Kaltxi ma smuk,
As many of You probably already know we're not alone in the universe already, It's always good to have science to back it up, And I'm getting pretty excited for the future of us Humans and Na'vi's alike

A recent meeting at NASA showed just common habitable planets are in our and all other galaxy's It's pretty exciting stuff!

Here's the article it's brief but awesome
NASA: Habitable Worlds May Be Found in Next 20 Years

Habitable world =/= intelligent life.

Habitable is a really, really broad term, and while it does mean that alien life forms could be there, it is far more likely that they would be bacteria or maybe small invertebrates.

Also, space is big. Unless we start building the tech within the next 20 years, we're not getting anyone to another solar system in your lifetime.

Awesome. If only we had the ships to visit.

Have you ever tried to find the amount of manhours NASA spends doing things? By my estimation, more than twenty years in manhours was spent arguing if it's okay to put blue Loctite on large bolts. I'm serious:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...0110011064.pdf

At the current blistering pace, NASA might get off their conference calls and 600-person CC chains by the time the sun ballooning into a red giant becomes a legitimate concern. I guess what I'm saying is that if we do see humanity traverse the gap, it will be for commercial reasons. Money has a way of lubricating even the most bureaucratic of machines.

I did the math on that shortly after arriving to the forums - there's nothing that could possibly be valuable enough to justify that.

"Access forbidden!", wow

It isn't actually, I think the forum just got confused by PDFs not having a title.

The requisites for the formation of life and organic chemistry are not particularly remarkable; it would be rather shocking if we are alone. But as Raiden has pointed out, the presence of extraterrestrial life does not guarantee that it will be intelligent. Remember, evolution doesn't have a goal, and intelligence often isn't essential for fitness in the natural selection sense.

The other problematic part is the liklihood of discovering alien life that's technologically a thousand years behind us, rather than a thousand years ahead of us.

Here's a scary thought: want an example of a society that is 1000 years behind us? Look no further than ISIS/ISIL. Now, granted, it's only one example.

Kind of true. I know there's always the possibility that aliens think the same about humans for that sort of reason - humanity has potential, but still hasn't even sorted out the problems on one planet so shouldn't be trusted with contact yet. Of course, more likely is that contact is just difficult and any civilisations that do exist are likely confined to somewhat small spheres of space.