jaime[alyse]green

langer:

ok well this is a depressing/probably accurate way to think about it:

Rookie Magazine: I wrote an article in March about how space is really awesome. I mentioned that the Kepler spaceship has spotted potential planets that might be habitable. Do you think there are life forms as developed as humans living on those planets?

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Well, that assumes that humans are some measure of development. It may be that we’re actually quite primitive compared to other species out there.

RM: That’s true.

NT: In fact, you could argue that the reason that we haven’t been visited is that [aliens] have already observed us and concluded there’s no sign of intelligent life here. I mean, if you have a spaceship that can cross the galaxy, you’re way smarter than us, because we have nothing that remotely approximates that. So why would we assume that we would be interesting enough that they would want to study us? That’s just humorous. How interested are you when you walk past a worm crawling on the ground? Do you ever say, “Hey, I wonder what that worm is thinking?” I’m sure you’ve never had that thought in your life. You might have even just stepped on the worm. So, imagine a species with that intelligence gap interacting with us. They could not come up with a stupid enough thought that could stoop as low as to fit inside of our brains. [Laughs] Just think about it!

I think this is actually one of the less depressing options.

It beats the fuck out of seeming silence = no one there at all.