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Johnny Rotten · 10-03-2003, 12:15 AM

For the uninitiated, Fermi's paradox asks-- given what we can safely assume about the number of suns and planets and the age of the universe--"Why isn't the presence or passage of extraterrestrial intelleigent life everywhere around us?"

For a better explanation and some exploration, you can try this link for starters. Every possible explanation seems to be considered in that document, and none of them come out satifyingly plausible. Even our little solar system should have seen countless von Neumann colonization waves by now. Yet by all appearances, the Universe outside of our planet is a desert.

I believe the generally accepted age of the Universe is around 15 billion years. That's enough time for a civilization to reach what we would perceive as godhood, in my opinion. The least fantastic answer I have been able to put together is that this civilization eventually ruled over all existence, then decided to wipe the whole slate clean relatively recently. As you can see, even Occam's Razor can't cut through to a generally rational, simple explanation, in my mind, at least.

The possibility that our reality is false and we're somehow trapped in an enclosure is unsatisfying to me because it is necessarily impossible to explore this notion.

And if there is no afterlife, then even death will bring no answers.

Should I just give this one up as an imponderable?

10-03-2003, 12:15 AM	#1 (permalink)
Johnny Rotten lost and found Location: Berkeley	The seemingly overlooked implications of Fermi's Paradox For the uninitiated, Fermi's paradox asks-- given what we can safely assume about the number of suns and planets and the age of the universe--"Why isn't the presence or passage of extraterrestrial intelleigent life everywhere around us?" For a better explanation and some exploration, you can try this link for starters. Every possible explanation seems to be considered in that document, and none of them come out satifyingly plausible. Even our little solar system should have seen countless von Neumann colonization waves by now. Yet by all appearances, the Universe outside of our planet is a desert. I believe the generally accepted age of the Universe is around 15 billion years. That's enough time for a civilization to reach what we would perceive as godhood, in my opinion. The least fantastic answer I have been able to put together is that this civilization eventually ruled over all existence, then decided to wipe the whole slate clean relatively recently. As you can see, even Occam's Razor can't cut through to a generally rational, simple explanation, in my mind, at least. The possibility that our reality is false and we're somehow trapped in an enclosure is unsatisfying to me because it is necessarily impossible to explore this notion. And if there is no afterlife, then even death will bring no answers. Should I just give this one up as an imponderable?