One of the favorite games of Mr. Boy’s cub scout den, especially in the woods on camping trips, is to each get a stick and go hunt for aliens. Not the illegal sort, but the outer-space variety.
Most of it, of course, is spurred by Star Wars and similar epics. But it’s not as if scientists haven’t given it some thought. In fact, a lot of thought. For instance, the SETI program.
Three good essays on the subject are here, here, and here. I think they’re out there but, like most of the humans and the aliens in Poul Anderson’s Starfarers, they may well have long since turned inward in favor of exploring themselves.
Via Instapundit.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 