The human race may be the only intelligent beings in the galaxy.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There are only two races on this planet - the intelligent and the stupid.
Are we the only members of the Galaxy that can actually understand what a galaxy is? Could Homo sapiens really be the pinnacle of Creation - the cleverest critters in the cosmos? If we learn the answer is 'no,' that would affect our philosophies forever.
Humanity is smart. Sometime in the technology world we think we are smarter, but we are not smarter than you.
Perhaps, as some wit remarked, the best proof that there is Intelligent Life in Outer Space is the fact it hasn't come here. Well, it can't hide forever - one day we will overhear it.
I believe that there may be intelligent life on other planets.
Clearly, unless thinking beings inevitably wipe themselves out soon after developing technology, extraterrestrial intelligence could often be millions or billions of years in advance of us. We're the galaxy's noodling newbies.
Humans have existed only for the last 0.001 percent of cosmic time. All of which says that - unless the Homo sapiens brain is the one-and-only instance of cogitating machinery - nearly all the intelligence that's out there is beyond our level. And that intelligence is more than just a little bit beyond.
Perhaps we've never been visited by aliens because they have looked upon Earth and decided there's no sign of intelligent life.
Star Trek's genial premise is that the cosmos is flush with intelligent species, and our descendants will interact with them face-to-face, thanks to warp drive and some winsome space cadets.
I've always thought that we, as human beings, would be naive and arrogant to pretend that we're the only life form in the galaxy.