Howard Smith of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics contends we are alone in the universe by the “misanthropic principle” (intelligent life is so unlikely to evolve that we might as well accept that we’ll never know if we are unique or not), while Seth Shostak, director of the SETI Institute argues that increases in computer power mean we’ll be able to analyze far more planetary data than has been possible until now, and within 24 years we may detect an alien civilization.