One of the most heartbreaking thoughts is that we might be alone in the universe. I guess the only solace is that we might be the first...or at least a fun type of entertainment for our AI overlords.,(reply>), Literally...😅,(reply>), @Sara Songbird No chance at all we will notice any proof of life at all in our lifetimes in my opinion, if life even exists at all. I wish we would find proof of life out there though, in our lifetimes especially, that would be super cool and interesting. The odds have to be like astronomically low though.,(reply>), Of course there is probably life elswhere but if we are too far away to ever observe it then then it's the same as not being there in the end. Perhaps by the time we notice, it will have drifted out of our reach forever.,(reply>), @Richard Conway Thank you for this thouroughly written response. In both conversations this was exactly my personal gripe as well. Two incredibly intelligent people making what I felt was some very erronous logical thinking errors. <br><br>How far have our own signals even traveled into the comsos to be able to have been picked up on by other civilizations. And other than our signals traveling further with time what reason would we have to assume that in the next 100 years we will be producing much stronger or more specifically targeted signals towards other civilizations out there to pick up on. Even if we become multiplanitary it could likely be mostly limited to our own solar area. <br><br>And indeed, if the nearest intelligent civilization (and there's no reason to conclude this civilization would be ahead of us in intelligence/mechanical developments rather than still be behind us by x amount of years) is say 50 galaxies away can we even be sure we are picking up any of the signals they might be sending out in between the much stronger waveforms and signals producing bodies in the space around us. Now this is a genuine question as I am not an astrophysicist but how likely is this assumption that we would be hearing a cacophony of sounds if there would be say a dozen of advanced civilizations within our local supercluster? Just because they haven't build Dyson sphere's does this prove they aren't actually there?<br><br>And then the final nail into the conclusion that we would be the only one in the universe would be the simple thought experiment of what if there are just two? And the other one is at the exact opposite side of the universe (possibly beyond even our visible universe). To me it sounds just as likely as there being only one and we would never be able to validate their existance as they are rushing away from us faster than we could reach them. And if it is as likely for their to be two as there to be one in this giant universe of possibilities, it seems just as likely for there to be 3, or 4, or say up to a billion. At which point there being only one is just one of a billion of likely opportunities and thus on it's own not very likely at all.,(reply>), @Richard Conway Lex brings this topic up quite frequently with his guests though. <br>What's the best material you have come across regarding the likelyhood of alien existence?