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This is not my understanding of the Fermi Paradox and I've never heard this interpretation before. The paradox is; given the Drake equation, where is everyone?
by sjclemmy 11y ago
This is not my understanding of the Fermi Paradox and I've never heard this interpretation before. The paradox is; given the Drake equation, where is everyone? That's all it amounts to, hence the paradox. The author of the article states the paradox differently, that, because we can't see any evidence, we shouldn't look. That is not the Fermi Paradox.
One of my favourite responses involves cryptography:
Given a sufficiently advanced civilisation, one might imagine that their ability to encrypt information is perfect, therefore any signal is indistinguishable from noise.
- Symmetry 11y agoNo need for encryption. Sufficiently advanced compression will give signals apparently perfect entropy.
- krapp 11y agoWe don't even know how accurate the Drake Equation is - many of the variables are just filled with guesswork. As such, we can't even know whether the "Fermi Paradox" is a paradox or an artifact of our own anthropocentric ignorance.
- rumcajz 11y agoSee Stanislaw Lem: His Master's Voice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice_(novel)
- sjclemmy 11y agoThat's been recommended to me before, but I'd forgotten about it - I shall act this time. Thanks! I started to read Solaris, but found the translation stilted and difficult, so gave up. I've just read that Lem himself didn't like the Rnglish translation! It's unlikely I'll be learning Polish this lifetime.