My friend Pam e-mailed me a link to a truly fascinating piece in Technology Review about the implications of finding evidence of even long-extinct, primitive life on another planet. The author, Nick Bostrom, makes a logical connection that becomes blindingly obvious once someone turns your head and makes you look directly at it. Therefore, please consider this post my attempt to reach through the Intertubes, grab each of you by the noggin, and firmly but respectfully make you look in the desired direction:

Where Are They?: Why I hope the search for extraterrestrial life finds nothing.