David777
Well-known Member
- Location
- Silicon Valley
Carl Sagan thought so, but after the release of the 2000 best seller Rare Earth, Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe by Ward and Brownlee, most astrobiologists now expect complex intelligent life is rare while primitve life as in bacteria and viruses are common. I also expect panspermia has spread DNA organic life including here to Earth. And Ultimate Intelligent Entities, aka UIEs, are far far more likely than intelligent entities with magic like god powers.There are probably billions of stars and planets harboring intelligent life. However, distances are so vast they will never find us and we will probably never find them. Humans are made out of solid material and liquids. Those aliens could be gaseous, fluid, solid or subatomic. It's all fantasy at this point.
Any aliens that can travel light year distances between star systems are likely non-organic as in essentially immortal if not physically destroyed AI Artificial Intelligence. So distance limitations are unlikely. And as a science person, a whole lot of favorites of science fiction writers will IMO forever be impossible even for ancient UIEs.
I'm also one that expects many ideas used by science fiction writers will NEVER be possible including:
- time travel
- teleportation
- black hole wormhole travel
- parallel universes, simultaneous space multidimensions
- reading organic minds from a distance
- bringing back to life never saved organic life from dust
- deflector shields against weapons