The older I get the more discouraged I become about us ever discovering evidence of intelligent life in my life time. I think that it's just about a given that there is life in many many different forms. I suspect if we actually got out and dug around on some other planets and moons in our own solar system we'd find evidence of past or even present life. But that's not really going to be that satisfying is it? Except for the biology geeks among us.
But it just wouldn't have the same impact as picking up even some stray messages from out there. Even if we couldn't translate it, just to know we aren't alone. I really think intelligence just must be exceedingly rare or short lived, or there are some fundamental challenges to travel or communication between the stars that we just haven't grasped yet.
It would be sad to think there are others out there that we could talk to, except that they all died a million years ago, or are so far away that they (or we) will die out before our radio signals reach each other, or that the power required to communicate with them is just simply beyond our reach.
Re: Habitable planets
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