8 Expert Theories About Our Future In Space

8. Aliens Are Likely To Be AI

Everybody has their own mental image of an alien life form and these are invariably organic, with the big eyes and the grey skin.

However, Seth Shostak, senior astronomer for alien-hunting organisation Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) thinks that we could all be in for a bit of a shock when the aliens to eventually com a-knocking. He thinks that there is a good chance that that it will be in the form of a synthetic intelligence.

Of course, an artificial intelligence needs to have been built by someone. But as one of the biggest hurdles in contacting aliens could be that intelligent civilisations are such a flash in the pan, cosmically speaking, we might actually have a much better chance of findinding the artificial minds they leave behind.