I used to, but then I read "Rare Earth".
I fear we may be the only intelligent species in the galaxy. Perhaps each galaxy has one or two.
This saddens me greatly, since I have spent my life trying to help humans reach space--and ultimately (in a few hundred or thousand years?) the stars.
Being "alone" bothers me a lot. It imparts a terrible portent to everything you do--down to bodily functions. Also if the human race is the best the Universe can produce, it's a pretty sorry place.
The more I learn about the problems of living in space--and the near-impossibility of attaining even a fraction of the speed of light, the more depressed I get. If humanity is "stuck" on Earth, it is doomed. Either by the proverbial giant asteroid, or some other disaster (such as, say, a "super SARS" that kills 100% and spreads like wildfire).
Think about this: we may be living at (or near) the peak of human achievement, well-being, and knowledge...everything goes downhill from here. There are six billion humans on Earth; the planet can probably support 20 billion but eventually (and soon) the sheer numbers of people will cause some kind of disaster(s).
I'm glad I have no children.
--Boris
That's extremely interesting, may I ask in what capacity you were involved?
I happen to believe that the future of humanity has to lie in space exploration. I argue this with one of my friends, his position is that the money spent on NASA ought to be used here on earth, for social engineering, developing a new energy source for cars or whatever. My answer is that while the short term benefits of spending the funds like that may seem to be greater, the long term benefits of space exploration are everything, they are our future.
I think your pessimism regarding life elsewhere could be overstated, it seems to me that, good as the arguements against it may seem, they may well presume an understanding of the universe that we have not yet attained. Kind of like trying to determine the existence of God through logic, perhaps it can't be done.
OTOH, sometimes I personally feel like humanity is doomed to be a failed species.
I also have a fear that discovery of an alien life form could be an unpleasant surprise, particularly if they are not only more technologically advanced than us, but also advanced greatly in intelligence.