The thing is about all of this space exploration is that, in the grand scheme of things, we're still babies. We've only really begun leaving the planet in the last 50 years or so and a lot of the hardware floating around up there is not much newer. There are some people (including real scientists and not just people-on-the-internet) who think that, if intelligent life did exist, that they might be staying hidden from us on purpose. At the moment, we're still pretty much just playing with our new toys and we don't really know the rules of the game yet. Given the discussions we've had about pollution and biomarkers, the fact that we still burn fossil fuels for energy and think that iPhones are a pretty neat idea would be painfully obvious to an advanced race. In the same way that you wouldn't bring a toddler to a dinner party, it could be that we'll only be let out of the interstellar naughty corner once we've gotten our act together long enough to do some proper, grown up space exploration. At the moment, intelligent life in the universe is conspicuous by its absence. It could just be that they already know we're here and are waiting until we're ready to meet them. Want to write for WhatCulture Science? Click here to find out how you could get paid to write about what you love.Hey, you. Yeah, you. You want some more science? Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for your next fix.