The closest technological species to us in the Milky Way galaxy could be 33,000 light years away and their civilization would have to be at least 280,000 years, and possibly millions of years, old if they are to exist at the same time that we do, according to new research presented at the EPSC–DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki this week.
I am constantly astonished at how unlikely our existence is. The number of things that had to go just right is legion. Even more astonishing is the lack of concern for it. The planet is being trashed at a stunning rate. Science tells us over and over again we are suicidal and it is ignored. Why? After decades of trying to figure it out I am more and more convinced it all reduces to reproduction and gene flow. Politics, religion, economics, war and domination are all driven by blind animal instinct despite a frontal cortex giving us other options. If we could face our animal origins in evolution we might have a chance but we are determined to not take it.