Is there other intelligent life in the universe?

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Whether or not there is other intelligent life in the universe is certainly an age old question and this question has fueled decades of research and exploration, leading many scientists and astronomers to investigate the possibilities of extraterrestrial existence. After my over one hundred visits from what I came to learn was intelligent life I know beyond a doubt that there is life on other planets but I still am curious as to the scientific probability of life on other planets to try to get a number of how many planets may have a habitable environment and therefore may have intelligent life – or may have had intelligent life in the past.

The Fermi Paradox and its implications

The Fermi Paradox, named after physicist Enrico Fermi, states if the universe is teeming with intelligent life, why have we not encountered any signs of it? This paradox highlights the disconnect between the high probability of intelligent life and the lack of concrete evidence.

Several theories attempt to explain the Fermi Paradox. Some suggest that advanced civilizations may have self-destructed or chosen to remain hidden. Others propose that our current methods of detection are simply inadequate to identify extraterrestrial intelligence. Like most things in life I believe it’s a combination of factors. I believe that our current methods of detection are inadequate and I believe that the aliens that are visiting earth have chosen to remain hidden. Either because of humans they have interacted with and observed led them to believe that we are not ready for them to be known to us, or because as many people believe the aliens have met with many governments around the world and come to an agreement that they will remain hidden for a host of reasons that I discuss in my book. It certainly would create chaos and panic if they suddenly revealed themselves but maybe what is happening now is they are slowly revealing themselves so as to make the transition to the world knowing of their existence easier.

The Drake Equation

While researching for my book, I came across the Drake Equation which is one of the most prominent attempts to estimate the probability of intelligent life beyond our planet. The Drake Equation is a probabilistic argument (which uses probability and logic in uncertain situations) to estimate the result. It was developed by astrophysicist Frank Drake in 1961, and takes into account various factors such as the rate of star formation, the fraction of stars with planets, and the fraction of habitable planets that develop life. This further led me to a fascinating article regarding the possible existence of other intelligent life in the universe. (Leonor Sierra, “Are we alone in the universe? Revisiting the Drake equation,” NASA, May 19, 2016)  It discusses recent discoveries concerning exoplanets (planets outside our solar system), in which scientists now believe that roughly one-fifth of the stars in the universe have planets that are in the “habitable zone” that could potentially support life. Scientists estimate that there are 2 x 1022 stars in the universe, which is two hundred billion trillion stars (or to write it out in the standard notation, that’s 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). That’s a lot of stars! And if the new estimate is that one-fifth of the stars in the universe have at least one habitable planet, that’s 4 x 1021 stars or 40 billion trillion stars (40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) with at least one habitable planet.

          So if you state very pessimistically that only one in a trillion (which are very small odds, given one trillion is 1,000,000,000,000) of those planets that are habitable developed intelligent life, then there would be 40 billion (yes, 40,000,000,000) other planets that have developed intelligent life in the universe!

The article goes on to discuss some other factors that may limit other intelligent life from interacting with us, such as how long they might be able to survive on their planet and the distance they are from us, making it difficult (or impossible) for communication or travel between the two planets. But if you look at how far we have come on Earth in just the last hundred years, it’s not hard to imagine us having a permanent station on another planet in fifty years, one that is mostly self-sustaining in another hundred years, and one that is completely self-sustaining and well populated in a thousand years. So, to me, the ability for us or other intelligent life to continue to thrive as life forms is not really constrained by the planet we are currently on—or may be living on in the future—being able to sustain life long-term. As for the question of other intelligent life being able to visit us or communicate with us, Einstein stated that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, so if that is true these stars that are forty or more light-years away would essentially be too far for communication or travel, provided it uses technology we can understand today. But scientists have theorized about the ability to exceed the speed of light, and that if it were possible, it would imply time travel. So, to me it’s possible for aliens to travel here or communicate with us, just not with our current technical knowledge and capabilities. 


Bill Rountree appeared to be living a very normal suburban lifestyle in Atlanta, Georgia but at age 11 realized he was being visited by intelligent life from another place or time. Unable to convince others of his ongoing experiences he ignored his visitors as best he could and continued to live his life eventually graduating with honors from a top 100 university with a major in Management Information Systems. He has now retired and written a book about his experiences but for the last twenty five years of his career he was a Senior Project Manager for large information technology projects for major corporations including Sprint PCS, Cocoa Cola and many others - while still being observed and visited by what he came to know were aliens from another world. Bill was previously married and is the father of a successful thirty-three year old son and currently spends his time between his home in Florida, his cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and on his sailboat in Southern California.

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