In the "old" days - the 1970s - Carl Sagan and others used to
say that finding an ETI would be wonderful, as it would be proof
that somebody knew how to survive their cultural and technological
adolescence - meaning they didn't blow themselves up in a nuclear
war.

Now what do we have? Oh, let's not find anybody, it'll be bad
for our egos.

Human egos have survived knowing they are not the center of
the Universe, mainly because they continue to ignore and forget
that fact.

Hopefully it won't be too late before our species wakes up and
realizes it is just part of a much larger system called the Milky
Way galaxy, which is just one of 100 billion or more galaxies in
a Universe that might be one of an infinitie number. These
facts apply even if we are the only ones around.

I wonder what Bostrom's real objective is with this statement?

I noticed that a number of "Transhumanists" and Singularity
supporters actually subscribe to the view that no one is out
there because we haven't been contacted yet. If these so-
called "forward thinkers" maintain this backwards attitude,
it will only harm the SETI projects.

Then again, most people think of transhumanists as geeks
anyway, so maybe there is hope after all.