# Are we alone?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone/580981>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 6, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone/580981 "2011-05-06T17:07:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 8

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone/580981/141 "2013-09-19T01:23:42Z")

</div>

The Waterworld angle is one David Brin (science fiction author and actual scientist) has been promoting for some time. He suggests that there might be a lot of life out there, maybe even a lot of intelligent life, but that such civilizations are hampered in the development of technology, because it’s hard to forge metal underwater.

In his way, he holds this as an optimistic possibility!

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone/580981.md?page=7)