Seti: why extraterrestrial intelligence is more likely to be artificial than biological
Is there intelligent life in other parts of the universe? It is a question that has been debated for centuries, if not millennia. But only recently have we had a real chance to find out, with initiatives like Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) which uses radio telescopes to actively listen for radio messages from extraterrestrial civilizations. What should we expect to detect if these searches are successful? My suspicion is that they are highly unlikely to be little green men, something I speculated about in a talk at a Breakthrough Listen (a Seti project) conference. Suppose there are other planets where life began and that it followed something like Darwinian evolution (which need not be the case). Even then, it is highly unlikely that the progression of intelligence and technology will occur at exactly the same rate as on Earth. If it was significantly delayed, then that planet would clearly not reveal evidence of extraterrestrial life ...