Or, the blackboxes might not emit the radiation we expect because of some technology or physics that we don't know about yet.
Maybe they emit neutrinos!
Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
21–30 of 91 posts
Re: Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
#22My speculation has for a long time been what I call the uniform cooling hypothesis. There are no type III civilizations because such things haven't happened yet.
If the universe is all the same age and if the emergence and evolution of life is tied to the overall thermodynamic evolution of the universe, then everything might be approximately of the same scale and complexity within a certain standard deviation.
If this is true then when we go out there we will meet all the others who have also just developed to that level.
Re: Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
#23I wonder what ants think of airports? Or what mice believe about tube trains as they scuttle under the platform.
We are separated from mice (or at least somewhat similar animals) by approximately 40m years of evolution, I think that the separation to a Galaxy altering level entity would be much more profound, and frankly we wouldn't understand what it was if it came and tickled us.
Re: Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
#24I don't think societies/civilizations are a viable organization scheme on cosmic time scales. What if very advanced civilizations all reorganize themselves into symbiotic aggregations of less-than-wholly-individual entities? Communications between these entities inhabiting virtual reality is so fast that the aggregate seems like a hyper-intelligent hive mind to human-like sentience?
If we take mind upload as a given, then it should also be possible to create "clones" of our minds with ease. This level of technology will have a profound effect on the value society places on individuality.
Re: Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
#25Why would technologically advanced species explore the (mostly empty) universe, when they can sit inside their holodecks and have much more fun?
4 reasons come to mind: 1. Advanced societies have probably solved the aging problem, leading to either extremely long lives or effective immortality. As long as these societies keep reproducing (and they will, unless they deliberately engineer out the urge to procreate, which I consider to be unlikely), they'll need space to spread out. Sure, they could probably pack themselves like sardines into a single solar syst…
1. Advanced societies have probably solved the aging problem, leading to either extremely long lives or effective immortality. As long as these societies keep reproducing (and they will, unless they deliberately engineer out the urge to procreate, which I consider to be unlikely), they'll need space to spread out.
If they had as little agency around the issue of population control as you suggest, this makes me question their status as "advanced."
Re: Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
#26My speculation has for a long time been what I call the uniform cooling hypothesis. There are no type III civilizations because such things haven't happened yet. If the universe is all the same age and if the emergence and evolution of life is tied to the overall thermodynamic evolution of the universe, then everything might be approximately of the same scale and complexity within a certain standard deviation. If thi…
Yes, but if someone is off by just one percentage point, then they're 13 million years ahead. There needs to be something so unlikely about sentient life, that it only arises approximately one at a time in each galaxy, or the Fermi paradox would apply.
Re: Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
#27I don't think societies/civilizations are a viable organization scheme on cosmic time scales. What if very advanced civilizations all reorganize themselves into symbiotic aggregations of less-than-wholly-individual entities? Communications between these entities inhabiting virtual reality is so fast that the aggregate seems like a hyper-intelligent hive mind to human-like sentience? If we take mind upload as a given,…
> What if [...] all
"all" is usually the key issue with solutions to the Fermi paradox. We can certainly find reasons for any given civilization to go the other way, but it's more difficult to argue that all of them do.
Re: Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
#28Could be great news- it rules out (within some limitations) most of the really bad paperclip-maximizer scenarios.
At least if society is doomed we'll only doom ourselves, and not the entire Milky Way! One takes what cheer one can get when pondering this sort of subject.
Re: Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
#29My speculation has for a long time been what I call the uniform cooling hypothesis. There are no type III civilizations because such things haven't happened yet. If the universe is all the same age and if the emergence and evolution of life is tied to the overall thermodynamic evolution of the universe, then everything might be approximately of the same scale and complexity within a certain standard deviation. If thi…
Yes, but if someone is off by just one percentage point, then they're 13 million years ahead. There needs to be something so unlikely about sentient life, that it only arises approximately one at a time in each galaxy, or the Fermi paradox would apply.
This hypothesis works best if we propose an extremely narrow developmental range.
Of course since we have basically no data, we can't actually argue either way beyond vague hand-wavey speculation. You can't calculate standard deviation from a sample size of one.
Re: Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
#30I wonder what ants think of airports? Or what mice believe about tube trains as they scuttle under the platform. We are separated from mice (or at least somewhat similar animals) by approximately 40m years of evolution, I think that the separation to a Galaxy altering level entity would be much more profound, and frankly we wouldn't understand what it was if it came and tickled us.
We are in no way separated by 40m years of evolution. Our common ancestor 'is'. That mouse you see today has been evolving just as long as you have, but with different priorities.