3 ms·
This might explain "Fermi's paradox". It seems like all the models of extraterrestrial life being visible rest on the assumption that this life would be the pr
by joe_the_user 7y ago
This might explain "Fermi's paradox".
It seems like all the models of extraterrestrial life being visible rest on the assumption that this life would be the product of the equivalent our present rate of growth continuing and quickly reaching cosmic scales. If that's basically impossible and intelligent life that survives is living sustainably, then we wouldn't have star-enfolding Dyson spheres and similar things that are detectable at cosmic distances.
- joe_the_user 7y agoOr, another possibility is that the sustainability of continuous short-term exponential growth varies from location to location but it's not going to be infinitely sustainable anywhere. Thus we might see blips but we won't see a "colonized galaxy". IE, the societies that keep up exponential growth to a cosmic scale probably still won't have solved the problem of indefinite exponential growth. We know the ways that, on Earth, the increase in human knowledge and productive produces unintended consequences with significant chances of destroying us. We don't yet know similar mechanism in space but it seems quite plausible these would exist. Dyson spheres aren't even gravitationally stable (see Larry Niven's Ring World series).