4 ms·

i love this puzzle. here are some theories: 1. simulation argument 2. civilizations have a high or inevitable chance to self destruct after <1M years of langu

i love this puzzle. here are some theories: 1. simulation argument 2. civilizations have a high or inevitable chance to self destruct after <1M years of language 3. civilizations transcend our observable universe after <1m years [1] 4. due to the single observer problem, humans fail to grok some very important feature of larger scale space that prevents detection/increases isolation [1] http://accelerating.org/articles/transcensionhypothesis.html http://accelerating.org/articles/transcensionhypothesis.html

ZanyProgrammer 12y ago
Or we just haven't observed them yet because we aren't technologically advanced enough? What if they don't use radio?
- Flow 12y ago
  I hope there's something along the lines of sub-space transmissions. Once we discover it, we'll start listening and discover a plethora of civilisations out there. Would also be nice if they periodically transmitted decoding instructions :) But who knows, maybe it's far more rare with life that are similar to what we can recognise?
  - XorNot 12y ago
    Pretty much the scientific experiment I've been waiting for: we set up some exotic state of matter, and then spot modulated and structured signals coming out of it.
    - danielweber 12y ago
      Except all the messages are spam.
Pxtl 12y ago
4 seems likeliest. Interstellar colonization is simply impossible because of the vastness of the distance that must be covered. It requires more energy than can be summoned to get a useful amount of hardware across multiple lightyears.
- tnaro 12y ago
  well to be fair, purely theoretically, you "just" need to accelerate once (and be able to hit the brakes many many many years later!) and find a way to sustain (food, water, air) yourself on a spaceship. Then a colonization flight might very well take serveral hundred to thousands years in the beginning. A bit like the general idea of the recently aired tv show Ascension.
- ericb 12y ago
  At a certain point, if you can make a self-replicating machine, with harvested solar energy for travel, you would expect that machine's descendants to slowly get everywhere intended.

ZanyProgrammer 12y ago

Or we just haven't observed them yet because we aren't technologically advanced enough? What if they don't use radio?

Flow 12y ago
I hope there's something along the lines of sub-space transmissions. Once we discover it, we'll start listening and discover a plethora of civilisations out there. Would also be nice if they periodically transmitted decoding instructions :) But who knows, maybe it's far more rare with life that are similar to what we can recognise?
- XorNot 12y ago
  Pretty much the scientific experiment I've been waiting for: we set up some exotic state of matter, and then spot modulated and structured signals coming out of it.
  - danielweber 12y ago
    Except all the messages are spam.

Pxtl 12y ago

4 seems likeliest. Interstellar colonization is simply impossible because of the vastness of the distance that must be covered. It requires more energy than can be summoned to get a useful amount of hardware across multiple lightyears.

tnaro 12y ago
well to be fair, purely theoretically, you "just" need to accelerate once (and be able to hit the brakes many many many years later!) and find a way to sustain (food, water, air) yourself on a spaceship. Then a colonization flight might very well take serveral hundred to thousands years in the beginning. A bit like the general idea of the recently aired tv show Ascension.
ericb 12y ago
At a certain point, if you can make a self-replicating machine, with harvested solar energy for travel, you would expect that machine's descendants to slowly get everywhere intended.