[libertyminded]

Are there other intelligent species out there?

Does it matter if there are?

There's been countless sightings of unexplainable lights in the sky and shady behavior by government officials in relation to such sightings.

As a species, we've long theorized about the prospects of discovering, or being discovered by another space faring species.

What are the implications of there being other intelligent life out there?

Should we, as a species, be planning for the day when we meet another form of intelligent life?

What are your thoughts on how we should handle such an encounter?

Personally I think that the odds are stacked in favor of the existance of other intelligent life.

Consider:

Our galaxy alone contains 50 billion stars with maybe several million of these solar systems containing planets like ours. There are also 100 billion galaxies in this universe that we've found so far, each of them with their own compliment of millions if not billions of worlds. All together that means 500 trillion stars. Be conservative and say that 1% of those stars have solar systems like ours. That's 5 trillion. Now say that 1% of those solar systems have planets that could sustain life. That's 50 billion. Go a step further and say that 1% of those planets have been around long enough in the right conditions to develop intellegent life. That leaves the posibillity of at least 500 million solar systems that could have intelligent organisms on them. And that's just what we can verify exists.

Once you start to wrap your head around these numbers (no one can really comprehend them but you can understand them in the abstract) you will see that life as a random occurrence is not only possible, it is inevitable and has no doubt been happening forever and will continue to happen forever.

What are your thoughts?