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Originally Posted by T@T
Full of nothing? there are so many star systems that could support life that man can't count that high.
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Relatively speaking though, the universe is almost completely empty space.
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Why? what if they were just older and more advanced, there could be an advanced race 2 or 300 million years old. if dumb dinosaurs could last 250 million years on this planet why couldn't a smart race flourish on another? give man a few hundred million years of development lets and see how hard this "logistical problems of traveling" would be.
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I don't think there was a single dinosaur species that lasted that long. There were actually several mass extinction events during "dinosaur times". Dinosaurs from 250 million years ago were not the same ones that existed 200 million years ago. Extinctions happen very frequently - over 99% of all species that ever existed on this planet are now extinct. From an evolutionary standpoint, a species has to practically win the lottery to make it. In fact, we might even be in one right now as the current rate of extinctions are around 100x the normal background rate. Just look at how many hominid species have become extinct. The average age of most species alive right now can probably be measured on a scale of thousands of years rather than millions.
Evolution also does not follow a specific path. If a species develops intelligence and then goes on to survive for millions of years, there is an equally good chance that intelligence could de-evolve as it could get to a point where it is not necessarily adventageous for creating progeny. I suppose this is digressing a lot though...
I won't say it is 100% impossible that either we, or an alien race, can travel the distances of space to meet each other, but I am pessimistic about it to the point that I wouldn't consider it likely. It's like how that particle collider in Switzerland could theoretically create a blackhole, or how at any moment, it is theoretically possible that all matter could suddenly cease to exist. When it comes to meeting an alien race, I visualize it as 2 people meeting for an old western style dual at high noon. They would also be blind folded, placed miles away from each other, and not given a watch. They would then have to come to within 20 feet of each other at the exact specified time and fire their guns simultaneously to hit each others bullets in flight to cancel them both out. Theoretically possible, but the amount of obstacles in the way is staggering.