Humans are tiny components of an overwhelming and forbidding universe, most of which is inhospitable to life. The search for meaning is a feature of all cultures and civilizations through history. The talk places humanity in the larger context of evolution of Earth, and the potential for life on hundreds of millions of habitable planets in just the Milky Way galaxy. The broad boundaries of life on Earth suggest that life elsewhere might be unusual, perhaps even stranger than we can imagine. In a universe filled with potential biological experiments, some might have advanced far beyond our current state of development, with important implications for our self-image and spiritual perspective. As Buckminster Fuller said, either we are alone in the universe or not; either way, the implications are staggering. Finding if there is life beyond the Earth is a scientific question that will likely be answered in the next few decades.