I like to theorize that there is some sort of undiscovered transmission method used by alien civilizations to communicate, one which we can't detect yet. Billions of neutrinos pass through your body every second, and trillions upon trillions through the Earth; a possible transmission medium which may be less susceptible to planetary interference than, say, radio waves.
The speed of light appears to be an unbreakable barrier given our incomplete understanding of the universe. If it does indeed hold up, getting from one galaxy to another may take eons. Perhaps this is keeping the aliens at bay...
It also makes more sense for our society to evolve into robotic intelligent life for space travel. Human bodies are poorly built to leave the Earth. We need to bring oxygen, air, food, etc... Atrophy of the muscles and bones occur during prolonged space flight. We're high maintenance, and not nearly as efficient as, say, a future robotic being specifically built for space travel. It may only needs sunlight for energy, or rely on nuclear fusion.
If we ever meet one, an alien may simply be the evolutionary product of their own technology, looking nothing like the species which initially built it. Do you imagine humans will look like they do today 500 years from now, or completely different?
I've got my doubts about the search for intelligent life out there - mainly due to the fact that we have plenty of intelligent life on earth, yet haven't really found a way to have meaningful intelligent communication with them - life forms that share the exact same conditions as us as opposed to who-knows-what out there.
For all the studies done on dolphins / primates / birds that have shown them to be very intelligent by many measures, studies that have shown they have very intricate communications systems, we still seem to be no closer to having anything resembling intelligent conversation similar to what happens in most people's daily lives.
The speed of light appears to be an unbreakable barrier given our incomplete understanding of the universe. If it does indeed hold up, getting from one galaxy to another may take eons. Perhaps this is keeping the aliens at bay...
It also makes more sense for our society to evolve into robotic intelligent life for space travel. Human bodies are poorly built to leave the Earth. We need to bring oxygen, air, food, etc... Atrophy of the muscles and bones occur during prolonged space flight. We're high maintenance, and not nearly as efficient as, say, a future robotic being specifically built for space travel. It may only needs sunlight for energy, or rely on nuclear fusion.
If we ever meet one, an alien may simply be the evolutionary product of their own technology, looking nothing like the species which initially built it. Do you imagine humans will look like they do today 500 years from now, or completely different?