Re: The Fermi Paradox -- "Where is everybody?"

The Fermi Paradox
Posted: 06/17/2014 12:57 pm EDT

Everyone feels something when they're in a really good starry place on a really good starry night and they look up and see this:

Some people stick with the traditional, feeling struck by the epic beauty or blown away by the insane scale of the universe. Personally, I go for the old "existential meltdown followed by acting weird for the next half hour." But everyone feels something.

Physicist Enrico Fermi felt something too -- "Where is everybody?"

_________

A really starry sky seems vast -- but all we're looking at is our very local neighborhood. On the very best nights, we can see up to about 2,500 stars (roughly one hundred-millionth of the stars in our galaxy), and almost all of them are less than 1,000 light years away from us (or 1 percent of the diameter of the Milky Way). So what we're really looking at is this:

When confronted with the topic of stars and galaxies, a question that tantalizes most humans is, "Is there other intelligent life out there?"


http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

They are avoiding us because we, as a species, are too violent.

Quote
Dave
They are avoiding us because we, as a species, are too violent.

And don't taste very good either.

Quote
eeek

Quote
Dave
They are avoiding us because we, as a species, are too violent.

And don't taste very good either.

Perhaps with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

---

Old Dude

Don't believe the propaganda of media people that think the universe is full of green bugged eyed aliens. Simple life ie bacteria and single cell life may be abundant in the universe while there are a list of arguments why multi-cellular life is likely rare and large animal life probably extremely rare. Do yourself a favor and read the below book. On below link read the comments to see why it is so credible. Our little blue planet may be a very very special unique place I wish we humans treated with more respect beyond our selfish myopic human worldly pursuits.

http://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/dp/0387952896/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423852424&sr=1-12&keywords=astrobiology

---

http://www.davidsenesac.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2015 10:45AM by DavidSenesac.

That's true, complex life is probably very rare in our Universe. There's probably no more than a few billion planets with advanced life on them.

The fact is that intelligent life has never reached this planet.

I know this is a February topic but I'd like to chime in. Humans have no more claim to a long existence than other forms of life on Earth. Remember, 99.99% of all life on Earth is now extinct! Why should we be any different, especially considering our inclination for violence, overpopulation, dwindling food supply, pollution of air and water, plus depletion of our natural resources. If you reduce Earth's 4.5 billion year existence to 1 year, the age of human technological advancement represents only a tiny fraction of the last second of that year. Despite the speculated precedence of nearby planets (within 1000 light years) that might support life, what do you think the chances are that their fraction of a section of technological advancement would coincide with ours? Even if they did, how would we communicate with them?

Also, some famous scientist and author once said, "Either the universe is teaming with life or we are alone. Either possibility is staggering!"

Tom that argument is often tossed out but it assumes if there is other intelligent life, it is some form of biological evolved life and most likely based on carbon since it is by far the one neutral element that is chemically able to produce chemicals capable of vast complexities. No other element is even close. It also assumes we live in the only universe within absolute space and there is nothing beyond. And that everything in existence started less than 16 billion years ago. These are all long dominant views from scientists this last couple centuries.

However more recently those views are being seen increasingly narrow although we may never have a way of knowing regardless of how long our species exists. The idea that space is infinite and there are infinite universes beyond our own that have exisited eternally some speculate has equal merit.

Today some top scientists coming around to an idea I've thought logical for decades. That eventually intelligent beings as we are, may be able to create intelligent machines that can then design and evolve themselves. And if so they may not have mortal constraints of biological entities. That they can simply replace worn out or damaged parts. Thus potentially could exist for unlimited time if they can manage to keep from being destroyed. Once intelligent entities can exist for thousands, millions, of years they do not have the constraints we mortals do if exploring a galaxy, the universe, or absolute space. And once a civilization of such entities can exist over multiple star systems, they have the ability to overcome destruction by wars and natural planetary disasters. If the universe is eternal, such entities may have existed far beyond the lifetime of universes with unknown level of capabilities.

---

http://www.davidsenesac.com



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2015 05:01PM by DavidSenesac.