Maybe a little critical thinking would help the "tinfoil hat" folks to stop wondering if Martians are spying on us. Consider these realities:
1) The entire universe as we know it got its start all at about the same time from the Big Bang. So, other planets, stars, solar systems, galaxies, and space objects are all about the same age, give or take a couple million years.
2) Just based on probability, there are no doubt life forms on other planets in other parts of the universe. All life forms in the universe are at about the same level of development as we are.
Um, no. I agree there is probably life elsewhere. However, many galaxies have gone through much of their life cycle before ours was formed (about 4.6 billion years ago). Estimates for the age of the universe vary, but are at least 13 billion years. Remember, "we are made of star stuff." Every element heavier than hydrogen was created in stars..which then died and sluffed off that material (sometimes spectacularly). Point beingeven if your assertion was correct some systems would be a million or two years ahead in development. How far do you think we will evolve in a million years? Let alone the billions that our system is "behind."
3) We are a long way from having the ability to explore other solar systems and other planets. It's very likely that other life forms have the same limitations as we do.
No basis for the claim about others with limitations. (see above)
4) A couple fundamental laws of physics can't be violated, one being the speed of light. It's a constant and nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. In fact, it's difficult to get things to travel at even 1% the speed of light. the fastest travel we can create is the space station orbiting the earth which travels at about 17000 mph, which is 0.0025% the speed of light.
Clarification. It is possible to travel faster than the speed of light. There are a multitude of theories about how to do so without violating the speed of light "law" Most involve warping space or creating a bubble of static space-time. AND, the Juno mission will reach speeds of 25 miles per second (or 90k mph) There are a few other engines under development that MAY creep into percentage of light speed, but in the big picture, that is meaningless for interstellar.
5) It will take 100's or 1000's of years to travel to nearby stars. At 10% the speed of light, 40 years to the nearest star. Other life forms will encounter the same limitations.
Again, not necessarily. Physics AS WE UNDERSTAND IT does not allow for that. Other cultures may have figured out more advanced forms of physics.
6) At the same time the universe is expanding at an ever accelerating rate, which means all objects in the universe are getting further from each other. this will make exploration more difficult with time, despite our technical advances.
The expansion is a drop in the bucket once you figure out how to move into another dimension, create a wormhole, warp space, etc.
7) So, while the probability of life somewhere out there in another part of the universe is infinitely high, the probability of us making contact with them is infinitesimally small.
If you've seen the pictures of Earth from the Voyager Probes as they speed away into deep space, you'll realize that we are but an insignificant speck of dust in relation to the schemes of the universe. We're just not that important, if at all.
Most definitely. That's what I love about astronomy...it's a very humbling field of study.