Monday, June 27, 2011

The Future is Closer Than You Think

Guardian reports that a top Russian astronomer says he expects humans to encounter extraterrestrial civilizations within the next two decades.

He seems to think they'll resemble humans, though, which I find highly unlikely. As the story Eleanor loves to recount about biologist J. B. S. Haldane's answer to the question, "What has your study of biology taught you about the creator." God is inordinately fond of beetles. Personally, I expect we'll find bugs and viruses and microbes. Bipeds?

Maybe. IF they have funny ridges on their foreheads like on New Gen.

3 comments:

Network Geek said...

I expect we'll find bipedal beetles!

Tyler Tork said...

The headline didn't quite match the article (what a surprise) and it didn't really give the reasoning, but I guess the answer to "why now" is that we're starting to find a lot of planets in the habitable zones of various stars, so we know precisely where to point our radio telescopes to listen for signals.
Though I also suspect a lot Russian scientists would be surprised to learn that this is their opinion.

lydamorehouse said...

Bipedal beetles would be pretty awesome!