Does Our Desire for a Higher Power Lead Us to Overestimate the Chances for Finding Other Intelligent Life in the Universe?

From the editorial material:

"[The author] questions the common modern scientific reasoning that life converges on intelligence, and intelligence converges on one science valid everywhere. He ends the book by agreeing with Stephen Hawking (usually a safe bet) that intelligence is overrated for survival in the universe, and that we are most likely alone."

Comments

[Fred Ollinger]

What I find fascinating about this whole thing is the lack of knowledge we really have about extra-terrestrial life. Sad to say, but basically we have no data besides ourselves and our planet. It's like trying to study all the animals by looking at people. You'll learn a lot that can be applied to other mammals, but much less about insect life beyond speculation. "Life without a four chamber heart? It might be possible."

I'm all for the search for extraterrestrial life, but I somehow always feel it will be a disaapointment. This is just a feeling due to lack of data. It's like dialing all these phone numbers and nobody is home. I find it interesting that people are happy/troubled by NOT finding life. Emptiness does not have to be bad. Solitude is not always lonely. It also means nothing in terms of potential life.

I'm guessing that they'll find nothing in my lifetime or maybe just some lame stuff that used to be alinve on a rock they found in space. See these dots? They are tiny, tiny lifeforms that are long dead.

As far as converging on intelligence, I have a hard time feeling that human thought converges on intelligence. I mean I can't get my best friends to agree on pizza toppings. I'm really uncomfortable with the whole notion of levels of intelligence anyway. Anyone read The Bell Curve? Icky stuff.

The original point I was making is garbage in, garbage out. No data means no hypothesis.