According to the senior officer Seth Shostak at Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), we are decades away from confirming the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. He discussed how and where they are in the search for alien life.
universe. Now they hope, the research will enable them to affirm that there is, truth be told, life out there.
During an interview, he said, “I bet everybody a cup of coffee that we’ll find intelligent life within 20 years.”
If asked about what science can convey about aliens life, he is like- “Very little – because we haven’t found any.”
“We may not have found evidence confirming extraterrestrial life yet. What we have discovered about our Universe over last 20 years, has not been insignificant.”
“In fact, those findings might mean a lot to our search. One thing we know now that we didn’t know decades ago is that there’s a lot of unexplored cosmic real estate out there.”
He also discussed the possibility and nature of discovering alien life. He said, “We may find microbial life – the kind you’d find in the corners of your bathtub.”
He confidently claimed that we will find the presence of extraterrestrial smart life soon, making “contact” may not go quite according to what we would imagine.
“We may find that a lot sooner, but that remains to be seen. But it’s gonna happen, I think, in your lifetime. There’s a lot of real estate out there.”
“I don’t know about contact. if they’re 500 light years away. You’ll hear a signal that’ll be 500 years old, and if you broadcast back ‘Hi we’re the Earthlings, how’re you doing?’ It’ll be 1,000 years before you hear back from them. If you ever hear back from them. So, it does not exactly contact, but at least you know they’re there.”