According to Noam Chomsky - Hegemony or Survival, the great biologist, Ernst Mayr of Harvard reflected on the search for extra terrestial intelligence and whether there was any chance of it existing some years ago. He decided the chances were effectively zero.

His view was based on the adaptive value of higher intelligence such as that which humans have and which is peculiar to our intellectual organisation as a species.

Mayr estimated that there had been about 50 billion species since life began. Only one species had achieved the intelligence to establish civilisation. It did so, perhaps a hundred thousand years ago, in a small breeding group of which we are the survivors. He speculates that this form of intellectual organisation may not be favoured by natural selection. He believes in fact that life on earth refutes the claim that "its better to be smart than stupid" when you consider the success of species such as beetles and bacteria compared to higher organisms.

He also rather sombrely makes the observation that the average species has a life expectancy of 100,000 years!

It is clear that we may have a problem and that if collectively we don't work together to combat threats such as climate change, we are very likely to become extinct.

What is your view?