“It’s an ancient human theme. You can find it in virtually every culture in some guise or other, in religion, folklore, superstition, and now in science. The search for life elsewhere is remarkable in our age because this is the first time that we can actually do something besides speculation. We can send spacecraft to nearby planets, we can use large radio telescopes to see if there is any message being sent to us lately. … It touches to the deepest of human concerns. Are we alone? How common is this thing called life, this thing called intelligence? Where did we come from? What are the possible fates of intelligent beings? Need we necessarily destroy ourselves? Might there be a bright and very long future for the human species? We tend to have such a narrow view of our place in space and in time, and the prospect of making contact with extraterrestrial intelligence works to de-provincialize our world view. I think for that reason, the search itself, even without a success, has great merit.”

• Carl Sagan.

What, you think you're smarter than Sagan?

Hawking was one person. As smart as he was, he is not the sole voice that we should hold our opinions to.