If you look at the extremely small window of time wherein we humans have made an appreciable dent in our local environment which could be viewed from a distance, there is essentially less than a needle in a haystack chance that any intelligent life could ever discover us. And then there is an infinitesimally smaller chance they could contact us after discovering us. As far as we know there is no intelligent life within at least a few tens of thousands to a few hundred thousand light years away, and perhaps even farther.Originally Posted by concerned
There may well be life within a few million light years of earth by the time our 'noise' reaches them, but at that point what will life on earth be like?
Modern humans have only been around for the last 150k to 400k years. In the far more recent past (20k to 50k years) we coexisted with several 'cousin' species - homo neanderthalensis and homo denisovans, and until 10k years ago we coexisted with homo floresiensis (the 'Hobbit People' because they were about 3' tall, were discovered in 2003).
Some intelligent being on a planet located at the center of the Milky Way galaxy looking at Earth today through a telescope would see at least 4 species of 'humans' populating the planet. All would share a common ancestor, perhaps use simple tools, have evidence of some ritualistic religion (or at least have burial rituals), and would possess a capacity for logic and reason that would set them ahead of all other animals on the planet.
A sentient being from the nearest adjacent (non-dwarf) galaxy observing us today, however, would see an australopithecus hominid who had only (relatively) recently diverged from the chimpanzees and gorillas. He would witness the rise of the homo genus around 2 million years from now, and would see our currently 'modern' world a few million years later.
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