On a more serious note, Richard Meyer's
link (post #5) is worth another look. Inside that link is a further
link about the multiple times multicellular organisms have developed on earth. It can settle a lot of popular discussion on evolution: once a functional reproducing cell develops, several can combine for mutual benefit.
Back to Meyer's main link. Of course, my opinions are those of an
ignoromnibus (I hope that isn't a seriously erroneous Latin form
), but I found Possibility 4 and Possibility 10 meaningful. (I do like Possibility 10, but think the examples given might be too restrictive.) Here they are:
Possibility 4) There are scary predator civilizations out there, and most intelligent life knows better than to broadcast any outgoing signals and advertise their location. This is an unpleasant concept and would help explain the lack of any signals being received by the SETI satellites. It also means that we might be the super naive newbies who are being unbelievably stupid and risky by ever broadcasting outward signals. There’s a debate going on currently about whether we should engage in METI (Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence—the reverse of SETI) or not, and most people say we should not.
Stephen Hawking warns, “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.” Even
Carl Sagan (a general believer that any civilization advanced enough for interstellar travel would be altruistic, not hostile) called the practice of METI “deeply unwise and immature,” and recommended that “the newest children in a strange and uncertain cosmos should listen quietly for a long time, patiently learning about the universe and comparing notes, before shouting into an unknown jungle that we do not understand.” Scary. [footnote]
Possibility 10) We’re completely wrong about our reality. There are a lot of ways we could just be totally off with everything we think. The universe might appear one way and be something else entirely, like a hologram....