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I sometimes wonder if the simplest answer for this is that nature / evolution obeys some principle of simultaneous discovery[0][1] and convergence. In which cas

I sometimes wonder if the simplest answer for this is that nature / evolution obeys some principle of simultaneous discovery[0][1] and convergence. In which case all advanced civilization may simply be on roughly the same timescales. In another words, it’s possible that all intelligent life is more or less at the same level of development, and this creates a situation where we only discover each other at the same time [0]: https://qz.com/emails/quartz-obsession/1482596/simultaneous-invention https://qz.com/emails/quartz-obsession/1482596/simultaneous-... [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution

0cf8612b2e1e 4y ago
That feels incredibly unlikely. The universe is billions of years old. There was nothing preventing an intelligence from developing on Earth a billion years earlier. That being said, our civilization got an enormous boon coming later in the history of the planet. Fossil fuels and the abundant energy economy would not be available without the right biologic circumstances (eg lignin metabolism developing late) and timing.