Exoplanet Explosion Sparks Philosophical Debate

There are a lot of things to consider, not just the potential planets in the milky way galaxy, but the number of planets capable of life, and intelligent life that can communicate. The Drake equation devised in 1961 may help to understand the problem. Enter your own guess to see if your numbers jive with what you think. It seems we may have to use a number closer to 100% of the stars with planets.

The other issue is time. Intelligent life able to communicate with radios, etc on earth has only been occurring on earth for the last 100 years. This is a mere drop in astronomical times. Consider that the other intelligent planet would have to occur with communication ability at the same time as earth. Intelligent life may have already evolved on many planets and already be extinct. The question is can we find such life while we earthling inhabit the capability on earth? Isaac Asimov did the exercise a few decades ago and in his estimation the milky way should contain about 45 planets meeting the criteria at any given time. I won't argue with Isaac's brain.

If we do find other intelligence with a much greater understanding of physics and who have a very different morphology, is religion as we know it on earth still viable? Religion is still only a very recent manifestation of human culture based on time scales of the known universe. Past religions, now relegated as paganism, may be as relevant to the other alien lives as the main stream religions of today. I for one would relish the day of a new life from another planet and answers they could provide. I admit to not being a believer but I do believe in a morality that has been established by many religions and used as a guide to human living. Communication with alien life will be a zenith of human achievement; a true milestone.

Excellent post. Depending on how their evolution might differ from ours, I'm not certain their "answers" would be much better than we've come up with. I expect until or unless a life form were to become advanced enough to have surmounted the gargantuan task of traveling to reach the location of another life for, if that is even a practical proposition for any life form as we know it with a limited term, they may be just as clueless as we are!

It is also possible they took one look at what we have done and are doing as a species and run like h-ll.

I know I would, if I could. Why be slummin' when I'm sure there are much classier places to visit.

I think most sane beings would

10²¹ Earthlike planets seems to assure that there must be life nearby.

Sagan said that our Sun is due to fail soon and that we must find a way off of this rock within the next 5000 years to survive. Sagan also said that it is likely to be a near thing that we can do so by then. Some 15 billion years evolution of the universe, galaxy, solar system, planet and ecosystem produced us, and possibly others. The AAAS article picks "100 generations" as the transit time. One gets the sense that time has already run out for us to go visiting.

It seems more likely that some other humanoid species will exist near a star more long lived than ours, and that other tribe will survive to migrate. Countless others like us will not, and many may have already perished.

This line of thought leads to the conclusion that the time to expect visitors may be well beyond our survival. If so, we would need not concern ourselves with such questions as to what the dynamics of that relationship might be.

If we were "lucky," and those sufficiently evolved to visit us were therefore also aware of the exceptional nature of contact, perhaps they would be kind. If they were still like us, we should be ready for the worst. Perhaps God has already culled us away.

5000 years is perhaps too soon. It is predicted that the sun will not become a red giant for another 5 billion years. However, that does not mean the earth has 5 billion years of good life. In about 1 billion years the earth is predicted to become more like Venus as the oceans evaporate. Human life as we know it should be safe for several million years but our time on earth is finite. We may drive ourselves to extinction through careless caretaker practices now existing on earth long before the sun causes problems. In which case your 5000 year prediction may be correct. Getting to lifeboat Mars may be an option and is a worth while venture.

It isn't my 5000 years. It comes from Dragons of Eden, by Carl Sagan. I tend to hope it is much longer. I can not make any kind of reasonable conjecture for lack of evidence and information. Regardless, it seems likely in the context of evolutionary time that our opportunity for diaspora could be critically short. It seems equally likely to me that others may not have had enough time to get here yet either.