REVISED DRAKE EQUATION - Image and other data taken from
the Kepler satellite has recently been compared to a theory of Dr. Frank Drake.
Developed in 1961, the Drake Equation surfaced around the same time as the
advent of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Multiply 100 billion
galaxies by 100 billion stars equals trillions of habitable planets. Because of
the distances involved and the expanding universe we’ll never reach beyond the
Local Group. I see this as our best chance of interacting with aliens, based on
the Kardashev scale, here are his three types of civilizations. Type 1
civilizations can access on-planet resources such as fossil/ renewable/ nuclear
energy. Type 2 civilizations can harness star energy such as a Dyson Sphere.
Type 3 civilizations can harness entire galaxies by using generational
spacecraft. In other words, humans could inhabit the entire Milky Way, within a
million years. Why haven’t we been contacted by or discovered aliens already?
Earlier conditions might not have been right. Or its possible aliens did exist
and wiped themselves out. How? Global annihilation, mass extinction, climate
change or an unforeseen impact of supposed beneficial technology could have
been the cause. Will humans encounter one of these thresholds AKA the Fermi
Paradox? In any event, I find the possibility of humans interacting with
advanced alien life forms awe inspiring. Will we be the first advanced
civilization, pioneers of the Milky Way, and beyond? Might our descendants look
back at us in comparison, the same way we view early Stone Age cultures? Only
time will tell.
