Every one of us has wanted to see aliens. The universe is so unimaginably large that it is very unlikely that we are the only planet with life. However, there are many problems humans will face when we find extraterrestrial life (life outside of earth). The thing about finding life that we have no idea about is that we can’t predict in advance whether they are dangerous or not.
There are at least forty billion planets in the Milky Way which are capable of having life on them. This fact begs the question - Where are the aliens? If there are so many possible planets that could support life, it is highly improbable that not one of them has life on it. This is called the Fermi paradox. Despite there being a big chance of life on planets other than us in the Milky Way, we haven’t seen any. While there is no solution we have to this paradox, there are many theories related to why we haven’t seen any life yet.
We will have to face various types of challenges if we make contact with extraterrestrial life. Take the example of how currently humans just kill other animals and their habitat without hesitation, just to fulfil the need for resources we humans have. What if there exists a species so advanced that we are just resources to them? They will drain our oceans and destroy our race just to fill their need for resources, and not think twice. The human race would cease to exist. This is just one of the reasons why meeting extraterrestrial life could be extremely dangerous.
Even though the speed of light is very fast, it is not fast in comparison to the size of the universe. When we say a planet is a thousand light-years away, we mean that light will take one thousand years to reach it. The way we see things is by light reaching us, so actually if we are seeing something one thousand light-years away, that means we are seeing how that planet was one thousand years ago. Even if we want to communicate with such a planet, there would be immense delays because of its distance from us and there is no way of knowing if they understand our means of communication. No matter how hard you try to talk to a rabbit you will fail. Supposing we need to attack this planet and we launch a weapon towards it, even if the weapon can travel at the speed of light (which is unrealistically fast), it will still take one thousand years to reach the target planet. In one thousand years, that planet would have evolved so much that it could probably stop our weapons with ease. If we had to face weapons from the First World War today, we would win with no problems. Similarly, the other planet facing thousand-year-old weapons will win very comfortably.
Thousands of life-threatening and logistical problems like these make one wonder if we really should seek out alien life or not. However, based on how primitive our technology could be in comparison to aliens, it is more likely that they spot us before we see them.
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