Reply #31: I'm Growing Increasingly Doubtful...

[Vogon_Glory]

I'm growing increasingly doubtful that we'll ever have formal contact with extraterrestrials.

I'm entertaining two notions concerning extraterrestrials. On the one hand, I think that it's likely that humans are the only advanced tool-using sophonts in this arm of the Galaxy--either because of evolution or perhaps the competition blew each other to bits millenia ago.

On the other hand, I suspect that it's quite likely that ET's are quite aware of humanity and thoroughly disapprove of us. Even without stealthed orbital satellites to do zoom-in streaming on human iniquities, humanity has broadcast enough of our activities on FM, short wave, and television so that advanced civilizations are revulsed by our behavior.

It's not just what we do to each other. While I'm not a vegetarian, I suspect that somebody might be getting an eye-stalk full of what humans are doing to whales, the great apes, elephants, and other more intelligent species.

:evilfrown: