Given the Star trek thread am I the only one with reservations that mankind will ever find another space faring species? If you think about it. If in fact evolution is a random series of advancement of a species, what are the chances of developing to an intellectual scale at least as high as ours, developing opposable thumbs necessary for tool use, create a society that develops and innovates new,complex tools (machines) etc., etc. For instance; what if life never leaves the sea? You might get a species as intelligent as mankind but would never discover the use of fire, necessary for metal working. So either evolution follows a yet undiscovered set of rules, life on Earth was "seeded" by another species or the chance of another "mankind" is miniscule at best.
Personally, I believe we will find evidence of life (organic matter) outside of Earth if not in our lifetime, then in our children's. I'm betting on either bacteria on Mars or life in liquid water on Europa. The romantic in me would like to believe in other human like species, but I'm not betting on it. What do others think. And to keep it semi on topic, do you think we will find extraterrestrial life before Pentax releases their digital SLR? :)
