Originally Posted by FIN-MAN:
“The only way I could see human beings able to interact with other intelligent beings is if 1) They came here, or 2) we build large space ships/societies in the FAR FAR future that people just lived on traveling through space, kind of like nomads (think Battlestar Galactica). And then it would just be sheer coincidence that they bumped into each other. God help those poor aliens if that happens.
”
“The only way I could see human beings able to interact with other intelligent beings is if 1) They came here, or 2) we build large space ships/societies in the FAR FAR future that people just lived on traveling through space, kind of like nomads (think Battlestar Galactica). And then it would just be sheer coincidence that they bumped into each other. God help those poor aliens if that happens.
”
I like David Brin's approach in Existence:
Spoiler
That aside, I have been wondering about how rare the various features of our solar system are. Earth having a large moon, for example, may turn out to be crucial. Apparently it arose from a collision in the early solar system. Presumably from computer simulations we can now estimate how common such collisions are. Similarly the chances of having a Jupiter that is distant from its sun rather than close in. If it's true that life first arose on Mars and migrated to Earth, and if it turns out that it has to happen like that, how common is it to have two planets in the Goldilocks zone? Is it possible we are at the end of a long line of astronomically unlikely events?
(Although most of the time I think life is common and intelligent life - or even multi-cellular life - is rare.)



