[InterceptPoint]

the researchers calculate that fewer than one in a million stars in the Milky Way Galaxy have planetary civilizations advanced enough to transmit beacons we could detect.

Color me skeptical.

If you count the number of known civilizations that have been identified in our Milky Way you find there is only one and it's ours. I would like to know how you extrapolate one point to one in a million.

They are guessing. It could be one billion just as easy. Or one in a thousand. Or just one.

[null and void]

Or, based on the singular data point you cited, zero.

[rbg81]

Another thing these estimates don't factor in is the temporal dimension. I would not be at all surprised if its common for Advanced Intelligence/Civilizations to rise and then inexplicably fall. A lot may destroy themselves through wars. But a lot of other “intelligent” races may simply de-evolve, or even go extinct, because they embraced policies that were not compatible with the long term sustainment of intelligence. Its the kind of thing HG Wells warned about in “The Time Machine”. I think we will see this play out in human society.

You could also have civilizations that, once sufficiently intelligent, lose their physical form and self evolve to a “higher” level (e.g., pure energy). That is what Arthur C. Clarke prophesied in some of his books, like “Childhood's End” and “2001 - A Space Odyssey”.

[Conservative4Ever]

I’m sure glad humans picked this one. :-)