Of course it's OK to express one's hopes and fears regarding the existence, form, capabilities and motivations of ET's, as well as human technological progress, but anyone who makes statements characterizing probabilities and future ecconomies as probable fact, or sagely predicting what will and won't be possible technologically in the future, etc., is an idiot at this point. We are still very close to the very beginning (hopefully) of human learning & technological "sophisitcation". We are still babes in the cradle. Shostak's attitudes toward future ecconomies, societies, and technological capability are humorously provincial and apparently self-serving. A perfectly appropriate analogy would be Cro-Magnons making predictions of the details of manned lunar exploration, or urban mass-transit. Way too early to draw ANY conclusions. ______________________________________________________ Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate3/