Intelligence and Extelligence

From my decades of work with animals, I agree they are intelligent. Their intelligence though, is quite different from ours. Cats and Dogs solve problems, but only in the context that serves their needs. They don't solve problems in theoretical physics, because those issues never come up in a pet's life. In our SETI searches, what we are looking for is currently other radio astronomers. For all of deep space search, we are only looking for one thing, signals in the bands of electromagnetic waves. Light, in visible, radio, and ultraviolet and higher forms is all we are going after to discover other intelligences. What are the odds then of finding extraterrestrial intelligent life? The answer to that question is zero. What we are looking for is creatures that posess both intelligence and extelligence. We are looking for the external transmission of their communications and ideas. Much the same as we transmit our thoughts, ideas, and culture out into space via radio and television electromagnetic waves.
Why hasn't some at least tiny detection of extraterrestrials been made yet? The answer is difficult, but you have to look at the odds. There may be approximately one trillion planets or moons capable of supporting some form of life in our galaxy. Out of those, how many have optimal conditions for large multicellular life to evolve? Probably few. My estimate is one in a billion. That takes us down to one thousand earth-like planets that has water, sun, and an agreeable climate for life to evolve in. Remember too, that even on a perfect planet for life, like earth, life only evolved as far as Algea after four billion years of uninhibited evolution. Four billion years to generate Algea? Not very thrilling results, if you ask me. The Drake Equation, from Frank Drake at Cornell, further asks what are the odds of intelligence evolving on a life filled planet. On the earth, only one species in a billion, us, has evolved a technical civilization that transmits extelligent signals. One in a billion! Again, not much help from the other billion minus one species on our planet. I read a story that Carl Sagan once got a four day Very Large Array time slot to listen for aliens in the Andromeda Galaxy. He figured if you could take in all the signals from an entire galaxy of half a trillion stars, your odds of picking up extraterrestrials should be good. The results of his experiment were that he detected nothing. Not a hint. Not a whisper of some other life form using radio or television to transmit it's intelligent signals. I heard he was depressed for weeks after as this experiment shattered his beliefs about life being fairly common throughout the universe.
My experience is that even human intelligence is very rare. Only one in a hundred people on earth even goes to college. Two thirds of humanity lives on less than two dollars a day. It's not a lack of information either. Knowledge is out there for anyone for the price of a modest book. It is a lack of intelligence, that ony a few people have, that limits how much mankind can accomplish.
My book has appeal for about one in ten thousand people. One in a hundred will buy it after they hear about it. Only one in a hundred of the purchasers of my book will actually apply the techniques to their lives and achieve real life extension. One in ten thousand, pretty grim results, but that is the fact and I can't change it. One hundred people in a million will be helped by my technologies. I look at the bright side though and see the tremendous rewards those one hundred people will get as they learn my skills and become Life Extensionists! And as far as intelligent and extelligent civilizations go, I think we are about it for now. The other limiting factor is not only the vastness of space, but the vastness of time. Even if extelligent civilizations evolve and last for millions of years, they are gone in a flicker of time that spans billions of years in our universe. It is estimated mankind will endure for approximately seven million years, very much like other long lived species, but seven million years is a blink of light in the universe's fifteen billion years of existence. I wish I had better news for you on this subject, but keep in mind, a lot of great living is here for us now, so make everyday a masterpiece and squeeze out all the living you can in the one hundred and fifty year lifespan potential you have been given! Live the Dream!
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Dr. Doug Ikeler