It seems to me that what one thinks regarding the possibilities of extra-terrestrial intelligence should depend a lot on whether or not one believes the universe to be infinite. That is, if the universe truly is infinite - and our current understanding of the universe seems to be that it is, in fact, infinite - then, by definition, life must exist in other parts of the universe.
Follow me here. If the universe is infinite, that means, more or less, that it continues on forever. It never stops. It just keeps going and going and going. Given this, there have to be Earth-like planets in the universe. There have to be other planets capable of supporting technologically-advanced life. In fact, if the universe is truly infinite, then there will be other versions of this exact planet and other versions of you and everyone that you love, albeit with certain changes.
This, of course, is an entirely separate question from whether one believes that such technologically-advanced civilizations have traversed time and space in order to visit Earth and, upon descending through the atmosphere of what is obviously a planet with a technologically-capable life form, have decided to make a curious attempt to contact us by etching stupid designs in cornfields and anally-probing bumpkins that they pick up on deserted country roads.
Hmmm.
The Atlantic has very interesting story about a mysterious star in our own Milky Way Galaxy. The Kepler Telescope has been staring at this star for four years now, and has sent back images that have astronomers curious about a phenomenon that cannot be easily explained.
Okay. The way that astronomers look for planets in the universe is by staring at stars and waiting for the light that they emit to be briefly blocked by an orbiting planets. When this happens, they can look more closely to determine certain characteristics of these planets: size, composition, etc.
While doing this, it seems that they have noticed what appears to be a big, unruly mass of matter circling this star in our very own galaxy. Among many potential explanations for this phenomenon, one that the lead astronomer rates as "possible" is that it could be a mass of comets circling the star that haven't yet been sucked into the star and destroyed.
An alternative possibility is that these are artificial satellites that are circling the star in an attempt by a nearby civilization to capture and harness energy from the star.
Stick with me here. There's this thing called the Kardashev scale. This is a theoretical scale that rates civilizations based on their ability to harness energy. Civilizations are then classified as Type I, II, or III. A Type I civilization is capable of utilizing all energy resources on its home planet. A Type II civilization can harness all of the energy emitted by its star, and a Type III civilization can harness all of the energy of its home galaxy. Earth is not yet a fully Type I civilization. According to some calculations, Earth right now would qualify as a Type 0.7 civilization. Scientists do not believe that Type III civilizations exist, at least in our corner of the universe.
Got it?
If (and this is a huge, enormous, colossal if) this star is truly being circled by artificial satellites that can harness its energy for the benefit of a nearby civilization, then we will have discovered a Type I+ civilization, possibly a Type II civilization.
Obviously, much more study is needed before anybody will be able to make a determination as to what it is that's causing this strange disturbance in the light pattern emitted from the star. Until then, there is nothing left to do but dream and wonder and hope that we somehow stumble upon a means of not destroying ourselves before we are able to further advance.
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