As I was skimming my Feedly news feed today, I came across an article describing a new study that says, if intelligent alien life exists, we should have made contact with them at some point within the next 1,500 years.
Turns out, even that article points out that the study ignores some pretty big factors (and has yet to be peer-reviewed or anything), so it's basically bogus. But it sparked an interesting dialog in the comments.
Specifically, it ended up reminding me of a video in which Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses a thought exercise about the nature of a hypothetical (intelligent) alien race. In his words, the concept is "a fascinatingly disturbing thought."
b.t.dubs - I have the video set to start at the exact point he starts discussing the concept I'm referencing, but the entire video is a pretty interesting listen, if you feel so inclined.