Physics and Astronomy Colloquium

Could there be intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? Hundreds of billions of planets may be scattered throughout the vast starfields of the Milky Way. How many of these other worlds sport life able to send messages into space, or perhaps to travel between the stars?
In the next two decades, a radically new instrument, the Allen Telescope Array, will sensitively scrutinize the vicinities of hundreds of thousands, and eventually millions of stars, looking for a faint radio signal that would betray intelligent beings elsewhere. In addition researchers are using conventional optical telescopes to search for pulsed laser light from other worlds, a sure sign of another society.
Will these efforts lead to success? Can Nature be expected to readily cook up interesting biology on other planets? Even if alien life is common, is any of it intelligent? And finally suppose SETI finds a faint signal from a distant civilization: what then? World peace? Rioting in the streets? Would we be privy to the secrets of the ages? Or would discovery of cosmic company be the ultimate in ego deflation, proving that we are but small fry in heaven’s vast ocean?