Unwarranted Optimism
Still beautiful: http://saganseries.com/
It’s unlikely that humans will live around other stars, ever. But it sure is possible and fun to imagine. How many intelligent alien species are there, ever existing or now existing? Fun to consider, especially since the answer to both questions could possibly be zero, but not necessarily fewer than billions (even though we haven’t yet found a single one).Also, it’s hard to predict whether sending obvious signals of our existence and nature at lightspeed will yield good or bad results if and when we’re contacted by aliens. But I’m inclined to believe that, even though we don’t have the ability to hide completely, we should try to hide. This means at least making our wireless data signals look like constant noise (something that happens automatically if you’re trying to maximize signal bandwidth given limited EM spectrum). There’s definitely nothing wrong with listening in case any other species was so bold as to not hide.