Maybe the Aliens Are Addicted To Computer Games

Hugh Pickens writes "Geoffrey Miller has an interesting hypothesis in Seed Magazine that explains Fermi's Paradox — why 40 years of intensive searching for extraterrestrial intelligence have yielded nothing: no radio signals, no credible spacecraft sightings, no close encounters of any kind. All the aliens are busy playing computer games. The aliens 'forget to send radio signals or colonize space because they're too busy with runaway consumerism and virtual-reality narcissism,' writes Miller. He says the fundamental problem is that an evolved mind must pay attention to indirect cues of biological fitness, rather than tracking fitness itself, and that although evolution favors brains that tend to maximize fitness (as measured by numbers of great-grandkids), no brain has capacity enough to do so under every possible circumstance. 'The result is that we don't seek reproductive success directly; we seek tasty foods that have tended to promote survival, and luscious mates who have tended to produce bright, healthy babies. The modern result? Fast food and pornography,' writes Miller. 'Once they turn inwards to chase their shiny pennies of pleasure, they lose the cosmic plot.' Miller adds that most bright alien species probably go extinct gradually, allocating more time and resources to their pleasures, and less to their children, until they eventually die out." Who here doesn't think a TNG-style Holodeck would lead to the downfall of our civilization?

Comments

Re:Yea

[juasko]

Life is not aboundant in Univerce it's statistically immpossible. Statistically and scientifically the only place you'll ever find, note, in our univerce except we humans have planted it outside earth is on earth. Heck statistically and mathematically it's even impossible here on earth. also note just for clarification. I refer to life form that is based on matter that is found in our universe, be it matter, anti matter or dark matter. I exclude from my calculation any other kind of life form that some migth refer to as energy, spirit, ghost, angels, demons or similar. Anyway if such excist they are not bound to our Universe just the way we are and therfore not a part of the universe. So just leve that discussion out of contents.