SCIENCE28 - Intelligent Alien Life in the Universe?
I’ve always been interested in human evolution and have studied and written about the subject. I’ve also been fascinated about the prospect of intelligent alien life in the universe. I’ve followed closely over the last few decades as we have built elaborate earth-bound antenna farms to “listen” for alien communications, and launched increasingly powerful telescopes to try to find “markers” or signs of advanced alien civilizations. I’ve also noted, and sometimes been amused by, the imaginative fictional depictions of alien life forms in books and films. While ruminating on all this one day recently, I wondered what “science” says today about the possibility of intelligent alien life existing somewhere in the universe, and if it does, would alien life forms have evolved to look and act anything like humans (humanoids). I realize that there are no answers to these questions yet, but I thought it would be useful and fun to explore these questions and s...