The Search (for Intelligent Life)

Image by thebadastronomer via Flickr

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like we may be overly restrictive in the types of intelligence and even life that we might find out in the universe.  I cannot say that I understand the rationale for expecting other life and other intelligence to resemble ours so closely.

Is it impossible for some other form of life to be based on something other than water and carbon?  And I think I once read a good argument that advanced communication would be of the "spread-spectrum" variety and be very difficult to distinguish from noise.

On the other hand, I would personally love to see what the oceans (or other water) might look like on Enceladus, Europa, and/or Titan.  But I can't help but wonder what environments we might not pay enough attention to simply because it does not closely resemble what we know.

xkcd - A Webcomic - The Search