IANAeB but people in the future will remember this era in ET life research as the stupid-era, comparable to when we used to think the sun revolved around the earth, because we are actually looking for life AS IF the only possible way for life to exists in an Earth-like environment. I mean, they have to have the same DNA composition as us, the have to be in a earth-like planet, they need oxygen and and atmosphere which is tolerable for US. Theres not an only set of predefined conditions (based in the only ones we know, ours) that make life possible, it's so simple that always have puzzled me why scientist concentrate the research in earth like environments instead of create alternative environments in our labs, here, with different mixes of the basic soup, and different atmospheric conditions.
"we are the only know (intelligent) form of life around, so, any other form of life should be like us" Where this obviously narrows the research a lot it is a short sighted approach.
Scientist will probably be SHOCKED when we make first contact and find that ETs don't actually think the Beatles sound good, that they don't have "politics", or that they find our gastronomic preferences an insult to the "Galactic Convention of Life Rights" but what do I know, I'm from the marketing dept, I'm just slacking around here :)
