People argue that there must be other intelligent species because the universe is so big. However, in an expanding universe, size is a function of age. The universe had to reach an advanced age before there could be any intelligence:
a first generation of stars had to fuse heavy elements and distribute them through space;
a second generation of stars incorporating heavy elements had to produce planets with life;
some life had to become intelligent;
in the Solar System, only one planet has life and only one species is intelligent;
we might be the first either in the entire universe or in the reachable part of it.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, TIME had to pass before life could exist and for some of that life to become intelligent.
And I think Poul Anderson speculate in IS THERE LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS? that the human race might have been the first, or one of the first races to become intelligent in the Milky Way galaxy.
Sean
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