Something just occurred to me on the topic of extraterrestrial life. I am not a believer until I witness something first-hand or from an extremely reliable source.

The masses and the vast majority of people expect extraterrestrial life to be in the form of something very or radically different to how we look ourselves.

Here's my thought; isn't it a possibility that another colony of humans could exist on a planet with near identical conditions to Earth? This possibility leads to another thought, though. If this is true, then that means the planet may have been created at a different time to Earth, which would mean it could effectively exist as a parallel to our world, except set in a setting similar to our past or as a more advanced species than us.

Anyway, just a thought.

It's an interesting thought. I believe it is entirely possible that there are worlds in the cosmos that have civilizations similar to our own which are many millions of years ahead of ours.

Thats an interesting thought actaully.

If there was worlds that were millions of years ahead of our own they would have the technology to comunicate.
Because there has been no comunication suggests either that there isnt planets more advanced or that they dont wish for us to know of their excistence.
The odds are likely that there is planets that are so far advanced beyond our imagination so i beleive the latter.

The core of your idea is interesting. Maybe I can give you more to think about.

there is some consideration for a concept very much like yours. As a reader of sci-fi I am familiar with it. It wonders that, if other life evolved, it did so on planets with conditions very similar to this one.

Those life forms would also be similar to us in certain ways. They would be approximately the same size, within a specific range, because this is the ideal size for the manipulation of fire.

Those lifeforms would be land adapted and likely have evolved from something living in water because water is much more conducive to primitive life and the ability to control fire is a paradigm shift from primitive land life to primitive technology. We have no evidence that the intelligent species in our oceans can evolve any further if they stay there. They may have complex social structures, communication etc but they cannot develop technology without fire.

Non-earth species will have a minimum of four appendages and probably more. At least one pair of these appendages will be used to manipulate things.

like us they will likely be some kind of highly adaptable omnivore

they will have some kind of skeletal structure whether natural or artificial

there are many more factors in this idea and it is highly entertaining to think about. I recommend "Calculating God" by Robert J. Sawyer, Tor books, 2000. The author won a Nebula award for it. It's thought provoking on many levels, humorous and hopeful.
I hope you enjoy.

thanks
Dawn