The galactic 'belt of life'

A galactic anthropocentric principle is proposed according to which the terrestrial forms of life and civilization can arise only in galactic 'belts of life', i.e., in corotation tori. It is noted that this principle holds not only for the Milky Way but also for other spiral galaxies, and that the special position of the solar system in the corotation band of the Galaxy makes the proposed hypothesis especially appealing. Upper bounds to the possible number of technological civilizations in the framework of the proposed principle are calculated.