Why We’re Not Alone in the Universe: A Software Developer’s Guide to Extraterrestrial Intelligence

As a software developer, I often think about the complexity and vastness of the universe and how it’s not that different from a computer simulation. And it’s hard to believe that we’re the only ones running the program. It’s like being the only player in a massively multiplayer online game and thinking you’re the only one, but then looking around and seeing thousands of other players, all with their own avatars and abilities. But instead of avatars, they have physical bodies, and instead of abilities, they have superpowers like teleportation or telekinesis. How cool is that?

But let’s get real, the universe is immense and ancient. It is estimated that there are approximately 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, with an average of 100 billion stars per galaxy. Each of these stars is believed to have around 10 planets. This means that there could be a minimum of 100 sextillion (or 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) planets in the observable universe. Given such a staggering number of planets, it seems highly unlikely that we are the only form of intelligent life in existence.