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A possible solution to the Fermi Paradox is that advanced civilizations are not actually interested in colonization. Rather, they had already freed themselves

A possible solution to the Fermi Paradox is that advanced civilizations are not actually interested in colonization. Rather, they had already freed themselves from the chains of their physical bodies and "live" in virtual worlds that are generated by a super AI.

automatic6131 4y ago
Uncompelling, by nature of the Fermi Paradox, this requires that 100% of civilisations take the option to live in virtual worlds.
- pavlov 4y ago
  More precisely, 100% of civilizations that survive would take this option. Maybe there's a reason why everybody else ends up killing themselves.
- YurgenJurgensen 4y ago
  It's even further than this: That 100% of all members or sub-factions of 100% of civilisations choose to do this (or that 100% of civilisations force all their members to do so even if they don't want it, and that that scenario doesn't escalate into a war that decimates a million worlds and all-but exhausts the resources of a galaxy). If you have the technology for civilisation-scale virtual worlds, you have the technology for von-Neumann probes, and it only takes one to start an expanding sphere of space colonialism.
- Protostome 4y ago
  That's true, but: 1. From a technological standpoint (although this is just from one data point) the concept of living in virtual generated worlds would come eons before a civilization would be capable of interstellar travel. We vastly underestimate the engineering challenges of sending a human safely across light years of space. 2. Interstellar colonization doesn't require a civilization. Bacteria-like creatures can "travel" on pieces of meteors and colonize all the galaxy, this is a much more plausible scenario, given the nature of interstellar travel, and one that is relatively easy to find supporting evidence for. Therefore, I would expect us to find that those kind of examples vastly outnumber civilization based colonies.
whizzter 4y ago
The question is, wouldn't that be a great filter? Because a settled civilization has an firm end date with the star it started at (unless it allowed for migration of the AI but then it's a colonizing one again).

automatic6131 4y ago

Uncompelling, by nature of the Fermi Paradox, this requires that 100% of civilisations take the option to live in virtual worlds.

pavlov 4y ago
More precisely, 100% of civilizations that survive would take this option. Maybe there's a reason why everybody else ends up killing themselves.
YurgenJurgensen 4y ago
It's even further than this: That 100% of all members or sub-factions of 100% of civilisations choose to do this (or that 100% of civilisations force all their members to do so even if they don't want it, and that that scenario doesn't escalate into a war that decimates a million worlds and all-but exhausts the resources of a galaxy). If you have the technology for civilisation-scale virtual worlds, you have the technology for von-Neumann probes, and it only takes one to start an expanding sphere of space colonialism.
Protostome 4y ago
That's true, but: 1. From a technological standpoint (although this is just from one data point) the concept of living in virtual generated worlds would come eons before a civilization would be capable of interstellar travel. We vastly underestimate the engineering challenges of sending a human safely across light years of space. 2. Interstellar colonization doesn't require a civilization. Bacteria-like creatures can "travel" on pieces of meteors and colonize all the galaxy, this is a much more plausible scenario, given the nature of interstellar travel, and one that is relatively easy to find supporting evidence for. Therefore, I would expect us to find that those kind of examples vastly outnumber civilization based colonies.

whizzter 4y ago

The question is, wouldn't that be a great filter? Because a settled civilization has an firm end date with the star it started at (unless it allowed for migration of the AI but then it's a colonizing one again).