http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

1/20/2010 6:23:54 PM

Quote :

"But, we are just now launching probes that look at other stars for earth-like planets. The light from those stars is generally 100s of years old, so we're seeing them as they were hundreds of years ago. That means that even if we DO find an earth-like planet somewhere else, assuming it's say 200 light years away, then we are either looking at them in an undeveloped state, or they are only going to be hearing from us in another 200 years."

I'm slightly aghast that my words were actually correctly read. Anyway, yes what you're saying is true, but you should also throw in the fact that several "close" systems exist, being 4 to 10 light years exist. Admittedly, there is a stupidly low chance that any of those systems harbor life but for those our methods would be (hopefully) valid for (theoretically) detecting ET if ET existed there. My previous point was basically saying that if we intermittently emit signals, and we intermittently listen for signals then we probably would not even detect ourselves in the mirror!

1/21/2010 9:54:49 AM