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In a galaxy with millions of civilizations, it only takes one grabby species to result in colonization. So you don't have to be convinced that any given species
by tlb 6y ago
In a galaxy with millions of civilizations, it only takes one grabby species to result in colonization. So you don't have to be convinced that any given species will expand, just accept that some might.
Expansion is selected for in biological evolution, so it's fair to assume that most pre-civilization species are expanding on their planet. Perhaps some will have an epiphany and stop expanding as their society progresses, but you'd have to argue that that will almost surely happen to every species to refute grabbiness theory.
- qayxc 6y ago> So you don't have to be convinced that any given species will expand, just accept that some might. You'd have to accept the other assumptions that the authors make as well. One is that the grabby species is capable of travelling at a significant fraction of lightspeed. Another factor is unlimited lifetime of civilisations. > Expansion is selected for in biological evolution, so it's fair to assume that most pre-civilization species are expanding on their planet. Hm. I'm not sure that biology is the right angle to approach this. There are plenty of examples in human history (and even today) where expansion was not at all favoured by civilisations and human communities. Isolated tribes on islands and in rain forests are a counter-example, as well as isolationist phases of civilisations such as feudal Japan in the Edo period. To me the model is basically just another hypothesis based on the Spherical Cow.
- CryptoPunk 6y agoExpansion being selected for a basic truism of evolution, and not disproven by your examples.
- qayxc 6y agoThat still has nothing to do with Biology probably not being the right approach to use here. Evolution doesn't know or care about space travel. It's separate concerns entirely. One is a function of the environment and adapting to it, the other requires a sapient species to create and apply technology, which - judging from current observation - is neither a common, nor obvious result of evolution.
- staticman2 6y agoExpansion is only selected for in the evolutionary environment. In layman's anthropomorphic terms, your genes can want to expand on your home planet and say "hell no" when you find yourself in orbit. Your genes can want you to expand and express this as playing Star Trek explorer video games all day. In short, it's complicated.
- tlb 6y agoGenes can change behavior when you get into space. But you have to bet that, with millions of species getting to that point, not a single one will get any further. I don't know how anyone can have that level of certainty about such speculative things.