Around the Neighborhood

An artist's impression of Alpha Centauri. Our star is located in the upper right side of the frame.

A lot of people ask the question, "if it is so statistically improbably that we are alone in the universe, then why haven't we been contacted yet?"

Well, one reason I can think of is the Prime Directive, from Star Trek. It states that you are not allowed to interfere with a culture's development, no matter what happens.

Maybe, just maybe, there is other life out there, and it has the good sense to leave us alone for a while. If you really think about it, if an alien race did try to contact us right now, what would we probably do? Shoot first, ask questions later.

So, maybe we have to reach a point in our development when we are reasonable enough to have in a greater community, a community of space faring civilizations.

That seems pretty reasonable to me.