[thedoc (OP)]

Duncan Sargent asked the Naked Scientists:
   
There has been a lot of talk recently on various science podcasts / documentaries about the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

Now I understand the limits of how far we can see and that we have only been looking for a short time and as such our own broadcasts have only gone out so far and that all this is limited by the speed of light etc.

However it occurred to me that not all cultures develop at the same rate and even if a culture elsewhere  became established it may become arrested and stuck for several thousand years at a level of technology allowing others in relatively nearby star systems to overtake it. I mean look at how long we spent in the stone age!

So it also occurred to me that whilst we have not in a universal or even galactic sense been around that long it is possible that older cultures may have either never evolved or become stuck at a certain level.

Somewhere, some culture on some planet in some system has to be the most advanced. Those "in the know" tell us that others have had thousands if not millions of years to get so far ahead of us that we would be insignificant to them. Well maybe, but then again maybe not, who is to say how long it takes for a civilised culture to come about?

So is it at all possible that the reason we have not made contact or had contact from another culture on a nearby star system is that we are in fact ourselves the most advanced culture there is?

So is it possible? We so often look up at the stars and wonder if we are alone, are we being watched? We are told that we are likely so insignificant to advanced cultures that they may not think it worth bothering with us. So is it just possible that in fact we are the advanced culture?

What do you think?
What do you think?

[jeffreyH]

We will never know how many civilisations exist in our timeframe since the information about them is part of our future light cone. The light will only reach us in our future. Any intelligence we detect may well be long dead in our present. Since the information has taken a long time to reach us. This means that any intelligence that we detect outside our local neighbourhood will by definition be more advanced in our present if they still exist.

[Colin2B]

It also depends how you define a civilisation or culture.
For example "look at how long we spent in the stone age!". This period covered more than just modern humans and included a number of predecessor species of genus Homo.
Would you offer the Incas as a separate civilisation?

If we do travel beyond our star system an find another intelligent species I don't fancy their chances. Our track record of meetings with less technologically advanced civilisations is not a good one.
Conversly, I don't fancy our chances if an advanced civilisation finds us!