Quote:
Originally Posted by Judas
Given the immense size of the universe, and the number of starts in even a small galaxy, it seems unlikely in the extreme that Earth is the only life-producing planet out there. It seems almost as unlikely that humanity is the only technologically advanced (from our own perspective) sentient species, and slight less unlikely that there are species that are far more advanced than us.
Of course, going back to the immense size of the universe, it seems as unlikely that we will ever encounter a space-faring civilization, or for that matter, any form of extra-terrestrial life as is that Earth is the only life-bearing world. Unless, of course, life is a far more common occurrence in the universe than anyone has ever before thought.
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And here's a few more things to add to that: Even if life in the universe is a common occurence, don't forget the concept of time too. Consider how old the universe is, then consider how infinitely small our window of existance is. Add the vast distances of space, and the assumption that not all life evolves into intelligent (well...) civilizations and by then you should have a pretty good idea of the window of opportunity we have to actually meet (or recieve a message) from an extraterrestial source. Even if another civilization has had space-faring technology for some millenia, it's not granted that that millenium was in our timeframe. It could have been some million years ago, etc (in a galaxy, far, far away...) So even if a gazillion space-faring civilizations fling around the universe like Picard on vulcan speed, we still have just an atom of a drop in the ocean to actually meet them thanks to time and distances.
Unless there's technology to overcome that, but the universe is still pretty damn big and dark and it's hard to find a bloody place to park.