Space Forum / SETI / October 2007

This is not a challenge for any debate, just fuel for imagination:

When we think of Extraterrestrial Intelligence we usually think
immediately of highly advanced beings both in their intellect and
their body structure. True, it is fair to say that if another
civilization were to contact or visit us, they would be of this nature
of being highly advanced.

But let's look up a the night sky with just binoculars and imagine the
plausibility that we are maybe seeing if only a thousand stars, then
we are seeing a wide myriad of potential civilizations. Just like our
own planet has a history of civilization, so do theirs - some similar
to our own - some very different. But at any given relative point in
time on a planet with a civilization, there has most likely been
historical events not unlike our own - disease, war, weather
catastrophies, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, climate change,
slavery, genocide, art, music, political changes, revolutions,
sexuality, race - the list goes on and on - up to some civilizations
ending completely by pandemics, asteroid hits, nuclear war, etc.

Though the most highly advanced civilizations probably have been able
to defeat natural or "man-made" destructive forces, most civilizations
are still struggling and evolving. Some have very primative
civilizations not unlike our on planet in say 2000 BC. Some are just
now entering an age of industrial revolution. Some even have advanced
telescopic capabilites maybe like our radio telescope in Aricibo.

The exciting thing is that it is likely that many civilizations have
or are close to aquiring the capability of sending and receiving a
signal. For this reason, we keep listening to the sky at night,
finding better ways to listen, and hopefully preparing a new
generation of scientists more eager than ever to find that signal.