The brilliant astrophysicist Carl Sagan asked NASA, in 1990, to turn Voyager 1’s cameras around to take a picture of Earth from the edge of our solar system. The probe snapped a now iconic photograph of our planet from its then distance of 3.7 billion miles away (Voyager was launced in 1977 and as of this posting is now 25.4 billion miles away). The 1990 photo didn’t show Earth’s continents or any other such detail. It simply offered a pale blue dot within its frame. Take a blank sheet of paper and slightly touch its surface with the fine point of a pen and pencil. That “dot” is Earth in the photograph. A dot that, from those 3.7 billion miles out in space, confers nothing about our planet. It’s just a pale blue dot and nothing else. If an alient spacecraft several billion miles from us took its own picture of our part of space, it might not even notice the dot. Or if it did, would anything about that dot compel that craft to feel it warrants a closer look?

Sagan then, as with any other astrophysicist today, estimate there are at least 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. We are in the Milky Way galaxy. One of trillion of others. Blue dot? When those numbers are considered, the lingering question of “are we alone” seems axiomatic. It also is a question that seemingly will never likely be answered in the negative. Science fiction has had our planet invaded–usually in anger–for a long time. Our closest planet outside of our solar system considered to be capable of suppporting any life form is Proxima Centauri b, which is 25 trillion miles away. PCb is said to potentially support liquid water on its surface. Okay, but even if it had a more advanced life form, perhaps with its own Carl Sagans and NASA and spaceships, it would take those PCb-ians 4.2 light years to get to us. Would they be able to have a spacecraft that could travel at the speed of light? Doubtful. The speed of light is 670,616,629 mph. Voyager 1 is traveling at 38,000 mph. Remember, even at that speed, it took Voyager over 13 years to get just 3.7 billion miles away to take that pale blue dot picture. Is this math hurting your head by now. Mine too.

My point in all of these calculations related to that 1990 photo isn’t soley to wonder about whether or not we are alone in the cosmos. Sagan believed that other life at unimaginable distances from us was probable. Probable. I wonder then, if there is some other life form billions and billions and billions of miles away, are they wondering if they are alone is the cosmos? Have they taken their pale blue dot photo? Have they done the math? Let’s say such a scenario is indeed the case right now, at this moment. If they are on par with our human species and the planet on which we live, I wonder how well they all get along with one another. Are they a peace loving life form? Do they believe in objective educational enrichments, scientific, technological advancements that values its life forms benignly? Have they constantly sought to better their lives, to always keep in check developments that threaten their collective well-being? In other words, is their species aware of how working together, regardless of some contentious variations within their individual developments, is more productive and stable a default setting. Do they value their lives and the lives of others? Do they fiercely protect their planet and how it by its nature allows for their very existence?

Or are they like we homo sapiens? That is, exploitative, greedy, power hungry, petty, cruel, militant, even dumb enough to allow attacks on science and education, and have enough of their species willing to support such a lose-lose descent into chaos and inevitable self-destruction?

As with the odds of there being life on far-flung planets, what are the odds that such distant life forms conform to the pale blue dot’s staggering disregard for themselves and their one and only planet on which they have to live?

Sagan saw coming what is now our global failings: The decline of critical thinking and scientific skepticism. A society vulnerable to charlatans and superstition, where technological power is concentrated in the hands of a few while the general population loses it capacity to understand these issues, the decay of substantive content in media, the rise of shorter sound bites and the cultural celebration of ignorance.

Is it possible there is life on some other planet and it can be as messed up as we, here, on our Pale Blue Dot? Personally, I very much doubt it. I mean, what are the odds? Astronomical, I’d say.