Do you ever wonder if someone is looking back?

[Billy Bluelight]

Then surely to think otherwise implies that our development is planned and intentional, which it's plainly not. 

If a massive asteroid hadn't hit what is now Mexico around 60 million years ago, then we'd almost certainly not have developed as we are today.   That was sheer chance, and pretty long odds too.  A similar even could make us extinct just as fast at any time.  Sheer luck.

I'm not saying there's no life.  I am, like many others, convinced of that because of what you say - the sheer numbers of star systems just in our galaxy alone.  I'm talking about advanced, intelligent civilisations capable of contacting us:  Of that I'm not convinced.  It takes time for a species to develop even as far as we have, and I think we've just been dealt some very lucky hands with regards to environmental conditions and predation that would otherwise have kept us struggling for survival along with every other species instead of developing to the extent to which controlling our environment became possible. 

I'm not suggesting we're "special" in the way you think I am...  as in different, or blessed in some way.   I do think we're very rare though.

Others have said things like "Maybe they don't use radio waves" etc.   Well..  maybe not.  Who can say.  Considering we accept that physics is universal, then it's pretty likely that another intelligent civilisation would have stumbled across understanding the electro-magnetic spectrum also.  Even if they have surpassed that and harnessed some other long distance communication technology using something else....  I dunno...   modulated neutrino transmissions..  (shrug)...  then there's still a strong argument that if you wanted to communicate to others, you'd pick the simplest, oldest, and what is most likely to be the most widespread methods.

Any way....   we're now at the point where we can think about analysing the atmospheres of exo planets, and that may shed some light on things. 

I think the odds against intelligent life being out there - both more and less intelligent than us - are so infinitesimally small as to be totally discountable.  Inconceivable  

[Billy Bluelight]

It's 3am on a freezing December morning, your fingers have turned white and your feet have frozen to the spot, but the view of Orion is stunning.

Suddenly there is a buzzing in your pocket, you fumble to retrieve your mobile. On the screen it displays Caller Unknown.

You answer it, thinking it might be important.

The distant and rather echoey voice at the other end begins to massacre the English language in an accent that seems to have been learned from a dodgy TV sitcom, whilst enquiring if you would be interested in taking part in a Home Insulation Survey.

Is any more proof required?

     Proves the point exactly!  It ain't going to take much to be superior to our "civilisation

[Treeden]

... previously on Farscape  SGL: 
 

I don't think anything that has led us to where we are now is in any way accidental, lucky or coincidental.

 
 

Then surely to think otherwise implies that our development is planned and intentional, which it's plainly not. 
 
If a massive asteroid hadn't hit what is now Mexico around 60 million years ago, then we'd almost certainly not have developed as we are today.   That was sheer chance, and pretty long odds too.  A similar even could make us extinct just as fast at any time.  Sheer luck.

I agree that you could make that conclusion of my first sentence (above)...  if you hadn't read the rest of what I put.   

When you say 'sheer chance' and 'long odds' you are talking about from the perspective of Earth, or I think you are?  Earth was lucky, or Earth was unlucky.  On that scale I would agree.  What I meant was on the scale of what is or might be happening in the entire universe at any given time.  On that scale I would say that these things are probably happening pretty much all the time.

Why would we assume that what happens here in our relatively ordinary galaxy is different or special?  

Just a question of scale I suppose?

  

[Alien 13]

... previously on Farscape  SGL: 

I agree that you could make that conclusion of my first sentence (above)...  if you hadn't read the rest of what I put.   

When you say 'sheer chance' and 'long odds' you are talking about from the perspective of Earth, or I think you are?  Earth was lucky, or Earth was unlucky.  On that scale I would agree.  What I meant was on the scale of what is or might be happening in the entire universe at any given time.  On that scale I would say that these things are probably happening pretty much all the time.

Why would we assume that what happens here in our relatively ordinary galaxy is different or special?  

Just a question of scale I suppose?

The laws of physics/biology in this universe seem to make the formation of planets and probably life an inevitable conclusion and nothing to do with chance encounters, complexity where it has an advantage also looks to be favored too.

Alan

[goodricke1]

If a massive asteroid hadn't hit what is now Mexico around 60 million years ago, then we'd almost certainly not have developed as we are today. 

That's too simplistic though, you could say every event in the universe would not have happened had the preceding event not happened. Which brings us back to the 'big bang' and whether that was 'pure luck' also...

At the end of the day, if we could absolutely prove that there is no other life in the universe some humans would still convince themselves that 'chance' is the most likely explanation, despite what would be statistically overwhelming odds.

[rowan46]

If you have the most rudimentary grasp of distance and physics then you know that the chance of contact with an alien civilisation is essentially zero.

BUT do you look to the night sky and wonder if someone is looking back?