just a speculation, we have to consider climate condition, evolution purpose and brain devolopment.

imho, humanlike intelligent lifeform is very unlikely; there will be "alien" microorganism and parasite that has evolved to withstand extreme climate, but extreme climate force the lifeform to evolve focus more their durability and strength and survival which take tolls at it's complex brain devolopment.

like now we use more of our brain with science, we will evolve into smarter lifeform in the next thousands of years, at the same time we're not using our phsycial strength because we use science to solve it, we will evolve physically weaker as well.

if that alien lives at barren land, their evolution will focus on their durability and strength for survival, their brain are rarely used to solve problem using simple science, their brain will not develop as complex as we are.

we will evolve physically weaker in thousand or million years to come if we depend on science to solve our problem because we're not doing as much physical activities as we did in the past.

just look at the apes that did not use twigs to light up fire to keep them warm in the jungle they climb trees and all that, they are physically stronger than human and they have fur to keep them warm, and those ape don't have to use 2 twigs to create fire, and they don't need much brain power to survive, and they depend more on their physical strength (climb trees to avoid predators) and durability (fur to keep them warm), therefore their brain development were not as fast as us human.

and if the aliens are living at barren place, they will evolve to have skin that withstand extreme cold or heat, and will not have enough tools for them to use their brain since ...it's barren, there will not be enough tools for brainy lifeform to survive, they will be killed by physically stronger lifeform.

This post has been edited by sarcasm: Apr 25 2010, 10:13 PM

i only see fear of the unknown