It's really a question of whether we manage to collapse modern civilization before the job is done. If we're busy killing each other for water there might not be much opportunity for astronomy.
I think it's like exoplanets. They were hypothesized on the basis that based on observation at that time they could neither confirm nor deny the existence of planets outside the solar system, and that the sun having planets couldn't have been that unique. It's just that it was believed that we wouldn't be able to observe these exoplanets directly.
The same thing goes with alien life. We have no conclusive evidence to deny extraterrestrial life, nor (to the best of my knowledge) conclusive evidence to confirm it, and it's highly unlikely that the Earth is that unique. The question is whether we will be able to confirm the existence of alien life, and while that enough is thrilling, will humanity be able to interact with them within our lifetime. My guess is that sometime in the future we will have a breakthrough and we will be able to at least confirm the existence of extraterrestrial life beyond doubt.
Maybe they have found us and we're being prepared to hear that officially. There's been a lot of unprompted announcements like this lately from various governments and organizations.
This is a story about possible scientific evidence for signs of life (probably simple) on nearby planets, still many light years away. It is not a story about pseudoscientific claims that aliens are visiting us already, for which there is no, and never has been any, scientific evidence at all.
I don't think there's anything pseudoscientific. It's pure speculation (as far as I know). I just it fascinating how often "aliens" comes up lately. Chuck Schumer is introducing legislation to compel private business and individual who have artifacts of non-human intelligences to release them to the government under eminent domain.
yeah those videos released by the pentagon, then all those hearings with pilots and an ex-intelligence guy, then nasa coming out and confirming there is unidentified stuff flying around...
we are either looking at gradual disclosure or a huge con at this point
Or just ignoring the details because believing fantastic things keeps hope alive.
NASA didn't remotely hint that it'd be aliens responsible, and in fact said they thinks it's probably not aliens, depsite not being able to confirm exactly which objects are what.
And to add to that, a lot of the things they ‘can't identify’ aren't actually unidentifiable, they're just not allowed to be discussed with the public, for the same reason why some things are blurred on Google Earth and all the same conspiracy people come out going ‘SEE?! PROOF!’, no, dude... national security secrets. Simple. We don't want China and Russia stealing our next generation drone technology, that's what UFOs are. Occam's Razor; sometimes the simplest answer is the most likely to be true. But what do I know. There will sure be egg on my face when they aliens come out on the news and say "what up, human dudes?".