Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Lee
The amount of time we've been listening and the miniscule slice of one tiny part of the universe we've managed to observe are statisically irrelevant. Even when we've been listening for 1000 yrs., it would be still the equivalent of taking a drop of water out of the ocean and concluding the Earth had no fresh water to sustain humans.
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Yes, but how many galaxies have we listened to, and how many solar systems would those galaxies collectively represent. I understand we're not taking a cosmic census, but we've been listening for a radio "carrier signal" for a LONG time, and heard nothing.
And again, what I am gleaning from astronomists and biologists is that the combination of cosmic and terrestrial events necessary for life to occur, then develop into intelligent life, may be much more unlikely than we already knew. We do not know how a DNA strand could have spontaneously occurred, which of course would be necessary in order for life to be created. That event is so unlikely (DNA is not a chemically "simple" thing) that we cannot even theorize how it might have happened. But now, some folks are beginning to wonder how likely, given a spontaneously-emerged DNA strand, it will evolve into a mouse, let alone a planet of sentient humans.
I don't know. And it doesn't matter to me. I'm just saying that whereas twenty years ago the folks promoting the idea of life on other planets could sneer down their noses at doubters......today, science is wondering that question anew.