# Have we reached the point when it is kooky to not believe in massive amounts of intelligent life having evolved throughout the universe?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 19, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972 "2022-08-19T23:30:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 39

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972/768 "2026-09-23T17:35:57Z")

</div>

> [@Thrasymachus](#):
>
> At any given moment, there may be only a few such civilizations (say, one to five) per galaxy…

This is entirely dependent on the longevity of civilisations. A sufficiently-advanced civilisation might last millions, or billions of years. This would make the number of civilisations significantly larger at any one time.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972.md?page=38)