French Grammar & Practice

We may be only one of millions of advanced civilizations. Unfortunately, space being spacious, the average distance between any two of these civilizations is reckoned to be at least two hundred light-years, which is a great deal more than merely saying it makes it sound. It means for a start that even if these beings know we are here and are somehow able to see us in their telescopes, theyБЂ™re watching light that left Earth two hundred years ago. So theyБЂ™re not seeing you and me. TheyБЂ™re watching the French Revolution and Thomas Jefferson and people in silk stockings and powdered wigs-people who donБЂ™t know what an atom is, or a gene, and who make their electricity by rubbing a rod of amber with a piece of fur and think thatБЂ™s quite a trick. Any message we receive from them is likely to begin БЂњDear Sire,БЂ«and congratulate us on the handsomeness of our horses and our mastery of whale oil. Two hundred light-years is a distance so far beyond us as to be, well, just beyond us. So even if we are not really alone, in all practical terms we are ...»