Mr. Science: At UnderGroundOnline, John Byrne tackles the extraterrestrial question. What extraterrestrial question, you ask?

"Let's imagine, for the sake of discussion, that there is an alien civilization on a planet circling Proxima Centauri, which for the sake of easy math we will say is 4 light years from Earth. Let us further assume that civilization is at exactly the same level of technological development as we find in the most advanced countries on Earth today. Us, for instance.

"We began announcing ourselves to the Universe, via radio waves, about 100 years ago. About 50 years ago we started listening, to see if we could hear anyone else doing the same thing. So far, no certain contacts have been made, so our hypothetical civilization on that Proxima planet -- let's call it Proxima IV -- is not likely, since it would be screaming at us at the top of its lungs, being that close. Even against all the background noise of the Universe, we would easily detect their version of Will & Grace beaming our way."

Yeah, I don't know either.