That's what's been under discussion, isn't it?
Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space
- Thread starter timtonruben359
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Something that we created. We could simply be wrong. There could just be a hump civilizations can't get over to explore the cosmos. Maybe there's a point where population, resources and desires all come into conflict and destroy them before they can make the leap.
I replied prior to reading through.
Well, the wonderful thing about paradoxes is that they describe two apparently contradictory things which are nonetheless both true. The Fermi paradox points out something odd; it doesn't draw the conclusion that one of its premises must therefore be wrong.
Well it has no values, that's sort of the point. It's showing how we could calculate the probability if we knew certain things, some of which we can estimate, and some we lack data for and address mostly with guesswork. The fundamental idea in the Drake Equation is sound and sort of a tautology, the issue is the quality of the data we plug in.
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The problem isn't just the size of the universe, but also the depth of time. The universe is nearly 14 billion years old, we've been around a minuscule fraction of that time and the universe will continue on for billions of more years, likely without us, before ultimately burning itself out.
I just can't wrap my mind around the idea of us being it.
I just can't wrap my mind around the idea of us being it.
Precisely!
I'd like to think that there is a vibrant, peaceful, intra-galactic union of civilizations out there and they view us as "mostly harmless."
This also provides a possible explanation for Fermi. If it takes a certain time for a planet capable of supporting intelligent life to both form and to evolve that intelligence, the available times for exploration is reduced. 14 billion years is only so much time - it may be that a billion or two more generate so many intelligent spacefaring civilisations we couldn't count them all in the night sky.
The First Ones (or an aggressive subset thereof) arise and destroy or enslave any competition. Therefore, we might well be the First Ones.
Life evolves randomly on a planet. I think it's well established, Given the time scale, it very likely that some civilizations would have appeared one billion years before our own., if there are so many of them. No matter how slow you think space colonization should go, one billion of years is more than enough to colonize the entire galaxy.
Wouldn't it be cool if we are the Ancient Astronauts of science fiction?
That would be the only solution that would give us hope to ever travel at FTL. It's unlikely, yet necessary.
That works under the assumption of exploration and colonization being a priority.
No need for priorities. Who colonized the US? A small fraction of Europeans, essentially the disenfranchised. Ever read that poem? The majority of people may remain sedentarized, it doesn't matter. It's the small minority of explorers that will conquer the galaxy.
Evolution is not random, again with the creationist arguments.
Well, that's rather dependent on travel times and how much they want to do it. Relentless expansion isn't necessarily a policy an advanced civilisation would take on. Plus, we do not know the lifetime of such a civilisation.
If they make it someplace that can support them, and they adapt there before the local viruses and bacteria kill them.
