[General Battuta]

What do you think the solution is?

Points for creativity in a non-goofy way.

Supplementary question in my next post.

[Black Wolf]

We've only been looking seriously for, what, 30 odd years? Maybe 40? We've only even been really capable of looking for a century. Give it time.

[watsisname]

Several factors probably are at play.

1:  What Black Wolf said.
2:  Inhabited worlds probably aren't as common as Drake's equations suggest.  Drake didn't know much about circumstellar habitable zones (and how they change as the star evolves).  Also, we don't yet know how common "stable" planetary systems are.
3:  Means of communication.  All advanced civilizations probably aren't screaming out in all directions at all the frequencies that we've been using.

[Scotty]

[WAG]Other intellgent space-faring civilizations do not utilize radio or electromagnetic waves as communication.[/WAG]

They exist, we're just looking the wrong way.  For example, we're (analogously) trying to find an extra hot rock in the middle of a desert filled with measurably less hot rocks.  Unfortunately, we've decided to try finding it visually, with no enhancement, when instead using thermal imaging would find it comparatively quickly.

Comic related

[General Battuta]

Supplementary question!

Why do you think the galaxy has not been devoured by von Neumann machines, given that there's been time and opportunity for them to do so?

[Scotty]

Simple, obvious guess:  Von Neumann machines do not actually exist.

[General Battuta]

Simple, obvious guess:  Von Neumann machines do not actually exist.

Demonstrably false! You are one! Just a very inefficient one.

[redsniper]

Simple, obvious guess:  Von Neumann machines do not actually exist.

Demonstrably false! You are one! Just a very inefficient one.

Well then there you go. There aren't any that are efficient enough to devour the galaxy. My gut feeling is that entropy would be a problem as well.

[General Battuta]

I don't buy it!

If meatlife can survive this long, the berserkers should be out there, man.

[Scotty]

How do we know we are not the berserkers?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Maybe they just haven't had time to spread this far.  We are on the arm of a spiral galaxy.  The best dispersion method would be from the center out and that could take a long time. 

[Aardwolf]

Maybe they did, and we're the waste products?

[Locutus of Borg]

Maybe we're the First Ones

TAKE THAT VORLONS

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Ah the Vorlons were not the first ones although referred to as such along with the Shadows and other races. 

[Aardwolf]

Now to actually consider this topic seriously...

w.r.t. Von Neumann machines:

As far as we can tell, we're capable of interstellar travel --- although the 'we' that gets to the next star with any remotely habitable planets might be vastly different from the 'we' that begins the many-generation-long journey (unless we're in stasis during the trip). Could we expand fast enough to not be killed off when our sun burns out? If so, then it must be possible for a species to expand throughout the galaxy --- although that says nothing about the frequency of that sort of thing occurring; all it means is that it occurred at least once.

w.r.t. extraterrestrial life:

It could be that we're the only ones in our galaxy. Or perhaps, as the universe has been aging, the conditions for intelligent civilizations to form have been getting better? After all, the earth is 4.5 billions years old; that's a decent fraction of the age of the universe.

[swashmebuckle]

Maybe the super-smart Von Neumann aliens have the Prime Directive and wont mess you up unless you crap in the well by waging interstellar war or something.  Yeah, you know who I'm talking about.

[Aardwolf]

Ughhh, leave FreeSpace out of this.

Lol, Shivans + Trek term

[Scotty]

Fact: Humans are a type of von Neumann machine.
Fact: Humans could currently cause their own extinction.
Postulate: Other types of von Neumann machines could do the same.
Theory: Other types of von Neumann machines have caused their own extinction before contact.

[Aardwolf]

Possible. But it depends on them having existed in the first place.

[General Battuta]

Fact: Humans are a type of von Neumann machine.
Fact: Humans could currently cause their own extinction.
Postulate: Other types of von Neumann machines could do the same.
Theory: Other types of von Neumann machines have caused their own extinction before contact.

Mutant strains should have been selected for by evolution and now be dominant.