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Probabilities: Longevity

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Contact with Alien Civilizations

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Abstract

Our ability to answer this question is extremely limited. Soviet astronomer V.A. Ambartsumian summarized the problem in 1971: We do not have even a single example of the lifetime of a technical civilization.2 As we know of only one technological species—our own—we are in effect trying to predict our own future.

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is principally a test to determine L. —David Schwartzman and Lee J. Rickard, 19881

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  1. Michael A. G. Michaud
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Michaud, M.A.G. (2007). Probabilities: Longevity. In: Contact with Alien Civilizations. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68618-9_11

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