The Odds Of Finding Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life

Is there anybody out there? Probably not, according to a scientist from the University of East Anglia. A mathematical model produced by Prof Andrew Watson suggests that the odds of finding new life on other Earth-like planets are low, given the time it has taken for beings such as humans to evolve (Are we evolved! I mean already!I thought we were still evolving) and the remaining life span of Earth.

Structurally complex and intelligent (!!!!!!!! aren't we the ones killing each other with bombs?) life evolved late on Earth and it has already been suggested that this process might be governed by a small number of very difficult evolutionary steps.

“At present, Earth is the only example we have of a planet with life. (excuse me! how many planets have we visited?) If we learned the planet would be habitable for a set period and that we had evolved early in this period, then even with a sample of one, we’d suspect that evolution from simple to complex and intelligent(again that word) life was quite likely to occur. By contrast, we now believe that we evolved late in the habitable period, and this suggests that our evolution is rather unlikely. In fact, the timing of events is consistent with it being very rare indeed.”

His model, published in the journal Astrobiology, suggests an upper limit for the probability of each step occurring is 10 per cent or less, so the chances of intelligent life emerging is low – less than 0.01 per cent over four billion years.

Each step is independent of the other and can only take place after the previous steps in the sequence have occurred. They tend to be evenly spaced through Earth’s history and this is consistent with some of the major transitions identified in the evolution of life on Earth.

You can sleep soundly tonight. There is not going to be any alien invasion and all those bright flashing lights you saw, i think you need to get in touch with your fix supplier or maybe your psychiatrist.
P.S. Italics are my intelligent input. For orignal dumb article click here >>>