A problem I have with the alien haters is they also make a whole long of assumptions. Like linear or exponential progression of technology. It could be that there are certain discoveries that cause sparks of technological advancement. Fire, the wheel, sailing ships, computers. I bet a historian could analyze history and come up with the 10-20 inventions that caused technology to boom, then things plateau off for awhile until the next discovery. And, if you don't make the next big discovery you don't become a space faring race. And, if you get hit with a giant asteroid, you go backwards for a few million years (or get wiped out).
Just a lot of variables out there. HOnestly, any space faring race will have to have discoveries we don't have. I doubt we'll ever be able to create generation ships that can travel for 100,000 years to the next star system using solar sails, rockets, or ion thrusters; so it could be that every intelligent race is ultimately locked to their own solar system.
Exactly. Oftentimes the "logic" of the non-existence of Aliens is just based on what we know know NOW as humans, or what we expect we will now soon. Since what we know now hasn't led us to prove their existence, we just say "Well, if we can't see them, it's that they don't exist". Which is mind-boggling arrogance imo, assuming anything that exists is within our comprehension/knowledge.
There's only 2 ways to prove something (let's say a lion) doesn't exist in a certain environment (let's say the ocean) imo :
A. You know how a lion lives and what it needs, thus you know that it can't live in the ocean.
B. You've studied ALL of the ocean, and haven't seen any lions.
Most of the times we use A. We move from the knowledge that we already have to prove something. No one needs to go study ALL of the ocean, because we know lions can't survive if we throw them in them. But we can't use either method to "prove" the non-existence of Aliens :
A. We don't how Aliens live and what they need.
B. We can't study ALL of the universe.
So there's no way to "prove" aliens don't exist. There's also no way to "prove" they do exist, until we have a clear definite signal/visit/encounter that no conspiracy theorist can "debunk" with a youtube video. As for now we can only go based on probabilities, and I think the probability of SOMETHING existing SOMEWHERE (that we might never be able to reach) still seems higher to me than the probability we are alone in the whole universe. But us humans love to think we're unique creatures.
