Space Exploration and the Search for Life Beyond Earth

Is there intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? It seems unlikely that Earth's inhabitants are the only ones. Those who claim to have witnessed UFOs and alien life are often dismissed as crackpots, yet the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has been conducted by scientists ever since technological advancements allowed for it. The viewpoints in this resource explore what it would mean on a practical level to find other intelligent life forms, how important space exploration is in general, whether governments or private enterprise should fund such searches, and other relevant issues.