4 ms·

Regarding the Fermi paradox: one of the civilization has to be the most advanced and has to be so intelligent that it obviously knows the Fermi paradox ("probab

Regarding the Fermi paradox: one of the civilization has to be the most advanced and has to be so intelligent that it obviously knows the Fermi paradox ("probably" under another "name" ; ) all too well. Must s*ck to be that one civilization: being right about the universe actually holding several carbon-based lifeforms and yet scratching their heads thinking "We can't be the most advanced, we can't be the most advanced". : )

Udo 14y ago
The universe is relatively young in the sense that metal-rich solar systems are probably a requirement for advanced lifeforms and we haven't had that many generations of stars yet. Our sun is a "Population I" star (counter-intuitively, astrophysicists are counting backwards here) that has taken heavy elements as building material for the whole solar system from the remnants of earlier stars. However, the Milky Way is at the same time certainly old enough to suggest we shouldn't be the first. Evolutionary timescales probably depend a lot on the environment, but even if we're taking the development of our biosphere as one of the fast examples, there should still be other comparable planets billions of years younger than ours lending credibility to the assumption that there should have been civilizations before us. One of the big questions is also how long civilizations stay in the "compatible" phase on average. If they disappear (either going extinct or transcending into another stage) fast enough, finding and communicating with them in time will be very difficult. Like I said, extinction isn't necessarily the driving force. For example, our own sci-fi stories are absolutely rife with slightly advanced civilizations that very likely would never communicate with us. Another favorite explanation of mine is that there could be some unknown local issue in our stellar neighborhood. Candidates scenarios for this are myriad, and they fall into two categories: there isn't anyone nearby, or we are artificially isolated somehow.
- marshray 14y ago
  Yeah, it's not like some alien benefactors would have placed a geodesic array of transmitters in the Oort cloud that would cancel out all our inane radio spectrum emissions. Or could they? Hmmm...

Udo 14y ago

The universe is relatively young in the sense that metal-rich solar systems are probably a requirement for advanced lifeforms and we haven't had that many generations of stars yet. Our sun is a "Population I" star (counter-intuitively, astrophysicists are counting backwards here) that has taken heavy elements as building material for the whole solar system from the remnants of earlier stars. However, the Milky Way is at the same time certainly old enough to suggest we shouldn't be the first. Evolutionary timescales probably depend a lot on the environment, but even if we're taking the development of our biosphere as one of the fast examples, there should still be other comparable planets billions of years younger than ours lending credibility to the assumption that there should have been civilizations before us. One of the big questions is also how long civilizations stay in the "compatible" phase on average. If they disappear (either going extinct or transcending into another stage) fast enough, finding and communicating with them in time will be very difficult. Like I said, extinction isn't necessarily the driving force. For example, our own sci-fi stories are absolutely rife with slightly advanced civilizations that very likely would never communicate with us. Another favorite explanation of mine is that there could be some unknown local issue in our stellar neighborhood. Candidates scenarios for this are myriad, and they fall into two categories: there isn't anyone nearby, or we are artificially isolated somehow.

marshray 14y ago
Yeah, it's not like some alien benefactors would have placed a geodesic array of transmitters in the Oort cloud that would cancel out all our inane radio spectrum emissions. Or could they? Hmmm...