full spectrum of light. and i'm sure you could think of hundreds of ways an extra arm or two would help out in our daily lives.
elgringos 2 years ago 2
the point i think shermer was making is that people have simply anthropomorphiszied these 'aliens' into creatures very similar to humans (humanoids), in the same way that those who believe in 'god(s)' have given them human characteristics that are dependent of the origin of the particular myth:
jesus=middle eastern
shango=african
odin=nordic
apotamkin=native american
zeus=greek
et cetera.
elgringos 2 years ago
Actually, there have been several bi-pedal primates in the history of the Earth. Homo Heidelbergensis, Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Australopithicus Afarensis, Australopithicus Africanus, Homo Floresiensis, and Australopithicus Ardipithecus all walked upright and not all of them are in our direct ancestral lineage.
mhedger80 2 years ago 2
yeah sure JACKASS! there are a lot of people who say they have seen aliens looking like that, some even say they are from other dimensions.
SpiritMolecule1 2 years ago
my guess is if it could happen here why not out there ?
frankternoois 2 years ago
I guess all highly intelligent land based life will be humanoid like..
phil7413 2 years ago
actually, not only one specie has become a bipedal primate if you look at the other extinct humanids like homo erectus
velbythorngage 2 years ago
@velbythorngage
We both evolved from primates.
fancyshmancypants 2 years ago
@velbythorngage
We aren't the only bipedal species on earth, yes. However, he wasn't saying the bipedal part was unrealistic. It's the fact that they're too humanoid. Humans are just bipedal primates, so he's just talking fancy-shmancy-like. You misinterpreted what he meant.
For a species on another planet to evolve into bipedal primates is completely unrealistic. It's just us being narcissistic little bastards.
Think of it like this: How different are we from plants?
fancyshmancypants 2 years ago 2
Maybe there's some reason why you have to be a bipedal primate to evolve our level of intelligence?
davidmichael3d 2 years ago
Why bipeds? What about an alien with more than four limbs? Why hands? what about tentacles arranges in a ring around the mouth, like in squid? Also, consider parrots, which are able to manipulate objects with just two feet and a beak, and approach primates in intelligence.
dukeduck 2 years ago
it dont really matter what the E.T.s would look like.when an advanced society encounters a primitive society, the outcome isnt so good for the primitive.when we know the truth ,we all better hope they are nice!!!
lowgeemudbone 2 years ago
they would have to be tool makers like us thus as they evolve they would to be able to carry things whilst moving which would mean hands and feet.
nature has shown us common solutions to common problems such as eyes etc. in divergent species.
aliens might not be primates but they would likely have many attributes in common with us unless they have a symbiotic relationship with some kind of "monkey" to build their tools / spaceships etc.
freezatron 2 years ago
Well, they probably won't have hands and feet if they evolved in some kind of aerial or marine environment. They may have organs used for grasping but not necessarily hands or feet, or even arms or legs.
MutatedIguana 2 years ago
but then they wouldn't be making spaceships. I think mastering fire will be a prerequisite for persuing technologies that would lead to space travel, aside from language.
here on earth nature has been thru a myriad of limb combinations etc yet the common skeletal arrangement in all vertabrates must of had some distinct merits for it to win through.
also, similar problems tend towards similar solutions, so aliens being upright bipeds is not unlikely but its not the only possibility :)
freezatron 2 years ago
we will just have to wait and see
freezatron 2 years ago
I agree entirely. :-) But universe is quite vast, and I believe there is quite a lot of ways life could evolve. But what ever the life looks like I guarantee it will be interesting even if it is just a bacterium.
MutatedIguana 2 years ago 2
There are already aliens upon the earth that look just like us. Red blood and everything. Please, go study your Paleo History.
meadowlassie 2 years ago
But their have been multiple bipedal primates.
normtheclone 2 years ago 5
@normtheclone Humans are strictly bipedal, other primates are quadrupedal.
7thdayfallout 1 year ago
I think you ought to think the problem through more holistically.
GMBCATASTROPHE 2 years ago
I would expect it to be almost a 100% chance that they would be bipedal or descendants of bipedals. I don't know where you are going with this. You need to have spent time in the trees to have developed claws or hands, to then be able to manipulate your environment. Develop a medium of exchange and so forth. We cannot hope to evolve a coin-belt. Any fishy life-form faces the problem that water is the universal solvent. Hence the accumulation of capital goods becomes virtually impossible.
GMBCATASTROPHE 2 years ago