Fermi's Paradoxon is telling us so many things that it tells us exactly
nothing.
Life nucleation density is damn near zero. (Clearly it takes second- and
third-generation stellar system for the proper kind of chemistry to host
life. However, if there's a race into space the visibility threshold
uncertainty lies in several MYrs range, which should be very visible if
there are any within our lightcone).
Our extrapolations are wrong: life quite never makes it into space. Great
Filters Galore -- there are too many possibilities to screw up for
comfort. All hail to Malthus.
Life is out there, but is not expansive. Unconvincing, selection for most
panspermic autoreplicators considered. (Anders, I'd love to see your
simulation).
Life's out there, but it is hiding (or dead). It is difficult to envision
what a parasite can gain from stellar predation, but then what do we know
about appetites of such parasites?
Life's out there, but it's invisible. Efficiency demands it to operate at
few K scale. (Ditto for superenergetic life).
Life's out there, but it's signatures are nondistinguishable from a
vanilla cosmos. Unconvincing, for many reasons.
Life is not out there anymore, because it has transcended. This assumes
leaving this universe is a piece of cake. Heartening, but insufficient
data.
We're an experiment; an altruistic Superentity has generated Aleph-x
life-supporting Petri-dish designer universes shorty before it attained
nirvana (Omega, whatever). This is religion, not science.
We live in a zoo, everything's a fake. Imo, for the hypothetical
Super-Potyomkin we are not interesting enough by far. Also smacks strongly
of religion.
This could go on, but you got my meaning. Combinatorics on God's name, how
many angels dancing on the head of the pin. If/When we will be there, we
will know. Trying to know before, well, that's cheating ;)
ciao,
'gene
P. S. Ah, and please don't miss graduation night. See you there!
Received on Tue Dec 16 12:56:21 1997
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