11–20 of 81 posts
Biologists cannot even agree on a unique definition of life itself; but that hasn’t stopped them from unraveling aspects of the cell, the double helix, photosynthesis, enzymes and a host of other living phenomena…
Once upon a time in the universe, there was an alien civilization, and they were very interested in figuring out the question, why, despite universe seeming so vast, there are no signs of other alien civilizations. What could it be? Near-zero term in the Drake equation? The dark forest? A great filter? To understand different possibilities, they decided to determine the cause using a computer simulation. However, due…
We have all the elements for answers if we focus on what we know, and forget the hand wavy sci-fi speculation.
1) Complex life is rare.
2) Reaching a space faring stage is even rarer. (we’re the most minimal definition of “space faring” you could come up with, and even then we got really lucky with so many things)
3) The universe is huge. It’s like, the hugest thing there is, man. And except for some little bits of interesting dust here and there, it’s mostly empty. As empty as it is huge.
So, does life - in any form - exist elsewhere in the universe? Almost certainly.
Are/were there life forms elsewhere in the universe that escaped their home planet gravity to go explore their moon or other planets in their solar system? Seems quite probable.
Is there any shot we are sufficiently close in space/time to encounter such another advanced life form? Almost certainly not.
This made me think whether this is a type of computational limitation. That there is simply too much complexity and too many variables but theoretically it should still be possible. Perhaps this is a bit reductionist pov.
> Life brings complexity into the universe, she says, in its own being and in its products, because it has memory: in DNA, in repeating molecular reactions, in the instructions for making a chair.
Following this train of thought, if I assume that there is no fundamental difference between matter and life, life becomes a type of black hole of computational complexity. Like those parts of the unobservable universe which we could never peer into because of hard limits in physics. I can perhaps rationalize on a piece of paper that life is fundamentally deterministic but I can only think it, not behold it. DNA, memory is like some intense potential energy, a tightly wound spring that slowly lets off its energy in complex ways over potentially eons. Hence we are not fundamentally different than the light of the sun, warming the surface of rocks and evaporating water, but undergoing a far more intense process than simple evaporation.
Organic life is then merged/exterminated/controlled in favor of AGI.
AGI would not have the biological instinct to grow/spread/reproduce, and thus the cosmos should be populated with a handful of individual billion year old super advanced AGIs, perhaps only one or two per galaxy, sitting quietly in orbit around some stable star or perhaps even in the great voids outside the galaxy somewhere.
Finding one is likely near impossible as they may not want to be found.
Once upon a time in the universe, there was an alien civilization, and they were very interested in figuring out the question, why, despite universe seeming so vast, there are no signs of other alien civilizations. What could it be? Near-zero term in the Drake equation? The dark forest? A great filter? To understand different possibilities, they decided to determine the cause using a computer simulation. However, due…
Honestly, the real mystery is why so many people are confused about “why, despite universe seeming so vast, there are no signs of other alien civilizations” in 2023. We have all the elements for answers if we focus on what we know, and forget the hand wavy sci-fi speculation. 1) Complex life is rare. 2) Reaching a space faring stage is even rarer. (we’re the most minimal definition of “space faring” you could come up…
As far as I know, we have observed complex (and extremely robust) life on every temperate, wet planet that we know about. Batting a thousand.
Once upon a time in the universe, there was an alien civilization, and they were very interested in figuring out the question, why, despite universe seeming so vast, there are no signs of other alien civilizations. What could it be? Near-zero term in the Drake equation? The dark forest? A great filter? To understand different possibilities, they decided to determine the cause using a computer simulation. However, due…
Honestly, the real mystery is why so many people are confused about “why, despite universe seeming so vast, there are no signs of other alien civilizations” in 2023. We have all the elements for answers if we focus on what we know, and forget the hand wavy sci-fi speculation. 1) Complex life is rare. 2) Reaching a space faring stage is even rarer. (we’re the most minimal definition of “space faring” you could come up…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Despite the environment being -320 or +320 Celsius You do have a point - 47 degrees below absolute zero is probably too cold for life
Integer underflow flips it to trillions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, the real mystery is why so many people are confused about “why, despite universe seeming so vast, there are no signs of other alien civilizations” in 2023. We have all the elements for answers if we focus on what we know, and forget the hand wavy sci-fi speculation. 1) Complex life is rare. 2) Reaching a space faring stage is even rarer. (we’re the most minimal definition of “space faring” you could come up…
Also, modern humanity's light cone is tiny. We've been listening for like 75 years?
So the better way of thinking about this is a 75 year thick slice through spacetime containing the edge of the visible universe shortly after the big bang at one end and the solar system over the last 75 years at the other end. The volume between the past light cones of Earth now and 75 years ago.