What If We Are the Most Advanced?

I was watching the final two episodes of "Cosmos" this morning, with my daughter. These are the episodes that talk about other life in the universe and our chances for surviving our harnessing high-technology.

During the show, my daughter looked over at me and asked, "Well, what if we are the most advanced civilization in the universe?" Good question. And one Dr. Sagan asked himself later on in the episode.

And others are asking the same question as well. There is a great article at physorg.com on a recent gathering of astronomers and other scientists that discussed whether the search for intelligent, communicating life is fruitless. The conclusions might surprise you. They surprised me. A little.

I've been giving some thought to that lately. Whether or not we might be one of a very scarce number of civilizations capable of communication, or even walking around. It makes a certain kind of sense, once you look at how large the Universe is and how young it is, relatively speaking (no pun intended).

So are we, the humble human, the greedy, power-hungry, reptillian-to-the-core human, the leader of the pack? Dr. Sagan said that it's possible, of course. Someone has to be first.

How depressing is that? And a little exhilarating, too. It's depressing because I want there to be something out there that we could use as an example on how to get it right. Something beyond Vogons and more friendly than the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (apologies to Douglas Adams). But what if there is not?

Maybe, if we can keep from destroying ourselves and evolve beyond the mysticism and "Star-bellied Sneech" attitude that permeates our planet, we can lead the way.

In 100,000 years, maybe people will be listening and looking to us for that guidance.

For the Future

This is for the future. For any of the future generations that come, I hope that somewhere in the vast Google-ness, these bits have been saved.

You need to know that there are people in this day and age, 2009, that believe in the necessity of good conduct and respect for life and livelihood. You need to know that despite what you may have read in your history books, or whatever they are called, we were not all aggressive, greedy, and power-hungry. There are those of us that escaped the reptilian brain functions and wanted the world to succeed and become something amazing.

It is possible, however, that those who did not embrace the higher functions that are brains are capable of have succeeded in destroying civilization or altering it to the extent that it is no longer sustainable in a manner that is recognizable to us in this time. To those, I say, "You lousy motherfuckers." How could you? Why would you? Was it all worth it?

If you are reading this while hiding from some sort of overt authority or holier-than-thou attitude, please understand there were many of us like you. We hoped for a future without the greed and the hunger for power over another that permeates the times we live in currently. We believed that whatever you believed in did not make you better than others that did not share that belief. We believed that as long as you are not hurting someone else, your business was your business. We believed in the right to express your beliefs as long as you did not wipe it on us on your way by.

I can only hope that we made it. I can only hope that it is not all downhill from here.