Slashdot Mirror
Fermi Paradox Predicting Humankind's Future?
An anonymous reader writes "The Fermi paradox says that if extraterrestrial civilizations exist, at least one of them should have colonized the entire galaxy by now. But since there is no evidence of this, humankind must be the only intelligent life in the galaxy. The Space Review has an article on how the Fermi paradox can be applied to human civilization. It says that, like the extraterrestrials, humans have three choices: colonize the galaxy, remain on Earth, or become extinct."
I, for one, welcome our new paradoxical overlords.
Sometimes, you can, you go to hell for the rest of your life! That's a true thing.
Earth hasn't colonized the galaxy by now. Ergo, Earth doesn't exist.
Excellent. That means I don't have to sweat the deadline on that network redesign thing I've been fighting with. Thanks!
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
You forgot choice zero:
0. Blow up the Earth and become extinct right now.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Well, what's the use of wondering about so far into the future? I feel too depressed reading about it. Oh no, i'd rather be upset when they say that all crytography algorithms will be cracked within 10 million years, and someone will crack my password and start posting with my uber-low slashdot UID (remember folks, we are talking about ~1000000 AD here).
If spacefaring civilizations exist, they should have colonized the galaxy by now.
Earth is a spacefaring civilization.
Earth hasn't colonized the galaxy by now.
Ergo, Earth doesn't exist.
So say we all.
If a decent slashdot comment exists, it would generate a decent response.
Your comment was a decent slashdot comment.
Your comment has not generated a decent response.
Ergo, your comment doesn't exist.
Have you read my journal today?
If it does, I can't see how it'd ever be right, given the fact the universe is still expanding. No civilization can ever populate the entire universe with slower than light travel.
Could be that more than 4-5 light years makes travel a little... hairy. I mean, people start to ...wig-out at those kinds of distances. There's a lot of distance to cover, with a lot of dangerous particles flying in the same space, so it's safe to say the further you go the more... close shaves you'll have!
Har har har I kill myself.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Someone watched way too many X-Files episodes I think. The Truth Is Out There, Trust No One, Deny Everything and I Want to Believe are really great slogans, but they don't make it the case that aliens even bothered to leave their solar systems and go somewhere to give some strange creatures across the galaxy some anal probing. Of-course if anything did move us towards colonization of the Galaxy, Hot Alien Porn would be the most likely reason to do it.
You can't handle the truth.
For some reason, they don't take orders from somebody on Slashdot with a 900k+ user ID.
Does that imply that there exists a person on Slashdot with a sufficiently low UID to give orders to NASA?
If you live in a typical suburban neighborhood, there are at least 200 houses within a 30-minute walk. How many have you visited? How many would you visit if it took the entire output of your civilization for 10 years in order to visit?
Anyway, amongst the nearest alien species this is called the "Brakloo'tj Paradox".
Clearly, then, humankind has the right, nay the obligation to expand throughout the universe.
We should terraform any planets that are not already Earthlike, use the energy of however many stars it takes to achieve our goals, and find some black hole into which to pitch any planets that become inconveniently polluted.
Any semi-intelligent life we encounter along the way will obviously be inferior, since it has not colonized the universe first. If it gets in our way (or even if it doesn't) we should trample it under our jackboots, but only if necessary. Whenever possible we should altruistically force them to accept the inestimable benefits of the English language, democracy, and McDonald's hamburgers.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Welcome to the Internet. Here is your dictionary.
(In case the misunderstanding was intentional, I do apologize for the unnecessary pedantry.)
Canthros
Quite true. The upper limit for how long we can stay on earth is about 1 billion years. After that the sun turns red giant and the earth is engulfed below the sun's surface.
One should point out that survival and colinization by our species does not require transport of any individuals. We need merely to transport DNA of our species (plus whatever companion plant and animal species desired). A space probe loaded with DNA might weigh only a gram or so.
If one hypothesizes that other intelligent species exist, then we need only to transmit our DNA code via radio. A receiving species could then directly sythesize humans from the code plus the easy-to-follow instructions included. If they did so however, I might question the quality of their intelligence. We need to fool them somehow by sending messages that entice them to "click here" despite better judgement. That's it! The future of mankind rests in the hands of spammers.
Oh he will. We'll make sure of it.
We may be marked as a "potential revisit"
I believe the correct term is "Mostly Harmless"
I think it's more likely that they would set up a restaurant that serves Swedish meatballs. Everyone has a version of Swedish meatballs.
Make love, not reality television.
Slashdot Low User ID Operations Order 001
1. SITUATION: the Fermi Paradox compels us to populate the Galaxy or become extinct.
2. MISSION: NASA will design, test, build, staff, and deploy a fleet of interstellar colony ships for the purposes of populating the galaxy.
3. EXECUTION: This mission will take place in 6 phases:
a. Design a colony ship;
b. Test the colony ship;
c. Build a fleet of colony ships;
d. Staff and populate the colony ships with suitable colonists;
e. Deploy the fleet; and
f. Monitor the colonies and provide support as appropriate.
4. SERVICE SUPPORT
a. Funding: no change.
5. COMMAND AND SIGNALS: no change.
There! Let's see if that works.
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
If they were here in the first 99% of those 10 billion years, they would have missed us. We may be marked as a "potential revisit" but the likelihood of any existing lifeforms knowing that we are here is very small.
...
Actually, if they are living (or have automated monitors) within a radius of roughly 80 light years, they know we're here. We've been broadcasting our presence via radio waves for about that long now, and our broadcasts are unmistakably "intelligently designed".
Of course, it just might be that the speed of light is a hard upper bound that can't be violated in our universe. In that case, we might still have some time before visitors come calling.
Our best bet is to continue scanning the skies for possible incoming messages (which might or might not be addressed to us).
And hope it's not just spam
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Don't sweat it - I totally know what you mean... sometimes it just feels like we've been stuck here together that long.
software developed in Estonia...
Damn, why is this "cvs update" taking so long? Oh yeah, the project is hosted in Alpha Centauri.
Of Code And Men
Hello,
My name is Blorgflog Fleeberblox from the Indurian colony of Aran. After current civil war between Xzixi faction and Xlfrixi government, my father, General Zobb escaped with a 10,000 trillion credit box...
In which case, there may be a big sign on the back side of Pluto saying QUARANTINED -- DO NOT ENTER.
rj
"I believe the correct term is "Mostly Harmless""
Mostly harmless? Is a chimpanzee with a bible in one hand and a loaded gun in the other mostly harmless?... If I were an alien, I'd stay as far away from earth as possible.
Well...he's old. Come on, cut him some slack!
i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]