4 Comments

Humanity's history reflects a truth that our reaction to contact with other intelligent? life is to snuff it out. If there is intelligent life 'out there', and they have developed technology capable of communicating with us, the likelihood is that they know what we are like, and, therefore, would avoid at all costs having anything to do with us. I would, and I am not all that intelligent.

Expand full comment

That is the zoo's hypothesis. Maybe they don't contact out of fear. It's a theory that has been much talked about because it would completely change the direction of space exploration. It's not that we can't find them, it's that they're hiding.

Expand full comment

Good article. What about the fact that most potential planets are so far away that evidence of their development and perhaps even death has not yet traveled this far? Our technological development to the ability to detect others is less than 100 years. An instant. How far could light travel in 100 years and how many potential life sites are within that parameter?

Expand full comment

It is true that the speed of light is another impediment. Absolutely true. What we see is not the present, but the past of the universe, which adds an additional difficulty to looking for life out there.

Expand full comment