Originally Posted by OccultHawk

Please excuse my meritless assuption.

I'm almost certain that the rare earth hypothesis is wrong and life does indeed spring up elsewhere around the universe, galaxy, and maybe even solar system. The point is there's no trace of any attempt to communicate, radio waves of any sort, or any sort of Dyson Spere type of megastructures. If the reasonable assumption is that humanity is not a one off the lack of evidence of our extraterrestrial cohorts suggests once they reach a certain point in technological advancement they soon die.

There's other theories. What I'm saying isn't indisputed or rock solid but it's the conclusion that strikes me as the most likely. My assumption is we're following the same course and it sure seems like it.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.