[koheripbal]

Given the relative age of planets and stars, other alien "civilizations" would be hundreds of millions or Billions of years older than us.

The notion that we'd all be roughly at the same level of advancement is statistically impossible pop-sci-fi fantasy.

In my opinion, it's unlikely that they are even organic individuals anymore. Even the separate alien "entities" might have a process of merging once they achieve a certain advancement.

We are like fungus to them.

[grawprog]

>We are like fungus to them.

Maybe the fungi think that about us? They've been around longer than we have and take up more of the planet.

[Supermancho]

> They've been around longer than we have and take up more of the planet.

It looks like that to us, because our influence is visible over 80+% of the ground, but there's fungus IN us and covering more surface area than you can see. Imagine anywhere there's water (including from the air and including the oceans), there's fungus over a % of the land and organisms that you can see with a microscope. Fungus influence covers far more of the surface.

[grawprog]

Yup, life as we know it wouldn't even exist without their decomposition abilities. Dead stuff would pile up, nutrients wouldn't be recyled, beer wouldn't exist. A world without beer just wouldn't be worth living in.

Fungi are very much overlooked, their role in forests alone is amazing let alone everything else they do.

If someday, some scientists discovered some kind of conscious fungal intelligence, i would not be surprised.

[Balgair]

In some ways, then, we are 'alone'. Sure, there may be intelligent life out there, but the vast differences in biology combined with the likely vast differences in technology will render us 'alone' all the same.

Just like a goldfish in your apartment. To you, you are alone, goldfish don't count as company. And to the goldfish, it is alone, as humans don't count as whatever a goldfish thinks a friend is.