We are not alone ...

[brian livesey]

It sounds like you've contracted out in your later years Mike. As a species, l don't think we will ever lose our explorative instinct, it's made us what we are, and it now includes the search for extraterrestrial life.

[michael feist]

Probably Brian. However I never was a scientist/ astronomer in the technical sense although as a lad rather imagined that I was. Perhaps I have lost the plot , or possible never really had it. I am now rather sad and tired, and just happily [and sometimes sadly] watch the world go by, enjoying the sights and wonders as they present themselves. Personally, I never had an explorative instinct, hating traveling, and never ventured beyond my local area. regards mike [the watcher or skywatcher]

[brian livesey]

Well said Mike. As Oscar Wilde put it, it's a philistine world. Wait until the flashing billboards are up there in earth orbit, urging you to drink Pepsi.
You don't seem to have lost your adventurist spirit for the night sky. Otherwise, you wouldn't be up at what many people would regard as unearthly hours scanning the sky.

[G A Burt]

Hi All,

I gather the Nottingham University estimate was a run through of the Drake Equation and I recall coming up with the same or perhaps a similar number a while ago; either 36 or 38.....or was it 42.....?

A few dozen communicating civilisations distributed around the galaxy seems as reasonable a result as any. Certainly, it supports the fact that we haven't heard from anybody yet. Assuming a more or less even distribution, the civilisations would be at least hundreds if not thousands of light years apart and there's no reason to believe they'd be any more technologically advanced than we are.

That seems frustrating. Either we are indeed alone (which seems unlikely) or we're probably in for a really long wait before we make contact. Who knows?

Best Wishes,

Geoff

[brian livesey]

I don't understand why you think that ETs would probably be no more technically advanced than we presently are Geoff. To be as we are they would have to have followed more-or-less the same historical stages as humanity: Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Classical slave-owning, Feudalism and Modern Capitalism. This seems unlikely.
If ETs inhabited planets in older stellar systems than ours, they could be technically far more advanced for having had more time to evolve than we have. There could be a number of reasons for why there are ETs technically ahead of us, including their planet's abundance and type of natural resources.

[Cliff]

Brian
If I lived very happily with my family on a splendid perfect planet (with similar beings to us), why would any of us want to contact unknown beings on other planets (& in particular earth). I think I'd prefer to stay put & not risk the dangers of contacting other very potentially very dangerous beings dangerous creatures such as ( - you know who !).
from Cliff