Life elsewhere

Interesting poll and interesting results....
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/extraterrestrial/poll.html

Now, this was a poll on whether extra-terrestrial life exists and whether we (as in, humans) would make contact with above mentioned life forms and so on; and it was conducted via live TV with respondents sending in their opinions through SMS (and maybe through a telephone survey). I don't know about you but I don't really think that the "great unwashed masses" are the right people to be asking about aliens. I can understand polls for what should happen to the evil 'bahu' on the many serials-starting-with-the-letter-K on Indian TV channels, but aliens...?! I'm sure the general TV-watching public in any country wouldn't be all that different from that out here. It would be really amusing to have this poll on Indian TV too... but I would love to ask people to send in detailed answers (100 words, 10 marks anyone?) explaining their choice(s).

Here's an example:

15. If beings from another planet sent a message to us through deep space, do you think we would be able to figure out what they were saying?

50% Yes
38% No
11% Don't Know

I wonder how so many people (going by the percentages, of course) can have strong positive or negative views about something that is essentially unknown. Even if I were to have to make a decision about either of the first two choices, I would tend more towards the No than the Yes - people can barely understand others speaking the same language with a different accent, but here they are, claiming that we would positively be able to undertand what beings from another planet have to say!

Slashdot always has something to say about everything. Here are some choice comments on this topic:

"I read somewhere (lost the link) that on some surveys more young people believe that aliens exist than that they will get anything from the social security system."

"They should also ask if the Earth is flat or the Sun revolves around the Earth. This would separate the science types who base their 'Yes' on sound scientific reasoning and the new-age type who will believe anything just so long as the government denies or refuses to comment on it."

"Do you really believe that the average person even knows that UFO is an acronym and tell you what it stands for? Most people probably believe that UFO means alien aircraft, not anything else. As for whether "aliens exist", again, your question is pretty specific. Unless the poll was asking the scientific community, the average person doesn't consider the odds of life existing based on the large number of planets, but rather they exist or not, period."

"Meanwhile, only a resounding 5% of life on other planets believes that there is intelligent life on Earth."