How did we get here? Where are we going?

[UmarilsStillHere]

Well with about 1/2 a trillion stars in our galaxy alone, and god only knows how many galaxys in the 360 billion lightyears worth of space that is our universe the odds are something is out there.

But the universe is 360+billion years old, thats far more than enough time for a civilisation to rise to its peak and then die out, also with the sheer scale of the universe even if there are a billion civilisations out there, the chances of finding one are slim, and the chances of physically meeting one even slimmer.

I remember a group of scientists got together to come up with the best way to search or find alien life, they decided a radio signal at the freq. of hydrogen, being the most abundant thing in existance, would be a good idea, eventually they found received just such a signal but when they checked its origin location there were no star systems (we can see) in that location, so it could have been a probe? Or a single thats millenia old and the star has died out and expanded all its light before the signal got to us? Or who knows what else, theres a lot of cool stuff out there to do with 'the search'.

Its quite scary how puny and insignificant we really are, but what could be even more scary than a galaxy teaming with life is one thats not... what if we are the only life in the universe? What if if we die out thats it? And the whole of exiastance will be without life for the rest of time?