3 ms·
As much as I like the Drake equation, sometimes I think the big breakdown ought to be "life," "intelligent life," and "intelligent life that thinks communicatin
by at_a_remove 6y ago
As much as I like the Drake equation, sometimes I think the big breakdown ought to be "life," "intelligent life," and "intelligent life that thinks communicating with strangers is a good idea," wherein the third phase might be brief -- for one reason or another.
You have an array of hypothetical explanations for the Fermi paradox (mostly drawn from sci-fi. mostly.) to bounce off of all of these estimates and I confess a great curiosity as to which estimates and explanations are true, although it is unlikely that I will ever know.
Still, the silence has tilts me toward the more pessimistic explanations.
- ars 6y agoYou have a 4th level: A world with enough resources (energy) that high technology is actually possible. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25187100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25187100
- ClumsyPilot 6y agoThis is a good point, often forgotten: imagine if dolfins are infact as smart as humans / cavemen - can you prove otherwise? They can't write or develop technology because they live in water and have no hands.
- cheese_van 6y agoPerhaps the spontaneous auto assemblage of cell life, and from there, intelligent life is merely time dependent in an absolute sense? In that scenario, all sapient life in the universe evolved at the same time. When we develop the technology to discern communication attempts, so will they. And so will all the others. It will be a Cambrian explosion, simultaneously throughout the universe. Oh happy day!