> The probability of two civilizations with highly developed technology existing simultaneously in the Milky Way is so low that another would have to be at least 280,000 years old to exist alongside us now. At least, that is what two researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences have calculated, based on their estimates of how many rocky planets with plate tectonics and an atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen appear to exist.
Oh man, I have about 200 science fiction books to recommend to these guys.
To summarze: Extraterrestrial life doesn't have to be just like us. It could very well be aquatic, it could very well be post-biological in any of a million different ways. (See, e.g., Accelerando.) We don't even know if there's life on Ganymede; it's absolutely absurd -- frankly, it hardly even seems sane -- to rule out extraterrestrial life in the Milky Way on such shaky and unimaginative grounds.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 16.3 ms ] threadOh man, I have about 200 science fiction books to recommend to these guys.
To summarze: Extraterrestrial life doesn't have to be just like us. It could very well be aquatic, it could very well be post-biological in any of a million different ways. (See, e.g., Accelerando.) We don't even know if there's life on Ganymede; it's absolutely absurd -- frankly, it hardly even seems sane -- to rule out extraterrestrial life in the Milky Way on such shaky and unimaginative grounds.