3 ms·
"No one wants to talk to us" is not a sufficient explanation. We need to be able to explain why we don't observe any stellar engineering. Assuming alien civiliz
by thesteamboat 12y ago
"No one wants to talk to us" is not a sufficient explanation. We need to be able to explain why we don't observe any stellar engineering. Assuming alien civilizations they either 1) can't make use of the most prominent energy sources around, 2) choose not to for some reason, or 3) we can't detect what they're doing.
1 and 2 don't make sense if you assume that there are many alien civilizations older and more advanced than us. 3 implies that we're fundamentally misunderstanding a lot about (astro)physics.
- exratione 12y agoAstrophysics is as solid as particle physics and plasma physics; it's the other laboratory used to confirm fundamental theory. The models are very good. There is a natural explanation for every well observed phenomenon that fits all known physics, and wherein the models match up to the observations. Astrophysics really isn't the place to be looking first for issues, I'd say.
- thesteamboat 12y agoI don't really know enough about physics to be able to judge, but what you say is nicely in accordance with my priors. I think we're in agreement here. I wouldn't argue that 3 was the place the argument most likely fails, merely that there is something here that we don't fully understand and which may be rather important -- hence it's reasonable to call it a paradox.
- radicalbyte 12y agoWhat if "dark matter" is actually stars enclosed in dyson spheres? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere
- Retra 12y agoDark matter is 26.8% of the mass and visible matter is 4.9%. Think about what has to happen for that assumption to pan out...