There is no reason to think that there are no other intelligent, sentient beings out there, or other forms of consciousness altogether.

Would they go through same, or similar, evolutionary and social processes - similar to our natural and cultural history and evolution - that's another question altogether.

Intelligent, sentient consciousness may be able to express itself in many different ways. Some of it is bound to be beyond our comprehension - this idea, and associated difficulties, are very well laid out in the article linked bellow - The Incommensurability Problem and The Fermi Paradox by an astrophysicist, one Eric Davis.

Others may indeed be similar to us in some ways, but I don't think they would be anything like Star Trek aliens, a variation of a human reasoning and morality, with a certain bias - Klingon = overtly aggressive; Vulcan = somewhat remote and detached - such as to make them slightly less (complete) than human. I think this view of aliens is evidently distorted, i.e. selfcentered and self referential.

In conclusion, don't expect them to be something like us, just from another planet. They are essentially "the other", a reference point, something other than us by which to estimate who and what we are in this world.

The Incommensurability Problem and The Fermi Paradox:
http://www.ufoskeptic.org/davis.html
Source(s):
personal thoughts on the subject

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