The statistics of life out there and the statistics of intelligent beings and advanced civilization is a certainty, the way I look at it. that It has not been accepted, because we've been in an anthropocentric era.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
When thinking about the future, it is fashionable to be pessimistic. Yet the evidence unequivocally belies such pessimism. Over the past centuries, humanity's lot has improved dramatically - in the developed world, where it is rather obvious, but also in the developing world, where life expectancy has more than doubled in the past 100 years.
I hesitate to predict whether this theory is true. But if the general opinion of Mankind is optimistic then we're in for a period of extreme popularity for science fiction.
One can say with reasonable confidence that the likelihood of something analogous to a human evolving is really pretty high.
That though we are certain of many things, yet that Certainty is no absolute Infallibility, there still remains the possibility of our being mistaken in all matters of humane Belief and Inquiry.
But to us, probability is the very guide of life.
I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.
It is interesting that the U.S. has this very strong proportion of the population that rejects scientific conclusions about the age of the Earth and about evolutionary relationships between species, including humans.
I believe that there may be intelligent life on other planets.
It is our common experience as human beings that the results of social forces seem to admit only of 'probabilistic' predictions.
The essence of life is statistical improbability on a colossal scale.