4 ms·
4. Or they haven't developed yet, or, they died out 50,000 years ago. The Universe is a big place. It's taken us billions of years to reach this point where we
by ahje 8y ago
4. Or they haven't developed yet, or, they died out 50,000 years ago.
The Universe is a big place. It's taken us billions of years to reach this point where we're on the brink of becoming a multi-planterary species, and frankly, I'm still not 100% convinced we'll make it.
Depending on how much life there is in the Universe, and how effective The Great Filter is, the amount of civilizations reaching an advanced stage may simply be so low that the odds of two of them being within communication range of each other, while being at a suitable tech level, may be very low.
- state_less 8y agoThey haven't developed yet seems possible. Someone will be first, however unlikely it seems to them. As scary as the great filter and dyeing out is, life is pretty durable. Even if we kill ourselves, some organism will probably slither out from under a rock after the ash settles and start afresh. There seems to be a selection force that works against aggressive forms of life becoming too powerful. If your both belligerent and powerful, you have a chance of shooting yourself (your species) in the foot. So it appears that any sufficiently advanced civilization would be pretty benevolent and that this might be a necessary condition to advancing.
- ahje 8y agoIf we fail, there's still a chance that another intelligent species manage to develop on Earth before the planet becomes inhabitable for whatever reason. That doesn't help us, although it does raise a few other questions, like "How do we preserve knowledge for the future?".