Alex McColgan

Form follows function.

We, as humans, are the beings that think and gain mastery of our world.

Perhaps one day, we will meet another race that does the same things we do.

Rather than seeing something truly alien, it perhaps will be like looking into a mirror.

I'll leave it to you to decide whether that is a comforting thought or not.

Intelligent life is an extremely unlikely certainty.

It is unlikely because the number of things that have to go right before it can occur is truly mind-boggling.

And yet it is a certainty because it did occur right here on Earth with you and me.

And once an event has occurred, the odds of that occurrence become 100% no matter how unlikely it seemed to begin with.

As near as we can tell, this was quite unusual.

As we look out across the universe, we think we see desolate, lifeless planet after desolate, lifeless planet.

Still, given the sheer number of planets that exist, how likely is it that intelligent life sprang up not once, but twice, or even more times?

Are we alone in the universe?

What are the probabilities?

I'm Alex McColgan and you're watching Astrum.

Today we shall have a stab in the dark at solving these mysteries and see what we hit.

To begin with though, let's start with a caveat.

If we're going to try to figure out what the odds are of intelligent life existing in the universe, we should ask ourselves the question, what do we mean by life?

Life on planet Earth comes in many shapes and sizes, from the tallest trees to the smallest microbes, from spindly insects to birds or fish or humans.

Our planet is teeming with life.