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Researchers Say The Aliens Are Silent Because They Are Extinct (theconversation.com)
HughPickens.com writes: The Conversation reports that according to research by Dr. Charles Lineweaver and Dr. Aditya Chopra, a plausible solution to Fermi's paradox is near universal early extinction of life on exoplanets, which they have named the Gaian Bottleneck. "The universe is probably filled with habitable planets, so many scientists think it should be teeming with aliens," says Chopra. "The mystery of why we haven't yet found signs of aliens may have less to do with the likelihood of the origin of life or intelligence and have more to do with the rarity of the rapid emergence of biological regulation of feedback cycles on planetary surfaces." According to the researchers, most early planetary environments are unstable. To produce a habitable planet, life forms need to regulate greenhouse gases such as water and carbon dioxide to keep surface temperatures stable. About four billion years ago, Earth, Venus and Mars may have all been habitable. However, a billion years or so after formation, Venus turned into a hothouse and Mars froze into an icebox. Even if wet rocky Earth-like planets are in the "Goldilocks Zone" of their host stars, it seems that runaway freezing or heating may be their default fate. Large impactors and huge variation in the amounts of water and greenhouse gases can also induce positive feedback cycles that push planets away from habitable conditions. The difference on Earth may be that as soon as life became widespread on our planet, the earliest metabolisms began to modulate the greenhouse gas composition of the atmosphere. "The emergence of life's ability to regulate initially non-biological feedback mechanisms could be the most significant factor responsible for life's persistence on Earth, conclude Lineweaver and Chopra. "Even if life does emerge on a planet, it rarely evolves quickly enough to regulate greenhouse gases, and thereby keep surface temperatures compatible with liquid water and habitability."
It's a fucking good reason to be silent, I admit.
Achille Talon
Hop!
'Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.'
Monty Python
Maybe the aliens aren't quite dead yet . . . they are merely resting?
Tired and shagged out after a long squawk . . . ?
Or it's intern-planetary censorship . . . their governments are blocking them from contacting us . . . ?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
We don't even have the Concorde anymore, or the SR-71, in some ways we've gone backwards.
The only way in which the Concorde and SR-71 were not primitive is that they were fast. But the mindset of burning up that much fuel so that Rod Stewart can get a haircut in another country and still wind up looking like an aged lesbian or so that we can spy on another country so that we can more effectively wage a cold war against them is seriously fucking backwards.
Getting rid of the Concorde and the SR-71 might seem technologically backwards, but in fact, it is a huge step in the correct direction. Do you seriously suggest that advanced aliens would be flying around at supersonic speeds for no good reason? How inefficient.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Supersonic in interstellar/interplanetary terms would be like going cross country on a push bike
In space, no one can hear you trying to exceed the speed of sound.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Obligatory