Even if intelligent life existed in a nearby galaxy, our civilization might be gone by the time a communication manages to go round trip. More realistically, wh

Even if intelligent life existed in a nearby galaxy, our civilization might be gone by the time a communication manages to go round trip. More realistically, what are the odds that civilizations in the universe occur near to each other in both space AND time? ie, perhaps an ancient civilization 1,000 light years away came and went 20,000 years ago? Or longer? There's no chance we'd sync up.