3 ms·
What seems chilling to me is that there is a sort of terrestrial Fermi Paradox where given the amount of time Earth has existed relative to how long humans have
by xwdv 3y ago
What seems chilling to me is that there is a sort of terrestrial Fermi Paradox where given the amount of time Earth has existed relative to how long humans have existed, you should expect there to have been sentient non-human civilizations existing prior to our emergence. If life and technology are so easy, living in a world where previous civilized species have once lived should be the norm. And yet, we have found no such evidence.
The probability is so low that we are the first true industrial civilization to have been on this planet’s 4.5 billion years, yet here we are.
- yreg 3y agoThe scale is different, since obviously there have been far fewer dice rolls for spawning a civilization on Earth than galaxy-wide. Anyway, I would bet that the 'terrestrial great filter' is evolutionary selection for large brains. Big brain costs a lot of energy and makes birth difficult to the point that humans have to be born prematurely and are as newborns utterly incompetent compared to other animals. And marginally better brain gives very little advantage to gene spreading.