Plenty of us would have pondered, about how we are the only known ‘intelligent race’ of creatures across the universe. Well, that is a valid doubt, considering the scale of the universe. To understand in-depth, let’s attempt to understand what ‘intelligent life’ really means.

We earthlings, (at least humans) are capable of performing amazing feats. We have sent men to the moon, we create cures for all kinds of diseases, and we perform ridiculous calculations. We consider ourselves an ‘intelligent’ civilization due to all of this. According to the Oxford Dictionary, intelligence means the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. This definition, however, refers not once, to the scale of knowledge.

Let’s take the example of ants. Ants are teeny little creatures, who build these gigantic colonies, and have a hierarchy system in place. This is a technological marvel (at that scale). Quite a few humans go around wreaking havoc in these colonies, and people might say that the ants are asking for it by building their little hills in parks where hundreds of humans walk every day. But then again, aren’t humans asking for it by building homes in valleys where rain could easily cause flooding? Arent the humans asking for mass extinction by creating formidable atom bombs capable of vaporising cities?

Therefore, we cannot categorize intelligence by the level of civilization. Dolphins, as most would know are one of the smartest possible creatures on the planet, but none of them are creating rockets. Do we categorize dolphins as dumb because they don’t make rockets? Evidently, not. Intelligence is a relative term. Different species have different scales of intelligence. Therefore we can conclude that any form of life found outside earth can be considered an alien.

Now, let’s take an estimate of our chances of actually finding extraterrestrial life. For this, we can use the Drake equation, which was developed by Frank Drake from the SETI institute. This equation provides us with the means scientists require to understand other radio-communicating forms of life. While this does not provide hard-backed evidence for extraterrestrial civilizations, it can certainly nudge us in the right direction.

If we take a look at what kinds of extraterrestrial life we may encounter, there could be a wide array of species to be discovered. Contrary to popular belief, it is rather unlikely that the species that we find are that of kinds we read or watch shows about. In all likelihood, ‘aliens’ could be small bugs, or maybe tardigrade-like microscopic creatures. If we analyze this fact and compare it to the Voyager Golden Record, it is highly improbable that these beings would understand any of that. Therefore first contact should be a more universal message or something that species of intelligence both high and low can comprehend.

While we could examine these species by plugging them up to monitors and EEGs, we might radiate a feeling of hatred, which could cause the species to fear us which could inflict their fight or flight instinct. Instead, it would be better to show that we mean no harm. While this may seem rather straightforward, what we must factor in is communication. When the Earth itself has 7,117 languages, it is unlikely that aliens would speak English or any other language. This, in fact, is a cognitive bias of humans that can cloud our scientific thinking. It should be a better option to present a more universal greeting, such as showing them pictures drawn by primates on cave walls or petroglyphs and presenting them with drawings of human history in simple stick figures, right up to the point where the two intergalactic species met. This may prove to them that we have no intention of harming them. 

Therefore we can conclude that an ideal way of extraterrestrial communication would be to show them we mean no harm through the medium of cave paintings and stick figures which can show the new species (to us) how human history has progressed, and we can therefore convince the aliens that we are on their side.