4 ms·

The most useful hypothesis: we are the first, and the galaxy is ours for taking. Now let's get back to work.

• ballstothewalls 15y ago
  This is completely legitimate, right? There must be a most advanced civilization. Why can't we be it?
  • eru 15y ago
    Yes, that's possible. It just goes against the Copernican Principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernican_principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernican_principle), and that's why many people are not happy with that explanation.
    • swah 15y ago
      So a more advanced civilization would have a better spot in the Universe? I don't get your point.
    • rbanffy 15y ago
      Well... Someone always wins the lottery. You can also twist it around: if we were the first ones, what would we see? One can also imagine the window between the dawn of technology and becoming undetectable is short enough the odds of finding a peer are very small.
    • bluekeybox 15y ago
      There's also Anthropic Principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle) which states pretty much the opposite to what the Copernican says.