Are we alone?
The correct answer is: We don’t know.
There are billions of galaxies, each with millions or billions of stars, so there likely are trillions of planets, at least some hospitable to life. Therefore, as a matter of statistical probability, the odds intelligent life exists only here seem vanishingly small. But it doesn’t matter. The distances of space are so vast that if multiple civilizations exist, they may not be able to interact or even communicate; they could be so far apart it would take millions of years just to message back and forth. So, for practical purposes we’re probably isolated from whoever else is out there.
“Or, it [also] could be we’re all alone in the universe,” this article in Vox says, “which leads to certain mind-breaking implications — one of which is perhaps humanity has a moral duty to preserve civilization because it exists nowhere else in the vast expanse of space.”
Give me a break.
Here’s a very incomplete list of moral duties we’ve utterly failed to uphold:
- Not wage war
- Not commit genocide
- Honor the Ten Commandments
- Not dump plastic into the oceans
- Not engage in a nuclear arms race
- Not destroy indigenous cultural sites
- Not sexually molest children
- Not shoot each other
Let’s face it, our species just isn’t very good at moral behavior, so if you want to preserve human civilization, you’ll have to figure out some other way to do it.
On the other hand, it’s probably not worth the trouble. Mathematically speaking, there’s probably more “intelligent” civilizations where we came from.
Science shows we should not be alone. That there should be clear proof of other civilizations in our galaxy is part of the riddle. We are left with the possibility that intelligent life may tend to destroy itself. Fear of attracting unwanted attention may stifle communication. Travel in the universe as it is really is difficult. The universe tends to destroy potential civilizations before they get off planet. Being alone is possible, but highly unlikely, being alone and never finding remnants of a high society on another distant world would also be highly unlikely.
Morality we may find is actually a very human thing. Not something from god, mother earth, but a malleable necessity of a species that is social in nature. [Edited comment.]
Science doesn’t show one thing or the other; it’s inconclusive, so we don’t know if we’re alone. Calculating the statistical odds isn’t knowing. I suspect the vast distances of space and time render the question moot.