Charles Krauthammer explains the possible correlation between successful civilizations and our inability to communicate with them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/are-we-alone-in-the-universe/2011/12/29/gIQA2wSOPP_story.html?hpid=z3
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We can also consider the amount of light years away many of these possible matches might be, and realize that the possibility of us aligning in time with any other possible civilization (capable of communicating with us) on another planet is pretty slim.
As Krauthammer points out, it has taken us about 200,000 years to get to the point where we are today. Some of the planets they are now finding are so far away, that while it's 2012 here it might be the equivalent of a few millions years ago there... and if there are civilizations out there looking at Earth, they would be looking at Earth the way it was maybe a few million years ago or more.
It takes extremely short periods of times for light to travel where we are in the here and now, but in space it can take eons.
So if we do ever get to one of these Goldilocks planets, I think the chances of us finding another civilation are extremely limited. The chances of us finding a habitable planet on which we could colonize are much greater.
I don't know what the odds would be of first finding the right kind of planet to colonize, and then adding into that a civilization... it must literally be astronomical! Just the same, it would not surprise me at all if there are others out there, possibly multiple planets with varying stages of civilization, and possibly with beings not resembling us.
And as for reasons we haven't heard from them, I gather some insight from George Carlin: “If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the
universe aimed rather low and settled for very little”.
So whereas Krauthammer seems to think our survival is based on our politics, I have to believe it is more based on our ability to get off the planet and colonize someplace else before we destroy the Earth. I'd give us another hundred to two hundred years, and I believe we can find ways to get enough of ourselves off the planet by then to keep the human race going somewhere else. Politics will probably play a big part in what is accomplished in that regard, but we shouldn't let it be the main driver... the main driver should be survival, plain and simple.
I agree. Humanity has to spread out beyond this planet if we're going to survive.
I think the article is onto one reason we have not been contacted. A civilization that survives its own intelligence growth will likely not be interested in helping one still struggling to come to terms with itself.
We make it to any planet in a manner that proves colonization for the long haul, I will be very surprised. But that is the only way I see us continuing. We wear out our planet at some point and it will reset back to square one.
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