#348 / There Have Been Aliens (Past Tense)

Adam Frank, a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Rochester, tells us that "there have been aliens," by which he means advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, living on habitable planets in other locations in the universe. 

Frank has something close to scorn for any who might doubt that proposition. He says that to question the existence, at some point in time, of other advanced extraterrestrial civilizations "borders on the irrational." 

Any human claim for "cosmic exceptionalism," in other words, should be rejected out of hand, according to Frank. Click on the link to the article, above, if you want to follow the math that is so convincing to him.

Frank is not so sure that any advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are currently in existence. Maybe they exist, he says, but it could take us a long time to find out.

Well, that poses a problem, doesn't it? The way we're taking care of our own planet, upon which we utterly depend, leads me to think that we might not be around long enough to find out if Frank's right.

Image Credit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/opinion/sunday/yes-there-have-been-aliens.html