The more we humans look out into the sky, the more it becomes apparent that there is nothing looking back at us.

We seem to be utterly alone. This is, to say the least, very weird.

Our universe is big enough and old enough that it should be teeming with life.

Lots of people have come up with answers. Perhaps the aliens are hiding from something we don't know about.

Or maybe we're being kept in a galactic zoo without our knowledge.

But maybe the simplest answer is the right one in this case.

Perhaps we humans really are the only intelligent life in the universe.

What if the only reason we humans are alive is because of a series of flukes and coincidences so improbable

that they will never be repeated again anywhere else?

Well, that would make us pretty special.

And it would also put the entire future of intelligent life in the universe squarely on our shoulders.

Three, two, one, fire.

We humans are on the eve of spreading out into the galaxy,

of freeing ourselves from the bonds of Earth to settle new planets and secure the future of intelligent life.

All we have to do is survive that long.

Extential risks are a distinctive or maybe unique kind of risk in that we're playing for everything.

If we screw it up, we screw it up for a large chunk of the universe.

One thing is certain is that there's a huge amount of energy in it,

and it's expanding at very close to the speed of light,

and so you would have no warning of it coming.

And basically Earth will be sears to pieces.

And we just don't know. So I just don't think it's worth taking the chance.

...