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<blockquote cite="mid:03df01c83b79$c09e71b0$2c0a4e0c@MyComputer"
type="cite">
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Life is not the issue, intelligence is. </pre>
</blockquote>
But the intelligence (intelligent life) is just a subset of life. It
is still ife we are talking about and it is a solid part of the Drake
equations.<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:03df01c83b79$c09e71b0$2c0a4e0c@MyComputer"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Life came to the Earth almost as
soon as the planet was born but during most of its history all it had was
bacteria; and if you visited the place just a million years ago, which is
nothing in its 4.5 billion year history, you would find no intelligent
species.
</pre>
</blockquote>
Right. So you agree. Intelligence may indeed be more rare than the
Drake equations assume. <br>
<blockquote cite="mid:03df01c83b79$c09e71b0$2c0a4e0c@MyComputer"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">To get where you are you have to make even more assumptions.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
I am assuming nothing I am just making an observation, I observe that the
universe has not been engineered and I find that puzzling if intelligence is
common.</pre>
</blockquote>
Correct again. So we are both on the same page. Intelligent life is
very uncommon. <br>
<blockquote cite="mid:03df01c83b79$c09e71b0$2c0a4e0c@MyComputer"
type="cite">
<pre wrap=""> If we are not the first then I can only conclude that something
puts a lid on brain power and prevents it from erecting large scale
structures. I can speculate but I make no claim to know what that
something is, it could be that no human mind could understand it.
</pre>
</blockquote>
And here is where you lose me. If we are not the first, we could be
second. Or 3rd. Or 4th. And they may have been out there for only a
short time. And maybe the first killed itself off. And maybe the second
is somewhere near the galaxy's middle and hasn't been around enough to
really put a dent in it. These aren't specific proofs I am trying to
make. They are simply illustrations to show that there are countless
alternatives other than "we are first" and "something puts a lid on
it". But that's just my opinion. I think this thread has gone on long
enough. I don't think we're going to come up with anything new that
hasn't been debated here before. So unless you feel a strong desire to
contest my points, we can simply agree to disagree and move on. Cheers.<br>
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