4 ms·

I don't know if this is an original thought but it occurred to me that we might be in a cosmic proportioned "terrarium". What better way to keep an intelligent

I don't know if this is an original thought but it occurred to me that we might be in a cosmic proportioned "terrarium". What better way to keep an intelligent species from escaping than limiting the velocity of information transfer and putting everything interesting at distances that are large multiples of the maximum velocity. In other words, maybe the simulation architect doesn't want us to escape and find (contaminate) the other experiments? :)

simonh 5y ago
What better way to study an intelligent species behaviour that to put it in a dense rich easily traversed environment it could spread through and populate, generating lots of data.
- colordrops 5y ago
  We are the control group
pkdpic_y9k 5y ago
Totally original and excellent thought but just have to throw it out there... Three Body Problem... Liu Cixin is trying to tell us something...
Dumblydorr 5y ago
The fact that we exist as carbon based life forms makes it somewhat likely other life forms exist. We're made of the most common elements, whose signatures we observe in other stars. But in order to exist, we needed time for first and second generation stars to create heavier elements. So, space is only part of the limitation, time may be the more key reason we don't hear alien contact.
nly 5y ago
Seems a little inconvenient for the architect to have to account for all the laws of physics and allocate millions of cubic light years of space just for our tiny rock when they could just squish those of us that escape, or at least discover the true nature of our environment, like we would ants on a kitchen work top.
- notsureaboutpg 5y ago
  Isn't it what we would do as humans if we were designing this? I don't want to have to constantly monitor an experiment to kill any stragglers. Preventing the stragglers from ever getting to anything interesting is easier if you do it at the beginning, then you free up the time you would have been monitoring them. I realize all these concepts "easier" / "time" / "convenience" etc. don't apply in this hypothetical, but it's still fun to think about
- w0de0 5y ago
  Ants don't have a pernicious ability to build progressively better technology in an attempt to escape the kitchen work top and conquer the refrigerator. Or, rather, they do, in the sense that they are life and life has this tendency, at least in the one case study we have access to.
- Tabular-Iceberg 5y ago
  I don't know, I like to gently brush them into a dustpan and dump them back into their anthill. I can't explain why, but ants are some of my favourite animals.
  - aksss 5y ago
    What do you think happens to those ants, sir? Coming back with tales of being brought up in a flash of light, anally probed, seeing mosquitoes spontaneously exploded, giant ships transporting them to earth.. socially ostracized, is what. Made fun of on the front page of Ant Times.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
franek 5y ago
This is pretty similar to what is described in Stanisław Lem's "The New Cosmogony" (a work of fiction, included in the book "A Perfect Vacuum"). Only there the terrarium-like isolation of intelligent species is a self-imposed restriction: The earliest civilisations of the cosmos engineered the laws of physics that way.
deeviant 5y ago
It's a really common theme actually, almost a trope in sci fi.
Jiocus 5y ago
That's some serious security by isolation, not even Qubes OS comes close. In time, as the expansion of the universe accelerates fast enough, not even light will keep up to get across. Perfect total airgap.
hoseja 5y ago
Perception of time is relative. Not the universe's fault we live like mayflies.
Apofis 5y ago
Speed of Light does a pretty good job of creating a natural bubble. An advanced galactic society may have the knowledge and tech to detect patterns in solar systems that may produce life in the future and predict which star systems may have life. Is humanity even generating enough radio signals that may be even remotely possible to detect on Alpha Centauri (4.367 light years away)?

simonh 5y ago

What better way to study an intelligent species behaviour that to put it in a dense rich easily traversed environment it could spread through and populate, generating lots of data.

colordrops 5y ago
We are the control group

pkdpic_y9k 5y ago

Totally original and excellent thought but just have to throw it out there... Three Body Problem... Liu Cixin is trying to tell us something...

Dumblydorr 5y ago

The fact that we exist as carbon based life forms makes it somewhat likely other life forms exist. We're made of the most common elements, whose signatures we observe in other stars. But in order to exist, we needed time for first and second generation stars to create heavier elements. So, space is only part of the limitation, time may be the more key reason we don't hear alien contact.

nly 5y ago

Seems a little inconvenient for the architect to have to account for all the laws of physics and allocate millions of cubic light years of space just for our tiny rock when they could just squish those of us that escape, or at least discover the true nature of our environment, like we would ants on a kitchen work top.

notsureaboutpg 5y ago
Isn't it what we would do as humans if we were designing this? I don't want to have to constantly monitor an experiment to kill any stragglers. Preventing the stragglers from ever getting to anything interesting is easier if you do it at the beginning, then you free up the time you would have been monitoring them. I realize all these concepts "easier" / "time" / "convenience" etc. don't apply in this hypothetical, but it's still fun to think about
w0de0 5y ago
Ants don't have a pernicious ability to build progressively better technology in an attempt to escape the kitchen work top and conquer the refrigerator. Or, rather, they do, in the sense that they are life and life has this tendency, at least in the one case study we have access to.
Tabular-Iceberg 5y ago
I don't know, I like to gently brush them into a dustpan and dump them back into their anthill. I can't explain why, but ants are some of my favourite animals.
- aksss 5y ago
  What do you think happens to those ants, sir? Coming back with tales of being brought up in a flash of light, anally probed, seeing mosquitoes spontaneously exploded, giant ships transporting them to earth.. socially ostracized, is what. Made fun of on the front page of Ant Times.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

franek 5y ago

This is pretty similar to what is described in Stanisław Lem's "The New Cosmogony" (a work of fiction, included in the book "A Perfect Vacuum"). Only there the terrarium-like isolation of intelligent species is a self-imposed restriction: The earliest civilisations of the cosmos engineered the laws of physics that way.

deeviant 5y ago

It's a really common theme actually, almost a trope in sci fi.

Jiocus 5y ago

That's some serious security by isolation, not even Qubes OS comes close. In time, as the expansion of the universe accelerates fast enough, not even light will keep up to get across. Perfect total airgap.

hoseja 5y ago

Perception of time is relative. Not the universe's fault we live like mayflies.

Apofis 5y ago

Speed of Light does a pretty good job of creating a natural bubble. An advanced galactic society may have the knowledge and tech to detect patterns in solar systems that may produce life in the future and predict which star systems may have life. Is humanity even generating enough radio signals that may be even remotely possible to detect on Alpha Centauri (4.367 light years away)?