It may be that the only planet with intelligent life on it in our galaxy is our own. At least we know about this one.
As for life throughout the rest of the galaxy I think that it is probably plentiful. This is based on various factors including the amount of organic compounds out there and the fact that once life does get going then it seems nearly impossible to completely extinguish.
However, we mustn't forget that most of this galaxy is pretty hostile towards life. We are lucky here in that we live in a pretty quiet part of the galaxy, orbiting a nice stable star in a relatively calm solar system with a planet at just the right distance from our Sun. And let's not forget the Earth's magnetic field which protects us from solar and cosmic radiation.
It may be that environments such as ours are rare. On the other hand, estimates for the number of stars in our galaxy range anywhere from 200 billion to a trillion (if you count all the orbiting dwarf galaxies) so to think that our little world is the only one that has, or has had, or will have a technological civilisation on it I think highly unlikely.
It is also true that many races that emerge as we have may never reach a stage were they move on to colonise other planets in their solar system instead being wiped out by some natural catastrophe or more likely, by their own hand (or equivalent).
However, it only takes one race to dodge all the bullets and make it to the next level and then something interesting happens. Imagine a race, very much like our own. Eventually they colonise their moon and shortly after establish a presence on a nearby planet, perhaps similar to Mars but luckily for them, far more hospitable.
You now have a multi-planet race. The chances of them being wiped out have now drastically lessened. It isn't long until they have colonised every planet and moon and asteroid they can and shortly turn their attention to nearby stars.
For us the nearest star is Alpha Centuri at about 4 light years and would take many thousands of years to reach meaning either we perfect some kind of suspended animation or, more likely create vast generation ships where the crew to arrive at it's destination are distant descendants of those who originally began the journey.
For our alien race this may not pose such a problem. For all we know they may have perfected forms of propulsion that we are yet to even consider. They may also have far greater life expectancies.
You could then imagine that, after several million years, a vast area of the galaxy has been populated by this first inter-stellar journey and a whole web of colonised worlds now exist spreading out in all directions from the original home planet.
It would now be impossible to eradicate this race.
Evolution would of course still take place, either by natural or artificial selection and it is not too implausible I think to imagine that after enough time has passed by the original memory of the first race and it's great quest for colonisation will be lost. Many races, now seemingly alien to each other would be spread-out through, possibly hundreds of light years of the galaxy.
At some point they will contact each other again and be amazed to learn that they all have similar body plans and biology and the quest will begin to trace their origin.
As for life throughout the rest of the galaxy I think that it is probably plentiful. This is based on various factors including the amount of organic compounds out there and the fact that once life does get going then it seems nearly impossible to completely extinguish.
However, we mustn't forget that most of this galaxy is pretty hostile towards life. We are lucky here in that we live in a pretty quiet part of the galaxy, orbiting a nice stable star in a relatively calm solar system with a planet at just the right distance from our Sun. And let's not forget the Earth's magnetic field which protects us from solar and cosmic radiation.
It may be that environments such as ours are rare. On the other hand, estimates for the number of stars in our galaxy range anywhere from 200 billion to a trillion (if you count all the orbiting dwarf galaxies) so to think that our little world is the only one that has, or has had, or will have a technological civilisation on it I think highly unlikely.
It is also true that many races that emerge as we have may never reach a stage were they move on to colonise other planets in their solar system instead being wiped out by some natural catastrophe or more likely, by their own hand (or equivalent).
However, it only takes one race to dodge all the bullets and make it to the next level and then something interesting happens. Imagine a race, very much like our own. Eventually they colonise their moon and shortly after establish a presence on a nearby planet, perhaps similar to Mars but luckily for them, far more hospitable.
You now have a multi-planet race. The chances of them being wiped out have now drastically lessened. It isn't long until they have colonised every planet and moon and asteroid they can and shortly turn their attention to nearby stars.
For us the nearest star is Alpha Centuri at about 4 light years and would take many thousands of years to reach meaning either we perfect some kind of suspended animation or, more likely create vast generation ships where the crew to arrive at it's destination are distant descendants of those who originally began the journey.
For our alien race this may not pose such a problem. For all we know they may have perfected forms of propulsion that we are yet to even consider. They may also have far greater life expectancies.
You could then imagine that, after several million years, a vast area of the galaxy has been populated by this first inter-stellar journey and a whole web of colonised worlds now exist spreading out in all directions from the original home planet.
It would now be impossible to eradicate this race.
Evolution would of course still take place, either by natural or artificial selection and it is not too implausible I think to imagine that after enough time has passed by the original memory of the first race and it's great quest for colonisation will be lost. Many races, now seemingly alien to each other would be spread-out through, possibly hundreds of light years of the galaxy.
At some point they will contact each other again and be amazed to learn that they all have similar body plans and biology and the quest will begin to trace their origin.
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