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Imagine Earth has the only living things in the knowable universe. And then it all dies, for some reason. To me that seems like a waste of a perfectly good univ

Imagine Earth has the only living things in the knowable universe. And then it all dies, for some reason. To me that seems like a waste of a perfectly good universe. A universe without a conscious observer seems kind of pointless to me.

metadat 4y ago
Planet Earth being the only place containing intelligent life in the entire universe is extremely unlikely, statistically speaking.
- dinkumthinkum 4y ago
  You don’t have reference for that. You have no experience of any other universes and no other examples in this one.
  - metadat 4y ago
    See the drake equation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-many-aliens-are-in-the-milky-way-astronomers-turn-to-statistics-for-answers/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-many-aliens-a...
    - dinkumthinkum 4y ago
      The Drake equation is not a serious thing.
      - metadat 4y ago
        Please elaborate, this is crossing over into strangely absurd territory. What model are you using to reason about and evaluate the question of life throughout the Universe? Or, what makes Earth such a special environment that there could only ever be one such place, and no other planets also meeting similar criteria supportive of life? There are nearly innumerable other chances for this to exist throughout the vastness of the Universe. Our human brains can't truly grasp the scale, it's far beyond what we encounter in day to day life. I'll take those odds.
        dinkumthinkum 4y ago
        It is well known that the Drake Equation is not a serious thing. The history of it was that it was basically a conversation starter. There may be documentaries that likened it to something more solid like Standard Model, but that’s not the case. It’s a hurried back of the envelope pop-culture math-y thing that is full of vague uncertainties. We have a non-random sample of one. How can you estimate anything based on that? You can look this up; the Drake Equation is not considered something really serious, downvotes aside.
- dmytrish 4y ago
  We only have a single data point in the entire observable universe so far. It's not enough to talk about any meaningful statistics.
frontman1988 4y ago
what even is humanity's point? Consciousness is quite the curse. Existence is itself absurd. No human being present would mean no existential dread atleast.
jemmyw 4y ago
Why does it need to have a point? You and I will die, humanity will one day end and later so will the universe, so there isn't really any point to anything.

metadat 4y ago

Planet Earth being the only place containing intelligent life in the entire universe is extremely unlikely, statistically speaking.

dinkumthinkum 4y ago
You don’t have reference for that. You have no experience of any other universes and no other examples in this one.
- metadat 4y ago
  See the drake equation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-many-aliens-are-in-the-milky-way-astronomers-turn-to-statistics-for-answers/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-many-aliens-a...
  - dinkumthinkum 4y ago
    The Drake equation is not a serious thing.
    - metadat 4y ago
      Please elaborate, this is crossing over into strangely absurd territory. What model are you using to reason about and evaluate the question of life throughout the Universe? Or, what makes Earth such a special environment that there could only ever be one such place, and no other planets also meeting similar criteria supportive of life? There are nearly innumerable other chances for this to exist throughout the vastness of the Universe. Our human brains can't truly grasp the scale, it's far beyond what we encounter in day to day life. I'll take those odds.
      - dinkumthinkum 4y ago
        It is well known that the Drake Equation is not a serious thing. The history of it was that it was basically a conversation starter. There may be documentaries that likened it to something more solid like Standard Model, but that’s not the case. It’s a hurried back of the envelope pop-culture math-y thing that is full of vague uncertainties. We have a non-random sample of one. How can you estimate anything based on that? You can look this up; the Drake Equation is not considered something really serious, downvotes aside.
dmytrish 4y ago
We only have a single data point in the entire observable universe so far. It's not enough to talk about any meaningful statistics.

frontman1988 4y ago

what even is humanity's point? Consciousness is quite the curse. Existence is itself absurd. No human being present would mean no existential dread atleast.

jemmyw 4y ago

Why does it need to have a point? You and I will die, humanity will one day end and later so will the universe, so there isn't really any point to anything.