Aliens

Just watching a National Geographic program on the chances of finding life on other planets.

I don't think we are asking the right question in this search. From the evidence of diverse life forms on this planet it seems likely that life itself is prevalent where-ever you might look for it.

We live on land and cannot venture into the sea but that doesn't stop living organisms from being omnipresent in any and all bodies of water.

We cannot live in environments that are too dis-similar from our own but there are creatures that live in the coldest arctic climates and around boiling hot water vents at the bottom of miles of ocean.

We have life up in the sky and under the soil. Where you would think that no life at all would be possible we have organisms that live miles underground in total darkness and live off solid rock.

No matter where you look on our planet we find that life is omnifarious. Even in the deep, cold reaches of space we have discovered that primitive life forms can survive, trapped for centuries or even millenia inside meteors and asteroids.

We do not even have to venture outside of our own small planet to see what various life forms can look like either. Compare the shape of a human against that of an elephant, osterich, chip-monk, whale, snake, sparrow, tree, flower, or fungus.

If you really want to see how bizzare an alien can look just cast your eyes on an octupus. That's about as strange as you could get in the most fantastic science-fiction movie yet it's not even an alien!

No my friend, the question is not; "will we find life on other planets," but rather; "will we find INTELLIGENT life on other planets!" That's a whole different ball game since I'm not even sure that there is intelligent life on THIS planet!

Your pessimistic scribe;
Allan W Janssen