The nature of humankind

A friend sent me this quote from the American George Carlin:

“If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.”

I responded to my friend:

“As I guess you would expect, I have lots of problems with this quote – principally that ‘the universe’ is not a rational being with motivations and intentions, we have no idea if we are the only (intelligent) species in the universe (there are millions of other species here on earth) and, even if we are, humankind is a magnificent species that has achieved so much and can achieve so much more. But then George Carlin is a comedian, so I guess he is joking.”

What do you think?