dietz@SLB-DOLL.CSNET (Paul Dietz) (03/07/86)
>2. The colonial powers wanted to exploit the minerals and other > resources on the New World and Africa; more so, I think, than > they wanted merely to replicate themselves. This will probably be true when space is opened up also. Once space transportation technology is sufficiently cheap we'll be getting most of our iron, platinum group elements and energy from space (the question is how cheap is "sufficiently"). > Of course, if we encounter another civilization out there, the > odds are it won't be anywhere near the level we're at. Most > likely, we would encounter an unimaginably more advanced > civilization. While it's hard to predict what other species (or, indeed, other humans) will do, I'd guess that another technological civilization in the galaxy would have colonized everywhere by now. A more plausible scenario for finding intelligent ET's would be dolphin-like creatures on water-worlds without technology. All talk of aliens is wildly speculative, of course.