Thread: How many intelligent civilizations are there in the Milky Way?

I saw this question on another forum and was wondering how people would answer here.

Also please reply as to why you answered as you did after voting.


How many intelligent civilizations are there in the Milky Way?

I tend to think around 100 intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way (intelligence in my mind being a civilization capable of radio astronomy). My reasons for this are some interpretations of the Drake Equation, but also because while the Universe is clearly friendly enough for life (clearly it is, I mean, we're here, after all), many stars are binary and there are a lot of risks inherent in being a technologically advance civilization. I feel that life is possibly everywhere, but intelligent life, perhaps 100 in the galaxy.

I think it would be extraordinarily unlikely for intelligent life to only happen once in the universe- how often does anything only happen once, especially in a setting the size of the milky way with a time frame of billions of years? And if it happened more than once, it probably happened a lot more than twice too.

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Originally Posted by tom

How many intelligent civilizations are there in the Milky Way?

That's another one of those trick questions. I helped a young woman through Moo U. Whose dad was the chief of a small isolated tribe in Central America. He had a Masters from a European university and wanted her to experience the horrors abroad first hand. At home they lived in total harmony with their environment. I visited them twice at their mountain home, once for her "wedding" ceremony. About two years after my last visit they were wiped out. I believe that was the last intelligent civilization on earth. There may be a few intelligent individuals remaining, but I have seen no evidence of intelligent civilizations currently operating in the Milky Way.