ⷉf there is intelligent life elsewhere, can we communicate with it?

Question:

ⷉf there is intelligent life elsewhere, can we communicate with it?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: This is about "the biggest" question you are ever likely to ask and needs volumes to answer it in full. It also depends on whether you believe in the biblical Genesis or in the wider definition of evolution. Let's go with the latter for the purposes of this very brief explanation!

I believe the general answer is YES, there is intelligent life out there but the chances of communicating with it are virtually zero, unless those beings are so far advanced compared to Earth's technology that they are the ones who faciltate the means of communication. Our own communication signals will not travel faster than the speed of light - roughly 186,000 miles per second. The nearest stars (and therefore other solar systems) are over 2 million light years away; that means our "signals" will take over two million years to reach their destination. Do you begin to see where this is going?

Also, we might not even recognise the other "life" if we saw it. Our own human species has evolved as a result of a huge number of connected events and which are broadly based on the element of carbon and need in particular, a common substance which we call Water to exist. Other species might have evolved from say silicon and could and probably would have developed quite differently from us.

I believe that the Universe is infinite and as such, doubt that Man will ever know the answer to the biggest question of them all: How did it get there and what was there before it was there? This is where the problems really start and it will be affected by your own take on religion and your beliefs as it's where one has to perhaps consider the possiblity, or certainty if that is your persuasion, of an ultimate superior intelligence, the one most people call God. Enough?