A long read introduction to the topic - from We Want to Believe: How Aliens Went Mainstream and Why It Matters
“The search for exoplanets is radically expanding our understanding of the cosmos. “We have learned that the universe is teeming with a fascinating variety of planets, more types than we could have imagined,” writes the astrobiologist Lisa Kaltenegger. But so far, it has found exactly as many extraterrestrials as radio astronomy has: zero. The more we learn about the universe, the more acute the Fermi paradox becomes.”
People who believe in there ever being “contact” do not comprehend the size and nature of the universe.
Rule one, it’s expanding, rule 2, faster than light.
We’ll never achieve relativistic speed, our physiology doesn’t allow “generational ships”, a fetuses brain will never develop to intelligence in freefall. Centrifugal force is not gravity.
The belief in alien intelligence is simply going to be an exercise for theocracy and philosophy, never to manifest in our reality.
Maybe as the universe evolves new physics emerge allowing for new technology, the universe was once in fact so hot physics didn’t work as we identify with it but contact within humanities existence probably won’t happen. Nice to think about though, it’s in our nature for community due to our emotional intelligence, sometimes lack thereof providing contrast.