There are several things that most people don’t understand about humanity, traveling the universe, extrasolar planets and extraterrestrial civilizations.
Unfortunately, space based science fiction tends to amplify ideas and thought processes about life and the universe that are just not true or are vanishingly implausible.
One false idea, that I notice even intelligent progressive science educated people espousing, is that if and when we encounter an extraterrestrial civilization, it is likely to be like us, similar to us, and at a level of technology that is graspable by us.
To illustrate the truth, let me focus the gentle reader’s attention on an admittedly only somewhat accurate but illustrative graph below:
The bottom graph is the one of planet earth. There is an assumption built in that microbial life has been around for the entire history of the planet, but it could be just as easily read as “no life / microbial life”.
The ACLU, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, The Transgender Law Center, and Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund have joined in the drafting of