This image I saw on Reddit definitely puts our small part of the Universe in perspective.
It is a visualization of the area (the blue sphere) in the Milky Way galaxy containing all the stars visible in the night sky from Earth.
click to enlarge
All the stars that we can see with the naked eye are actually confined to a very small section of our galaxy. There are countless stars throughout the rest of the galaxy that are not visible from our relatively tiny planet. Of course, the Milky Way is just one galaxy among billions- each with billions of stars.
The scale of the universe is truly incomprehensible, and leaves the mind reeling at the size & complexity of our reality.
I saw that NASA recently released yet another awesome Hubble image.
It is a view of the edge of a spiral galaxy, named NGC 5023. It is over 30 million light years away from us. Click the link for full resolution images:
Astronomers have counted about 30,000 stars in this photo, but it is only a fraction of the millions of stars that this galaxy likely contains. It looks like there's a lot of stars in this image, but most of them are actually too faint to be seen, even by the Hubble telescope.
When I look into a photo like this, my mind reels at the immensity and vastness of our cosmos.
This galaxy alone has millions of stars, probably billions of planets, and countless other bodies & features... and it is only one single galaxy, out of 100 billion.
We are each a point of consciousness in this endless sea of creation, manifesting out of the practically infinite fractal Universe.
Tonight, I bundled up heavily & laid out a blanket on my cellar door, under the clear night sky. I decided to stay up late & watch the Geminid Meteor Shower.
I live near the center of a small town, so it's definitely not pitch black out. It's dark enough, though. Tonight is clear & it's a new moon, so I can see alot of stars. In a couple hours, I saw at least a few dozen shooting stars. There were several really bright ones, with visible trails. It was definitely worth sitting out on this 35º winter night to see.
Basically what's happening is that the Earth is passing through a debris field of some large, rocky object. As the pieces of asteroid or comet hits the atmosphere, it burns up. It's human nature to be awestruck to these mysterious rocks from the sky. Ancient people, without our technical knowledge, must have viewed these celestial events with wonder & some fear.
Thanks to the modern-day tech, namely the Stellarium app for my iPhone, I was able to tell that the brightest object in the sky tonight was, in fact, Jupiter. It was directly overhead & I lay there marveling that I was able to visually perceive a huge ball of gas that far away. Since it's a planet, all the light we see is reflected from the Sun.
Out in the infinity of space, there are countless stars, & they are even more incomprehensible distances away. I always enjoy being able to relax & ponder my particular experience in this vast cosmic process.
It's easy to feel insignificant when faced with the expanse of space, but our bodies are a whole world compared to a cell... or even a molecule! Our universe is One Infinite Fractal. Human perception of this multidimensional fractal is only zoomed in at one level, but there are countless levels- it's a continuum! Our level is not more or less significant than another. It just is...
Before going in, I saw a 2nd meteor follow right behind a 1st one, almost
right into Jupiter. Within a minute, I saw another one go right between
Castor & Pollux- the 'heads' of the constellation Gemini that give
the meteor shower its name. I thought that was a good sign to call it a night...
A couple of my favorite topics, that I've posted about many times here, are bad design & Star Wars.
In my travels through the Internet, I came across a ridiculous pairing of these two favorite things, in the form of a set of bootleg toys called "Stars Warsiors".
I tracked the source down, to the website of illustrator Brad McGinty, who claims he found them in a dollar store... but I'm not sure I believe it.
I want to think these are a subversive art project, & that no manufacturer could actually produce something this absurd.
On his blog, he had pictures of these insanely bad toy knock-offs & created a Star Warsiors T-shirt.
I used to play the original "Civilization" game when I was a kid. You used strategy & resource allocation to build up cities and control areas of a map. It was very addicting & was a fun way to simulate the evolution of nation states.
A few years ago I bought my brother Civ IV for his birthday, since he also used to love the game when we were younger. Even though the core gameplay was similar, the graphics were light years better & the game was much more sophisticated, overall. He says he's spent many hours building nations & empires, so apparently it's just as engrossing as the original.
I recently saw a trailer for the latest installment of the series created by Sid Meier. This game moves off our home planet, among the stars.
The trailer for the new Civilization is cinematic & doesn't show any of the gameplay. However, it is a thought-provoking look at man's destiny to leave the planetary womb of Earth, to find other inhabitable worlds throughout the infinite expanse of interstellar space.
I've posted here many times about the importance on space travel for the survival of the human species.
Besides the technological hurdles that must be overcome, we tend to forget the emotional dimension that will inevitably accompany humanity's migration off-planet. The trailer very effectively conveyed the deep emotional experience that will be felt by our descendants when this journey begins. It also shows the influence of ancient institutions, such as religion & politics, will have on the endeavor.
Ultimately, human beings must break out of this tiny speck in the Universe if we are to continue our genetic & memetic evolution. If we have a destiny, it is among the stars. The time to start reaching for them is now...
As my 40th birthday approaches, I have reached a point that most people consider "middle-age". Age has never really been a concern for me. Every day is a gift, and my life is lived in moments... each of which I consider miraculous.
I feel young, and am beginning my life many ways. I'm getting married this year to an amazing woman & life partner. I've started 2 businesses, and have interesting opportunities opening up for me as I type this post. My main career, at this point, is being a freelance graphic designer as Paul Micarelli Design. Also, my custom portrait & photo booth business Fantasy Photos is also going to be gearing up for festivals and events during the warmer months.
There are many things to be thankful for, and just being alive is a blessing. This adventure in consciousness has been an amazing experience already, & I plan on enjoying it for many years to come.
If I feel like I'm getting too wrapped up in the details and issues of life, I step back & take the cosmic perspective on things.
Recently I went with my fiancée to the Edelman Planetarium at Rowan University, my alma mater. The main show was an animated exploration of "Mayan Archaeoastronomy". It illustrated how the culture of the Maya in ancient Mexico created architecture that was related to the heavenly bodies.
Before the show, there was a nice presentation about the stars and constellations visible in the night sky at our location. As the projector zoomed in and out of different stellar areas, I was reminded of the unimaginable vastness of The Universe.
Then, I saw this high-resolution image online of the Andromeda Galaxy (at the top of the post). This insanely detailed composite photo further illustrated the seemingly infinite fractal scales of the cosmos. The picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope last year.
This galaxy, that is relatively huge & full of billions of stars, is just one of trillions (?) of other galaxies! HERE is a zoomable version, and you can see that as you zoom into any tiny section of the galaxy, it is literally filled with stars to the point where it looks like visual static.
It is truly humbling & mind-boggling to consider our place in this sea of light and energy that manifests in so many forms. Although my four decades have been like a flash in the cosmic scale of time, and my presence is a speck in the endless depths of space, I have cherished it & lived to the best of my ability.
First of all, let me say that I'm a fan of Barry. His job is one that I would not want under any circumstance, because of the inhuman problems & schedules involved. I've said that I haven't been a supporter of all his policies, but I believe he's doing what he thinks he can to steadily improve things from the nearly decade-long disaster of Bush's regressive, plutocratic rule.
The worst part of the deal is the fact that it is physically impossible to please every group & faction in the country, no less every individual. Obama is getting called a Socialist, Facist, Nazi, communist, Muslim, Islamo-fascist, & whatever label sounds sufficiently anti-"American".
Like any public official, Obama's philosophies & policies can be categorized with any disparaging label, as long as a rationale can be given. It doesn't even need to be a logical or justifiable rationale as long as other people buy into it.
This whole thought process led me to wonder if Obama, the Master of Propaganda himself, could be so persuasive that he actually smoothed-talked "Socialism" into seeming like a patriotic American value!?!
I've been wanting to make a crazy sort of Bizarro anti-propaganda poster that combines iconography of Soviet communism with the red, white, & blue of the good ol' USA.
The inspirational, yet appropriate, slogan "We are All in This Together" came to me as a way to offset the negative connotation of "Socialism." Then, I heard Obama use that exact phrase in his TV health care speech! At that moment I thought, "Ok, well that settles it. I gotta make this stupid thing..." So, I sat down recently & put this poster together one night last week.
I tried to make it as visually 'American' as possible- with flag colors, stripes, stars, a font similar to our currency's. The pose & spikes of the star crown resemble the illuminating Statue of Liberty. Beams of compassion for his people stream out from the heart area while he holds the O Sun logo at his stomach, pregnant with possibilities for the Republic. (or maybe he's just playing ball in front of a crowd?...)
The patriotic & positive tone of the poster twists the perception of Socialism as a negative force against American society into a proud American virtue.
On the other hand, the stars and strong red color could also give the sneaking suspicion of Communist activity lurking just below the surface. (I might as well point this out, since Glenn Beck would probably figure it out anyway.)
The stars also form a subtly menacing barbed wire-like border, while the big star behind Obama's head make devil horns that can only be explained by the fact that Obama is The Anti-Christ. Of course, the focus of the image is our deceptively friendly El Presidenté, surrounded by the adoring Liberal mobs that blindly follow our Dear Leader. He's an evil trickster, that Obama!
Anyway, this was just an absurd, fun idea to get off my mind & into the Internets.
Even though I live in a relatively populated area, it's still possible on clear nights for me to look up and see a starry sky.
When I go to a more isolated lake in the Pocono mountains for vacation, I sit out on the dock with my brothers & my brother-in-law, late into each night. While relaxing with beer & cigars by the lake, we get to see a much more brilliant sky, where the Milky Way band is easily visible. Known to the ancients as the Great Rift, it's easy to see why this celestial feature instilled such wonder in our ancestors.
The Milky Way (& it's alignment to other heavenly bodies) is the central focus of all the theories about the end of the Mayan Baktun this month- December 2012. I've talked about this phenomenon before, but I've got plans for Dec. 22... so I'm hoping the 'galactic alignment' doesn't screw things up too much!
Anyone with an imaginative spirit is naturally enthralled by the vast cosmos that surrounds us.
It's hard NOT to feel like you're mind is going to explode when you think deeply about the scale and complexity of the Universe.
It is entirely possible to oscillate between nihilistic feelings of utter insignificance... to ecstatic, awestruck wonder at being One with this amazing existence.
On a related note:
One app on my iPhone that's indispensable is Stellarium. It is augmented reality software that lets you pick out stars & planets in the sky. It is an amazing use for a smartphone that would have seemed impossible less than a decade ago.
The other day, I was out to eat with my parents & I saw a bright object right next to the moon. Using Stellarium, I was able to point out that it was Jupiter!
It definitely comes in handy while sitting out at night looking at the stars with friends or family.
On thisisnthappiness.com I saw this really cool series of Super Silhouettes, but one caught my eye- the awesome Silver Surfer, silently patrolling the Universe:
If I had to pick, The Silver Surfer is probably the superhero whose powers I'd choose to have. As a cosmic being with abilities far beyond most humanoid characters, the experience would be one that's hard to even imagine... I'd just want to avoid dealing with Galactus. For the record, my runner-up choices would be to have Green Lantern & obviously Superman's powers. However, I'll stick with my choice to wield The Power Cosmic. From the Marvel Wiki :
The Power Cosmic: The Silver Surfer possesses the Power Cosmic
which is the core from which his other abilities manifest from. This
power was granted to him by Galactus, making Norrin one of the absolute
strongest and most powerful beings in the Universe.
Matter Control/Manipulation and Reconfiguration / Energy Emission and Absorption:
The Surfer has complete control of the four fundamental forces of the
universe, reaching nearly any effect he desires. As a result, the Surfer
can rearrange matter to create other configurations and can even
transmute elements. The Surfer can channel beams of energy through his
hands with sufficient destructive force to destroy planets [20][21], and pierce stars. Additional abilities include erecting force fields, phasing through solid matter[22], accelerating the evolution of lifeforms on a planet-wide scale [23], seeing the past by peeling back the layers of time, time travel [24],
trans dimensional travel, manipulation and discharging of any form of
energy or radiation, bestowing limited cosmic powers to others, reading
minds [25], casting illusions [26], and influencing human emotion and sensation [22].
The Surfer also possesses the ability to suppress the powers of other
mutants/beings making them temporarily or permanently out of use to
them. He can heal living beings even if they are near-death[22]. He cannot, however, raise the dead.
God-like Strength: The Surfer possesses almost limitless
superhuman strength, though the exact magnitude remains vague. He can
lift (press) far in excess of 100 tons effortlessly and can also use the
Power Cosmic to increase his strength to incalculable levels[27].
Invulnerability: The Silver Surfer's silvery "skin" was
designed to easily withstand the rigors of deep-space travel, and thus
far, it has proven to be virtually indestructible. In fact, his entire
body was made highly resistant to injury and he is thus invulnerable to
almost all types of physical harm. The Silver Surfer can easily
withstand the crushing pressures of a black hole [28]. He is not bothered by the friction associated with atmospheric re-entry, and has withstood plunges into stars[29]
and even supernovas unharmed. He also routinely weathers the stresses
associated with high-speed travel through space and hyperspace.
God-like Stamina: The Surfer's highly enhanced
musculature generates no fatigue toxins, nor body stress, or even sweat,
granting him inexhaustible physical stamina, which allows him to fight
other beings for prolonged periods of time before tiring, that is if he
even gets tired.
Hyperspace Travel: By exceeding over 99% of the speed of
light (186,272 miles per second), the Silver Surfer can shift himself
into hyperspace, a dimension in which velocity is not limited by the
speed of light[22].
Cosmic Senses: The Silver Surfer has certain
cosmic-energy enhanced perceptions which enable him through
concentration to become aware of the patterns of energy anywhere in the
world[30].
These abilities allow him far-ranging vision (in space he can see
people clearly over a light year away), the ability to see sub-atomic
particles, superhuman hearing, the ability to detect fields, traces, and
concentrations of pure forms of energy and discern their natures[31].
Cosmic Self-Sustenance: The Silver Surfer does not need to eat or breathe since he absorbs life-maintaining cosmic energy directly through his skin.
Here's a more lavishly detailed image of the "Sentinel of the Spaceways", by Joe Jusko:
Looking at detailed pictures of outer space is a sure way for me to become lost in thought... trying to imagine the unimaginablecomplexity & scale of the Universe we experience.
The deep space images that have been taken by the Hubble Space Telescope have changed the way humanity thinks about it's place in the cosmos. Several photos have become iconic in their own right because of their visual power over our subconscious.
Maybe we are so drawn to images of stars because they are our physical heritage:
Anyway, looking at new Hubble photos was the inspiration to picture myself in a 'Cosmic' form, kind of like the character Galactus. In Photoshop I relatively quickly melded my persona among the countless stars that formed the elements in my body- & will one day consume them again.
Considering that I was just looking at the constellation Orion as I brought in my trash cans from the road tonight, this is a good video to share now. I always look up at the stars, amazed by even the limited number of stellar lights that I can see in the night sky at my house.
Orion is one of the most obvious constellations, and was associated with Osiris & his resurrection in ancient Egypt. One interesting fact about this arrangement of stars is their spacial orientation, which is obviously not on a flat plane as it appears. This is a cool diagram showing their relationship in space, from the previous article:
I love computer animated videos like the one below, because they give a perspective that is almost impossible to achieve strictly through verbal descriptions, or even numbers. Nothing can give you a quality existential crisis like a well-produced 3D animation like this, since it can clearly illustrate certain truths that reveal the mind-boggling nature of our reality.
This video was produced by Epic Spaceman & shows the scale of the nebula in the 'sword' of Orion, compared to our Sun. You just think about the incomprehensible vastness of space, and the mind & ego just "poof" away like an ephemeral cloud of dust.
In my last post, I linked to articles about the Hubble Telescope's view into the infinite expanse of cosmic space surrounding us.
After you really try to ponder the incomprehesible size of our own galaxy (not to mention the rest of the Universe), a fundamental question arises:
How can human beings, in our current physical incarnation, ever hope to travel over such impossibly vast distances?
People are dreamers & explorers by nature, so it's no suprise that humanity's brightest minds are at work on solving this seemingly insurmountable problem.
The most promising answer so far relies on some sort of "warp drive" Such a propulsion system would warp space-time itself around a vehicle, to allow it to bypass the relativistic effects of traveling close to the speed of light.
Like many precursors to modern technology, this is a concept that has been explored in sci-fi, like the classic Star Trek warp drive. Another example is the excellent video game Mass Effect puts you in a future scenario where Earth has joined a galactic civilization, connected by "mass effect" technology that warps gravity- allowing faster-than-light (superluminal) speeds.
Another possibility would be creating space settlements for generations of humans to live within, as it travels between the stars. I've always been facinated by concept art for these kinds of space stations, such as this set of NASA images:
Nothing puts the paradox of life's simultaneous triviality & miraculousness into immediate perspective like contemplating the infinite vastness of the physical Universe.
On Neatorama I saw a link to a site I bookmarked that let's you zoom into various sections of our Milky Way galaxy. Of course, a galaxy - immense beyond human understanding - is still just a dust speck in the larger cosmos.
Zooming into the different areas, each representing thousands of light-years, I began to think of a post I wrote about the similarity between large-scale galactic formations & the brain's neural network: "The Universal Mind."
I started imaging an unending fractal reality where 'the Universe' was actually an incomprehensibly large 'mind'... the galactic clusters forming neuron-like structures. Individual stars and planets would be nothing more than elementary particles. However once you zoom down past the level of our brain cells & atoms, perhaps whole universes are continuously contained beneath our threshold of perception. This unending progression may continue up & down the scale, ad infinitum.
On Superpunch, I saw this amazing digital painting of a grandmother and child observing the home planet Earth from an orbiting space station. It evokes a very real & emotionally stirring vision of the human experience in the future.
This weekend a bunch of my family is getting together at my parent's house for Easter dinner. My very extensive family are the most important connections in my life. It's deeply meaningful to see the strong bonds formed between grandparents, parents, children, and 'Uncle Dudes' like myself & my brothers.
Now that we have a new generation of nephews & nieces coming up, I've become even more aware of the limitless possibilities that the future holds for the human race. These infants & toddlers who already know their way around the iPhone's digital interface will be hopefully one day be commanding the starships that will begin to explore our area of the galaxy.
Sometimes I wonder how people living thousands of years from now & traveling to other stars will relate to planet Earth. Will it become a legendary place, that space colonists only see in pictures?
I guess it all depends on how fast travel can take place throughout space & how easily people can stay in contact among the stars. Maybe technology, like hyperspace or gravity warp drives, will be developed that will allow future space travelers to return to Earth relatively quickly. Perhaps traveling to Earth at least once in a lifetime will be like a spiritual pilgrimage to Jerusalem or Mecca in the current age.
What I love about this painting is the beautiful simplicity of the scene- yet it still conveys a vast, mind-expanding sense of space, time, & the wonder of Life.
This month, my family went on their annual trip to the Poconos in Pennsylvania. We went the week after my wife and I got back from our wedding & honeymoon.
It turned out to be a nice week overall, a chance to to sit by the lake & read or relax, go out on the boats, fish, and just enjoy the outdoors & each other. We got the fire pit going at night and sat under the stars, listening to the sounds of fish, frogs, and insects on the dark, still water.
My family really values this time we spend on vacation, and it is the source of many great memories for us, and now for the younger generation represented by my sister's kids.
I uploaded photos to an album with pics of some of the fun we had and the natural sights we experienced.
I saw some interesting wildlife- including a northern water snake that periodically swims by the dock, & also a spider wrapping up a beetle in a cocoon. I actually have videos of both of these that I will upload soon.
Here is a 15" pike I caught, the only time I went out fishing with my brother & nephew:
My brother grilled two nights in a row, as the rest of us chipped in meat and assistance to create the family-sized feasts.
We hiked Davis Trail near Scranton, PA one day. We decided to all go off the trail and hike through the gorge to be closer to the beauty of the river, soiled only by dirtbag visitors who have left trash in certain areas.
Me & the new "Mrs. Monkey Buddha" enjoying being outdoors in the mountains:
I also captured my beautiful life partner doing yoga in our "P&L Cove" at one end of the lake, that I also posted on our blog Conscious Living for You:
The scales of distance and time are impossible for the human mind to fully comprehend. However, we can still understand, calculate, and simulate these vast celestial forces. By doing so, we learn more about our Universe and, therefore, ourselves as an integral part of it.
Speaking of self-reflection, while searching for similar animations, I also saw this NASA video of galactic evolution on an even larger scale. Here, the strands of stellar material that thread between & form galaxies, resemble neural cells connecting throughout the fractal universal mind field.
Like so many people, I am anxiously anticipating seeing "Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens" this weekend.
My sister-in-law reserved a block of tickets for my immediate family for Sunday, so I'm trying to remain spoiler-free until then. Until now, I have been absorbing all the trailers & information I could find. Now I'm going to patiently wait, until I see the latest movie in a legendary series that has inspired me since I was a young child..
The people who have seen the movie already have given it overwhelmingly positive reviews, which is confirming my high hopes. Just from the trailers & footage I've seen, I knew it looked like a faithful continuation of the Star Wars legacy.
I previously posted my impressions of the official trailer, which was masterfully done & succeeded in driving the hype train full-steam ahead!
After I wrote that post, I thought of some other things that I wanted to say about it. While I'm waiting to see the movie, I figured I'd share some additional observations.
The one thing I love about the entire Star Wars saga is how it speaks to the human desire for expansion, of both the self & of all life. Specifically, the movies speak to the human (& alien) desire for traveling into outer space and among the stars.
This sentiment is captured in the trailer when Rey looks up to see the spaceship flying upwards through the atmosphere of her home planet Jakku. You can see the look in her eyes that reflects the longing to travel outside your own boundaries and experience all the Universe has to offer.
The other thought I had was about the relationship of man & machine, which is a constant theme throughout the movies. The scene that brought this to my mind was the brief glimpse of a hooded figure, reaching out to touch R2-D2 with a robotic hand. I'm assuming the person is Luke Skywalker, who no longer wears a glove to cover the replacement for the hand that was sliced off by his father, Darth Vader. It look like they are in a fire-lit cave or a secluded rocky area. One thing I have heard is that Luke has been missing for awhile, so maybe this is him reuniting with his friendly droid.
This brings up the interesting dynamic of humans & robots being friends, and truly trusting each other. I've always said that the droids, C-3PO & R2-D2, are really the central characters, who remain throughout the generations of human lives in the story. In fact, R2-D2 could be the biggest hero of the series, who saved his biological companions in many, many seemingly impossible situations.
Because it's memory has not been wiped, R2 is an artificial intelligence that could be said to have developed a personality, and perhaps even a conscious mind. This raises several questions- How does The Force affect or influence electronic beings? Can the power of The Force be utilized or experienced by a droid? Perhaps these are questions that will be answered in the coming stories.
Finally, the image of Luke's cybernetic hand led me to think about the use of technological prosthesis or augmentations to the physical body. In the original trilogy, Luke was aware that having this robotic part represented the possibility that he could eventually become "more machine than man" like his father, if he lost his sense of humanity.
However, a life form can obviously have mechanical additions without becoming evil or soulless. The question becomes, how much can a living being be replace by technology & still be a conscious individual? Darth Vader was still a human, but disfigured & encased within a suit that double as life-support. General Grevious was mostly machine, except for his central nervous system & viscera. Perhaps as long as you have a biological nervous system & brain, you can be considered to be a living person. Then, how does droid intelligence and personality factor into the idea of something being "alive"?
This is why I love Star Wars, it makes us confront deep questions about ourselves, life, the world, and our place within it. I look forward to seeing "The Force Awakens" with an excitement that no other cultural phenomenon can match. It is a story that has inspired me & countless others for our whole lives, and ignites the imagination of every person who truly engages it. It is truly the mythology of our age.
I've had this little crystal skull & a bunch of rocks of various shades that
I've been wanting to use for this artistic side project, that I envisioned
awhile ago.
The circle of changing stones represents the continual
transformation that one experiences in a lifetime, while incarnate in the world of matter.
I decided to overlay stars over the spiral design for a background. This gives the
impression of the galaxy we are within, & also the dynamic "Ying-Yang" energy
of creation.
This design is available on products, in my Cafepress shop. Please check out the other designs I have there, as well:
I'm going to really let my 'inner nerd' shine through.
Although I've been a fan of mainly Star Wars since I was young, I've also picked up on bits of other Sci-fi knowledge, too. I think science fiction is fascinating in the sense that it's like a conceptual nursery for the future possibilities of humanity.
Searching through "Google Images" as I sometimes do, I came across these great charts. The first one is a comparison of everything from (comparatively tiny) earth-bound vessels from history to Darth Vader's mile-long intersellar craft, the Executor-class Star Destroyer.
The second chart is a map of all the planets in the Star Wars galaxy. "The galaxy is filled with over 400 billion stars, around which circle over a million inhabitable planets that are home to over 20 million intelligent species."
*I also found this website that takes it to yet another level, including everything from the scale of humans & Ewoks to the Death Star to structures like the "Dyson Sphere" that encompass an entire solar system!
One thing that nobody has thought of yet is the "Monkeybuddhasphere™" which is a spaceship, the size of the entire Universe. The control system for this complex vehicle is already in operation- your own brain!
I've always thought that self-perpetuating life probably exists in other places throughout this relatively infinite Universe. However, I also think that beings from other world wouldn't necessarily physically look like us at all.
Sending messages to the stars or trying to communicate would suddenly seem ridiculous if alien life appeared & floated out of a spaceship looking like the sea cucumber in the photo above. We would be in no position to expect direct communication with abstractly weird beings from another world. What if they didn't deal with sound or light at all, but communicated & navigated using subtle manipulations of gravity fields? We wouldn't even know they were sentient without evident technology.
On the other hand, it's possible that space/time traveling aliens would be able understand us- like we are deciphering communication between bees & other animals. If there are alien beings advanced enough to be visiting us, they probably see Earth like a zoo & just use their 4-dimensional technology to pop in & out of our world like people drive a jeep through a safari.
UFO's aside, It's amazing to see all the new images of life that science and new technologies are discovering on all scales. This is a set of microscopic images that I saw on io9 that is crazy:
