I can't help but wonder if astronomers have already pointed their telescopes at distant planets that are harboring life but not at the time in which we are seeing it. If we see some planet 100,000 light years away how do we know that life hasn't developed 90,000 years ago then? Even if we somehow do manage to find other life we would be viewing that life in a much more primitive form then it is currently. Is it a hopeless search?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlikCebQSlY

Watched this yesterday and it felt very inspiring.

Really you could just change the thread to read "Is the search for anything in the universe futile" and the same question still applies. It must be pretty disappointing to know you're looking at something that might not even exist anymore.

Yes. Space is incomprehensibly big. Chances of finding something are next to none.

And of course the thing that speed of light, is ridiculously low on cosmic scale. Everything seen on the sky is history, the further away, the more ancient. Even the Sun is seen 8 minutes ago.