The Fermi Paradox

[Gogan]

SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is an organization dedicated to listening for signals from other intelligent life. If we’re right that there are 100,000 or more intelligent civilizations in our galaxy, and even a fraction of them are sending out radio waves or laser beams or other modes of attempting to contact others, shouldn’t SETI’s satellite array pick up all kinds of signals?

But it hasn’t. Not one. Ever.

Where is everybody? […]

The Great Filter theory says that at some point from pre-life to Type III intelligence, there’s a wall that all or nearly all attempts at life hit. There’s some stage in that long evolutionary process that is extremely unlikely or impossible for life to get beyond. That stage is The Great Filter.

If this theory is true, the big question is, Where in the timeline does the Great Filter occur

It turns out that when it comes to the fate of humankind, this question is very important. Depending on where The Great Filter occurs, we’re left with three possible realities: We’re rare, we’re first, or we’re fucked.

Pretty cool article:

http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

[Yooxra]

I've read this already. Love this kind of stuff. I'm sure Corey has already seen this. I'm type 4 btw. I will not explain what a type 4 civilization is cause your brain would explode.

[Blake]

Originally Posted by Yooxra

I've read this already. Love this kind of stuff. I'm sure Corey has already seen this.

ill ask him when i see him tomorrow. to bad ur not here, when we went on road trips to amarillo (6hrs away), we listened to coast to coast. he always says how u love that shit too

[Rhun]

wtf is yoox doing in texas?

[Blake]

hes not. but he should be. dallas is awesome

[rursusferre]

always been one of the more interesting questions I thought. Its one of the issues some people use (like stephen hawkings) to show that the universe is dangerous. Maybe they all have to hide, because there are species that are like locusts (kind of like independence day). He has always had the stance that we shouldn't be letting our tv/radio signals just go out into space, broadcasting where we are.

But one thing that this doesn't seem to take into account is time. Space is huge. It's pretty obvious that statistically, its pretty much impossible for us to be "alone". But when you factor into it how "distance=time" in space, the chances of us ever existing parallel to anyone else within any real measurable distance is pretty much zero.