Does Extra-Terrestrial Life Exist?

Why the answer is probably yes, but why that also means space-faring alien civilizations are almost certainly absent

Image credit: NASA

As most people seem to form their opinions based on whatever movies and TV shows they’ve seen, let’s begin by stating the obvious: at present, we have precisely no evidence to suggest that extra-terrestrial life exists. Furthermore, if extra-terrestrial life (henceforth ETL for the sake of brevity) does exist, we have precisely no reason whatsoever to imagine that any of it would be capable of fashioning technologically sophisticated societies. So for those who like to fantasize about being probed by human-like aliens who travel hundreds of light-years merely for the pleasure of forcing a digit past the clenched sphincter of a human being, it’s time to leave this article and look elsewhere for repressed homoerotic material.

Now that we’ve cleared the room, let’s begin our consideration of ETL based on what slender knowledge currently available to us. From the outset we must acknowledge that we still don’t have a clear picture of how life emerged on Earth; therefore it’s impossible for us to be categorical about anything. We can’t even agree on a rock-solid definition of what we mean by the word life, because even here on Earth we’re defeated by the abundance of…