Nasa's budget is pitiful go look up "US budget" and see how long it takes to find NASA... We spend more money on pretty much anything else you can think of... transportation, education, health research, bureaucratic waste, and of course we spend MUCH MUCH more on defense, social security, health care. One of the next generation aircraft carriers is going to have a cost similar to the entire annual budget of NASA...

Even if your not interested in finding life else where in the galaxy or going to mars, or anything else you can't throw a rock at, NASA has been responsible for many practical and useful technological advancements over the decades.

Much of the human race has been curious about our origins since we came into existence. Spending a measly fraction of a percent of the national budget researching new technologies and trying to figure out where we came from and pushing the limits of where we are going seems like a fine way to spend some money.

This post was edited by thenoose on Jul 27 2014 11:07am

it pisses me off when they say shit like that...they would never tell the world anyway

Actually it would be in NASAs best interest to go public given the fact they are entirely undervalued currently.

Not to mention the fact you couldn't shut half those guys up about finding alien life if you had a gun to their head.

A lot of science is nothing more then mere theory's with no definitive proof to back it up.

Your parents should of told you this already....

If you don't know what you are talking about then shut up.

You are on the internet and it takes 5 damn seconds to learn the difference between "a theory" and "a scientific theory".

Some believe that has already happened.

More realistically they would be a very primordial form of life with no capacity of finding us.

when i read this, i remember Hawking's words. he is a genius and a very clever guy.
aliens, if they exist (and they prob do so), would come to us long time ago. if they didnt and dont, then we shouldnt come to them. and if we contact with them... well, that contact may end up like it did after 1492, when Columb met Indians.

He is clever...which is why he should know better than to spread such nonsense to others.

Our history applies to us and us alone and we cannot logically apply it to an alien intelligence whom for all we know value life above all else and wishes for life to be left in peace with no outside influence.

In which case there would be no contact unless we initiated it and once we did they would simply want to exist in peace.

I hope now you see how his opinion is simply an ignorant opinion just like mine.

And discovering another planet with life would tell us absolutely nothing about the ORIGIN of life.