The universe teems with life of all kinds. An infinite variety of life dwells in the cosmos. In our galaxy alone there are many different kinds of living beings that have different appearances, different cultures, different abilities, different ways of looking at things, different ways of creating things. Highly evolved, technologically and socially advanced races live on other planets in the galaxies.

Or not.



Actually I believe you are right, in some respects; but I have no proof, or even any reliable estimates about life in the rest of the universe.

So it is all guesswork.

But the mere fact that we are lumps of conscious matter occupying a completely ordinary location in a vast universe suggests that there is much more life out there. By invoking the copernican principle of mediocrity it can be seen that our planet is nothing extraordinary; so there may be many more unextraordinary planets with life.

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Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense- Novella Contest Issue! . OA Flickr set

We always say that we are conscious. We can catch a dragonfly and say to ourselves : This is just a machine. WE ARE Conscious. But don't you wonder if an alien can say the same thing about us? Ther might be two types of consciousness. Or maybe another level , on which the aliens might be. We may not be the final step in consciousness. Or maybe the aliens will be less conscious than us? Ther maybe a communication gap, maybe one species will not think of the other as conscious, as we do of dogs or chimpanzees.

What then?

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Limericks, written by me: http://limericker.blogspot.com