Do you believe there are species that have mastered FTL travel?

[lumberjack_jeff]

126. This is the part of the argument I love.

Fermi assumed that any alien life would function in a manner similar to life on our own planet. That's a false premise. Life on our planet evolved in its current form in response to external forcing unique to this planet. There is no way for us to know what forces would provide evolutionary pressure to life on other planets

Me) We're alone.
Response) No we're not, because there are lots of planets. Besides, Drake equation.
Me) If any of the values in the Drake equation are zero, then so is the result.
Response) We have proof of life here, therefore the result of the Drake equation is not zero, so life happened lots of places.
Me) Then where is everyone? Where's the radio signals? Where are the monoliths on the Moon?
Response) Aliens use tachyon pulses and subspace communications and shit. Besides, life elsewhere in the galaxy is unimaginably different^(tm). They play 14 dimensional scrabble whilst hanging out with Lando Calrissian at Cloud City and are entirely uninterested in prosaic matters of survival.
Me) If we're going to use the example of Earth as proof that life evolves elsewhere in the galaxy, then it seems reasonable to use that life as an example of what "life" means.

Life as we know it grows through metabolism, reproduces and adapts to its environment. Every successful organism outcompetes other organisms for reproduction. Intelligent life outcompetes by being better able to adapt to a variety of environments. The unavoidable end state for an intelligent organism which isn't rendered extinct is population expansion to all the environments possible; interstellar expansion. Intelligent technological species don't simply hang up their tennis shoes to retire on the porch.