[LibWhacker]

"where is everybody?"

Personally, I've always like the answer, "look in the mirror." "They" may have indeed already colonized the galaxy. Problem is, they had to do it as dormant bacteria hitching rides on asteroids and other celestial debris.

Multiple SETI searches have been going on, what, twenty or thirty years now? That's an impressive statistical sample and I think we can begin to draw some valid statistical inferences from the data; namely, technologically we're IT in the Milky Way (small p, perhaps even p<0.05).

Thank God! I don't think I want us encountering a vastly more advanced civilization.

[RightWhale]

Like Bradbury said. Who are the Martians?

We are.

It's possible. But it doesn't solve the problem.

[Physicist]

Multiple SETI searches have been going on, what, twenty or thirty years now? That's an impressive statistical sample and I think we can begin to draw some valid statistical inferences from the data; namely, technologically we're IT in the Milky Way (small p, perhaps even p<0.05).

No way can you draw that inference from the SETI data. It's not a question of statistics, it's a question of sensitivity and of coverage. If there were a carbon copy of Earth out there, you wouldn't have to move it very far away before we're highly unlikely to have seen it. We're not close to having looked at our own galaxy exhaustively.