I worked on the Greenbank radio telescope the world largest fully steerable one. One day I jokingly said to an astronomer “Well, Is there life in outer space?” His reply was there mathematically had to be. Not only did it have to exist but millions of times over. Then he said the question is, “Are they more advanced than us?” Imagine Earth 10,000 years from now. Now imagine it 1 million years from now. etc.
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We all assume progress is linear. But we on earth have seen progress collapse and dark ages arise. There is no guarantee that an older civilization would have uninterrupted technological progress.
“Well, Is there life in outer space?†His reply was there mathematically had to be. Not only did it have to exist but millions of times over.
The math on this seems to have changed. This is directly addressed through the Drake equation.
Also relevant is the anthropic principle that the universe has been fine-tuned to permit our existence. The leading secular position seems to be that there must be an infinite number of universes, and that we hit the cosmic jackpot. The intelligent design position is that our good fortune is not fortune at all, but God’s great design. You are free to choose what to believe, which, I think, was the whole idea.