[MamaSwami]

So... where are they? Good question. One with lots of interesting answers science fiction writers have been having fun with for decades.

My personal favorite theory was in Fredrick Brown's old masterpiece, _Pandora's Planet_, which is told from the alien viewpoint. After a successful invasion of Earth, an alien race discovers, to their horror, that humans are actually SMARTER than they are :). The reason our technology lags behind theirs in spite of our difference in intelligence level was because they had a single-mindedness that we lack. Humans were comparitively brilliant, but had so many ideas zinging around that they almost always were in conflict with each other. I can recall the agog alien commander receiving a report that concluded, "Humans can learn to tolerate any number of differences of fact, but can't tolerate a difference of opinion." All of that was covered in the first few chapters. The rest of the book is taken up with the aliens trying to figure out what to do about the mess humans make of their empire, what with our exportation of communism, fascism, used car salesmen... you get the idea :). This story is utterly hilarious, visualizing the aliens trying to cope with perfectly normal (and sometimes abnormal) human behavior.

This book has always made me wonder... REALLY... if aliens might be avoiding us because they're afraid of us ;).

[RightWhale]

aliens might be avoiding us because they're afraid of us

If they aren't afraid of us, maybe they ought to be. In spite of our ludicrously short lifespans, we are mighty beings.

[RadioAstronomer]

This book has always made me wonder... REALLY... if aliens might be avoiding us because they're afraid of us ;).

Actually I don't think they (if they exist) even know we are here.