RE: Aliens, Space Travel and Ultratechnology (part 1)

Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Tue, 27 Jul 1999 12:44:46 -0700 (PDT)

paul@i2.to writes:

> I'm not sure I agree with this. The universe is in fact extremely large, with our
> galaxy making up a very small part of it. It is possible that space-faring
> intelligences are so rare that they only pop up in 1 out of 1000 galaxies.

In such a scenario we're walking the line between life being very rare or nonexistant.

In fact, I don't mind the fact of us being alone: the more space for us to expand into until we run into someone else. However, history teaches us to be wary of anthropocentrism: this system almost certainly is not very special. Perhaps intelligence is as commond as stellar dirt.