The senior astronomer at SETI recently expressed a remarkably optimistic outlook on when the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence could happen.
In an interview with the website Futurism, Seth Shostak declared that he would "bet everybody a cup of coffee that we'll find intelligent life within 20 years."
Noteworthy about that 'wager' is that Shostak's assessment mentions intelligent life rather than something alien but of the microbial variety, which is often the case when scientists make such predictions.
However, as always seems to be the case with matters involving ETs, the astronomer envisions a much more complicated set of circumstances than a UFO merely landing on the White House lawn.
To that end, Shostak cautioned that humanity may very well find intelligent aliens, but they might be living hundreds of light years away from Earth and, thus, contacting them within a reasonable timeframe may be impossible.
This scenario, while it would likely lead to a profound paradigm shift here on our planet, would also be a rather maddening development for anyone wishing to someday speak to an ET.
As for the aforementioned microbial life lingering out there in space, Shostak was even more bullish on that possibility, musing that "we may find that a lot sooner."
Coast Insiders can hear more of the SETI astronomer's thoughts on the search for intelligent life in space by checking out one of Seth Shostak's many previous appearances on the program.
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Source: Futurism