[Bubba_Leroy]

Let's say that of all the stars in the universe, only 1 in a thousand has a planet capable of supporting life and of all these habatable planets only 1 in a million has intelligent life. That would mean that there are roughly 100 planets in our galaxy with intelligent life. Multiply that by approximately 100 Billion galaxies in the universe and you get an awful lot of other beings out there.

I agree with Kirkwood though that the vast distances and the limitations imposed by the laws of physics will probably prevent us from ever visiting or being visited by beings from another planet. It is possible, however, that we might someday contact someone else out there and learn to communicate (though the lag time of years to decades between responses would make a conversation really difficult).

[Lancey Howard]

Let's say that of all the stars in the universe, only 1 in a thousand has a planet capable of supporting life and of all these habatable planets only 1 in a million has intelligent life.

Forgetting most of the above sentence for a moment, just look at the phrase "intelligent life" - - that is purely a human notion. But of course, "notion" is a human notion.

I believe that there are other "beings" in existence (let's pretend that "existence" is not solely a human notion for a minute), but these beings would not share any part of our (human) reality. It is quite enough to wonder that our human reality overlaps the realities of other life forms here on our own planet, although this is probably explained by the fact that all the "nature" that we understand is concentrated in the ecology of a single planet, Earth. So our human reality overlaps (that is, we share some aspects in our respective realities) with, for example, insects and plants. Our development occured together, over (at least) millions of years.

But (again) the odds that we humans would possible share any aspect of our reality with "beings" on another planet are (pardon the pun) astronomical. If there are "beings" on other planets, we will never cross paths, even if we were to in some way pass through each other. There are countless realities, and we have ours here on earth, alone. Our "laws of physics" are ours alone. We humans percieve such things as "gravity" and "pain" and "light" and "sound".... These are things that exist in OUR reality.

Look, I love science fiction and I even belonged to the science fiction book club as a teen. I read everything Heinlein ever wrote. But there comes a time when thinking goes deeper than the things in front of your face. When you finally realize that EVERY thought in your head, and EVERY thing that you see, hear, and touch is perceived in a strictly human context, it gets clear that our reality is ours alone.

Regards,
LH