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.