"Ed" @ wrote in message
...
Fortunately, it is a longer timespan than that. Chris Chyba suggested
that life on Earth has 100 million years to develop intelligent life,
otherwise
the path of evolution is reset by a global extinction event. Once
intelligence
is cooked up, it then becomes aware of its surroundings and is (hopefully)
able to prevent the next evolutionary "reset" event.

Aha, I didn't just dream it then! ;o)

There's no need to invoke conspiracies internal to the space program; lay
people may not understand astronomy, but they certainly understand
self-protection. :-)

I didn't mean to sound conspiratory. I just think it's as good a reason as
any to invest in some heavy duty research.

Cheers,
Jim