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Description
Final page of a comic I worked on earlier this year following life's evolution on another planet. After several hundred thousand years of trials and tribulations, the sophont race, "Glaciasapiens", have finally began reaching out to explore other solar systems. Among the various proposed and experimental methods of space exploration, one of the most common is the uploading on the mind into a hardy robotic body. Using this technique, a survey team has settled in orbit around a newly discovered life-supporting planet. Its gravity is higher then their ancestral home, but their mechanical bodies render this a non-issue. Among the landing party is the team's exopaleontologist. Luck is with him as he lands within a dried riverbed of sandstone strata and soon strikes upon a fossil with help from software sensors. It appears to be a lower mandible with teeth suggesting a generalist diet, though the jaw itself is relatively weak in comparison with other known types of native animals. The exopaleontologist's trained eye is quick to classify it as belonging to a new genus of fossil mammals once known as "primates". Without the rest of the skeleton, the creature's exact life appearance can only be guessed at, but is assumed to be similar to other, more complete known relatives. All in all, a fine day's discovery...

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With this series, I'm also pointing out how significant time is to the probability of extraterrestrial civilizations coming into contact. Even if millions of civilizations arise within a single galaxy, there is simply currently no known way to really know the average lifespan of a civilization. For now, all we can do is speculate. Even if a civilization lasts a few millions years on average, that's still an incredibly short time in cosmic terms. So the chances of two civilizations not only being near enough to sense each other's presence, but also existing around the same time could potentially be a big factor in whether or not our civilization may ever get in contact with another in real life.

Description
Final page of a comic I worked on earlier this year following life's evolution on another planet. After several hundred thousand years of trials and tribulations, the sophont race, "Glaciasapiens", have finally began reaching out to explore other solar systems. Among the various proposed and experimental methods of space exploration, one of the most common is the uploading on the mind into a hardy robotic body. Using this technique, a survey team has settled in orbit around a newly discovered life-supporting planet. Its gravity is higher then their ancestral home, but their mechanical bodies render this a non-issue. Among the landing party is the team's exopaleontologist. Luck is with him as he lands within a dried riverbed of sandstone strata and soon strikes upon a fossil with help from software sensors. It appears to be a lower mandible with teeth suggesting a generalist diet, though the jaw itself is relatively weak in comparison with other known types of native animals. The exopaleontologist's trained eye is quick to classify it as belonging to a new genus of fossil mammals once known as "primates". Without the rest of the skeleton, the creature's exact life appearance can only be guessed at, but is assumed to be similar to other, more complete known relatives. All in all, a fine day's discovery...

----------
With this series, I'm also pointing out how significant time is to the probability of extraterrestrial civilizations coming into contact. Even if millions of civilizations arise within a single galaxy, there is simply currently no known way to really know the average lifespan of a civilization. For now, all we can do is speculate. Even if a civilization lasts a few millions years on average, that's still an incredibly short time in cosmic terms. So the chances of two civilizations not only being near enough to sense each other's presence, but also existing around the same time could potentially be a big factor in whether or not our civilization may ever get in contact with another in real life.