Since taking an interest in astronomy and cosmology, and all science for that matter, I have harbored a desire for our beautiful blue planet to be only one of many which contain intelligent life.
However, the deeper I delve in to my new found passion, the more discouraged I am about this ever becoming a reality.Even if we were to discover intelligent life elsewhere, there are a number of obstacles preventing us from making and maintaining contact. For example, if we were communicating in any form other than face to face, without advances in technology, we would be at the mercy of our distance from our new galactic neighbors.
A planet several lightyears away would take such time to receive our messages, and us theirs, that communication would be rendered essentially pointless (beyond the fact we were finallly able to do so).This is but one of a number of problems with the search for intelligent life, and I'm sure I don't need to list them all to get my point across.
So what I'd like to ask is whether you think our search for intelligent life outside of our solar system is at all worthwhile? Although I dream of the day we discover life outside our own planet, I feel our time and resources are better spent elsewhere. For example, working towards establishing a human presence in other areas of our solar system!What are your thoughts? Facts and scientific evidence is preferable, though open debate is not discouraged (within reason).