Doctrina Ultra

This brings us to Doctrina Ultra, Latin for “Doctrine of Beyond.” At its core, this is a logical chain of inference grounded in what we already know about reality and the universe: it is reasonable to assume that any observed phenomenon likely has existed or will exist on more occasions than it has been observed.

This may sound like a simple or even obvious idea -- and in many ways, it is. Once we know that something has occurred at least once, asserting that it could only have occurred once requires a much stronger claim. It demands that we accept a thing’s existence while simultaneously denying the possibility that the conditions that allowed it to exist can occur.

To clarify, Doctrina Ultra does not mean that there are more intelligent life forms in the universe than those found on Earth. Rather, it means that we should logically presume that there has been, is currently, or will eventually be more intelligent life forms than just us.

Doctrina Ultra

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