- Roger Levinson

That is probably what most of the other aliens in our galaxy were thinking when they first set out to colonize the Universe.

Then they met the neighbors.

That's not a fact, that's a statement of philosophy.

"It is almost a fact that there is no other intelligent life form,"

'Intelligent' life form. Okay, that's a qualifier you didn't use before.

"…the proof being where are they? and why have we detected nothing."

We haven't looked very long. We haven't looked very far. With our current knowledge of physics and how civilizations develop (we have only ourselves as an example, and it's never wise to extropolate very far, from just one data point), we assume radio frequency communications as the most likely medium. That may or may not be a correct assumption, but we can only go with what we know. And some have noted that RF communicatons may not carry as far as we might like before being lost in background noise. So, we may not have looked with all possible means. The absense of a sky that's bright with intelligently generated RF does indeed tell us something, but not necessairily what you're concluding.

"The second point that there is no other life forms out there is found in the fact that there must be worlds in habitable zones which developed well before our solar system. If life developed on these worlds then is it not logical to presume that after a few billions of years intelligent life forms would have evolved?"

Yes, that's a quite reasonable possibility.

"…this has not happened see point one. "

That's possible too. It's also possible that civilizations more advanced than ours may not manifest themselves in ways obvious to us. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Not being a civilization that advanced, we can't look for what we don't know. (A thousand years ago, it could have been assumed that the best form of communications between cities of the time is a fast runner or horse riding courier. Modulated radio waves? Fiber optics? Completely beyond their imagining.) As I said, there's currently far too much room for suprise.

"Ergo, there is ot other life in the universe"

Wait, are we still talking intelligent life, or not? If we find so much as a microbe on Mars, that's life. However, it's entirely possible that 'life' is commmon, but intelligent life that's also capable of the technology that leads to radiotelescopes and starships is rare.

"…except what is on our planet. Our destiny is to populate the universe and it is about time that we got on with the job."

Again, that's a statement of philosophy, even though one I can agree with. Human expansion into the universe is, in my opinion, a desirable end.

But it's far to early, and our knowledge is far too limited to assme that we'll never run into anyone else. Come back with another few centuries worth of null observations and data, and you then *might* have a point.

Will you tell us what makes you so certain?

And will you tell us how the rest of us will know this to be a fact unless we indeed *look?*

The Universe has proven to be full of too many other suprises, to be so certain, so early in our knowledge of it.

Now, I seriously doubt we'll find anything biological in the Lunar polar regions either, but we're going to go there anyway for *other* reasons. (no one originally went to Antarctica *just* because it might have pristine, easily identified metoerites originating from the asteroids, the Moon and even Mars, but it proved to be a cool incidental discovery) Nothing wil be lost by checking for that possibility possibility, too…

It may be -248ºC instead of 248ºC?

Or I am wrong?

Might be cynical, but it certainly got it the attention of the media and his 15-minutes of fame.

Might have happened, but discovering this is goddamn near impossible.

There is more of a chance for life to be there from us landing stuff on it, but still unlikely due to extremophiles (sp?) not living on rockets, or even above the surface.

It might contain dead and dormant life though.

Could always take the easy root, build a big sphere, add some matter, water, lightning generator, and shake it all about.
Could maybe even create some weirder lifeforms by adding certain elements that aren't that frequent (such as lots of electrical activity, rather than the occasional lightning storm)
Lets recreate Titan!

Its a wild theory to contemplate.