Possibility of extra terrestrial life?

Sometimes I wonder if the possibility of extra-terrestrial life is a ridiculous and ludicrous topic to talk about. But then as I type I look out the window to the stars and the evidence seems to be glaringly obvious.

Not because it is glaringly obvious... But because I had to debate this exact same topic at school when I was 15 years old. I thought yes here's my chance my mate is going to get for and I'll get against. This will be a walk in the park. How easy will it be to prove that alien's don't exist seeming as we have no proof of aliens or any alien life... right?

Alas, unfortunately I was given the for - to debate that aliens do exist. I thought this was absolutely absurd. But nonetheless I began my quest for finding out what the probabilities would be after looking into NASA, SETI and similar space programs. I ended up talking about mathematical probabilities to such a degree that it was basically impossible to argue against this indirect evidence. So I actually ended up winning the debate by a huge margin. My mate was stunned.

I suppose that is one of the big reasons why I'm delving into this science fiction arena because we really just don't know what we don't know. It also seems as though a lot of the things science fiction writers write about somehow manages to peek it's way into reality. I wonder sometimes if it's because they already know what technology is available and they extrapolate from there or if we are heavily influenced by their ideas and fantasies?

I mean in just one instance think of Star Trek. Teleportation. According to Nature.com referred to by Wikipedia "presently, the record distance for quantum teleportation is 143km".

Even if we step back a notch just think of some of the technological advancements that have taken place in the world to date - mobile phones, the internet, computers, electricity, light, landing on the moon, a robot on Mars, being able to see our world through the 'eyes' of satellites, the car, robots; the list goes on and on and on. If you look to great magazines like New Scientist the amount of scientific discoveries seems endless.

What would happen if we discovered some form of alien life? You know as ridiculous as this question seems it was actually on the agenda of the World Economic Forum in 2013 according to the Huffington Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/alien-life-discovery-implications_n_2568280.html. And confirmed by looking at http://www.weforum.org/sessions/summary/x-factors-preparing-unknown.

Considering the advancement of technology and the current rate of space exploration it may not be as far away as what one might first have thought. Star Wars, ET, and other so called fictions may have a little bit of non-fiction to their agendas. I mean before the 1950s how many people would've guessed that it was possible to land a man on the moon?

The book is coming along well.

Have a fantastic day!

James