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It's addressed in the article: it takes a long time for complex life to arise, so we are among - or the - first.
by hyperpallium 8y ago
It's addressed in the article: it takes a long time for complex life to arise, so we are among - or the - first.
- m_mueller 8y agoThat's the optimistic interpretation. Pessimistic: There's one or more great filters.
- hyperpallium 8y agoNo. Assuming this specific paper's thesis, that is the conclusion. There exist other arguments not based on this specific paper's thesis. Of those, I find plausible the observation that as we tame the world to suit us, we shrink. Cities, civilization, supermarkets, products, TV, internet. By this trend, we'll live in dream terranes before long. (BTW as people get richer, reproduction gets less). But we'll need power, and eventually a dyson sphere to capture all the sun's light - perfect for an inward-looking, closed-off people! Then what, I'm not sure. Perhaps long before that, we won't need other suns; we'll have artificial suns (controlled fusion). That's what happens to everyone else: as they grow in technological sophistication, they get better and better at directly meeting their own (previously evolved) needs.
- ekianjo 8y agoany evidence to support that extraordinary claim?