re: China is going to beat us, ET will call them first

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And when they turn that bad boy on, they will find.....nothing. Just like us currently. Think about it: if the models of the universe are accurate, that means that over the course of the last billions of years, there should have been millions or even billions of planets in our own galaxy alone that developed like ours, sprung life that developed technology, who set out into the cosmos. So, why aren't they here?

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What you just described is known as the Fermi Paradox. Not sure if you're familiar with it, but if not, here's a great write up: The Fermi Paradox

It's long, but here's a few of the explanations put forward for why we haven't observed any other life in the galaxy yet

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Possibility 1) Super-intelligent life could very well have already visited Earth, but before we were here

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Possibility 3) The entire concept of physical colonization is a hilariously backward concept to a more advanced species

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Possibility 6) There’s plenty of activity and noise out there, but our technology is too primitive and we’re listening for the wrong things

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Possibility 9) Higher civilizations are here, all around us. But we’re too primitive to perceive them

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Possibility 10) We’re completely wrong about our reality

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They talk about each possibility in more detail, along with the possibility that we are simply the only intelligent species in the universe as you've suggested. It's a long blog entry, but worth the read

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the possibility that we are simply the only intelligent species in the universe

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You would think there is other intelligent life considering the billions upon billions of stars in the milky way.