The product of watching The Big Bang and playing Mass Effect

This very moment, somewhere in the universe, there is someone else wondering about life elsewhere in the universe. Statistics (I don't have them, go look for them!) show that we aren't, we can't be, the only sentient species in the galaxy. There are planets like Earth that can sustain life. It's odds on that in the time that planet has had, lifeforms evolved on those planets to a sentient state. They could be neanderthals in comparison to where we are today or they could be centuries ahead of us. But whether they're more or less intelligent than we are now, our own history shows we will look up at the heavens and wonder what could be out there, despite the level of technology. If we're lucky, sometime in our lifetime we will reach one of these planets, or they'll reach us. Good or bad, it will be a step forward for mankind.