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My favorite solution to the Fermi Paradox is that star-shaped gravity wells are difficult neighborhoods for anything that needs to exchange huge amounts of data
by dsign 4y ago
My favorite solution to the Fermi Paradox is that star-shaped gravity wells are difficult neighborhoods for anything that needs to exchange huge amounts of data. Think about it: electromagnetic data-beans degrade with distance, so one must use relays. Relays in a gravity well must keep moving in orbits. And, well, stars are noisy and hot. With sufficient technology, a civilization is more interested in reliable data-transmissions and compute, which can be generally easier to achieve in interstellar space (which also happens to have enough "cold" matter in the form of wandering planets and planetoids).
There can be a huge number of civilizations gravitating around a star, just as we do. But any bigger civilization, bigger than their mother star, may soon find the interstellar space more comfy and remain there, beaming directional messages (and consciousness units, a.k.a souls) between cold outposts in interstellar space.
- oneoff786 4y agoBut why don’t they have some dude that checks out galaxies because he can?
- throwaway4aday 4y agoI would assume they still have some form of laws and regulations some subset of which would apply to wantonly contacting primitive societies.
- adrianN 4y agoBut what's their energy source?
- layer8 4y agoVacuum energy, obviously. ;)
- pmontra 4y agoYeah, asking those questions is inevitable but what answer would a Newton give back in the day if asked how to go to the moon? It's our turn now and anything would go, from fusion to antimatter, from dark matter to dark energy. Vacuum energy, I'm sure there is at least a scifi story about it as energy source. Edit: that was easy, the Zero Point Module in Stargate SG9 https://en.stargatewiki.com/index.php/Zero_Point_Module https://en.stargatewiki.com/index.php/Zero_Point_Module
- bayesian_horse 4y agoFusion, probably. They have to find enough fuel in interstellar space, but theoretically it's possible. The bigger question is why you would want to exist in an entirely artificial environment far from any star, even if it makes information interchange and computation more efficient.
- dsign 4y agoYou can have artificial habitats which are almost in any way better than a planet. Even bigger, by a few orders of magnitude, if that's your metric. Maybe that's not something that will be readily available to you during your first millennia in space, but we are talking about larger timescales. The bigger question is if something that old will want to be bare-organic (as in running in actual wetware), or "virtualized". If the former, bigger, fancy habitats will be wanted. If the later, big and efficient datacenters will be more important. If they are as "we-want-morrrrrrr-choice" as we are, they are going to want a mixture of both.
- wing-_-nuts 4y agoI have to say, I never understood the huge emphasis on colonizing worlds outside our solar system. My pet theory is that by the time we are capable of such a thing (and thus, capable of making spaceships that can sustain human life for the duration of the trip), I'd argue we've become a space native species who are very much used to living our lives on ships. I'm not saying colonization wouldn't happen, but it'd be the thrill seekers looking for something new.
- bayesian_horse 4y agoI think it would be driven by curiosity, but once you colonize another star system, it's a fully fledged civilization without meaningful contact to the mother system. Including to visit the next star system.
- thriftwy 4y agoIt's also quite easy to space travel outside of gravity well. Just take any piece of ice, drill yourself inside it and use thick ice walls as shelter. Mount some engines. If you're used to living in such environment you can be having a normal life while going around in it. Fusion as power source, likely. Earth civilization is wondering why it can't see or hear anyone while almost literally living inside a beacon.