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“Skuld, are you saying that no space aliens ever said ‘Hello’ to us? Not once?”

“Sorry, Keiichi. Sad to say, they never did. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence [SETI] had been ongoing for decades by your time. Near the end, they crowed-sourced the signal analysis out to over a million home-based computers, each as powerful as a Cray supercomputer of 30 years prior. They searched practically the whole spectrum for a modulated signal across both hemispheres of the sky. They found nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Oh, there were a couple odd one-shot signals, like the famous ‘Wow’ signal in 1977, but never anything definite.”

“So what’s the explanation then? Why is the universe so silent?”

“The answer is simple.”

“Well?”

“Everybody is hiding.”

“Hiding from what?” Keiichi chuckled, “The Borg or something?”

Skuld wasn’t laughing. “Basically, yes.”

“You’re serious.”

“I am. Look, it only takes one [bleep]-hole alien race to ruin the whole neighborhood.”

“Wait, the Borg are real?”

“No. It’s much more primitive than that. It only takes one jerk race to decide that they have to be the only ones to exist in the galaxy. Some time long ago, nobody knows when exactly, some long dead and unnamed alien race built and launched a set of self-replicating probes called Von Neumann probes, named after the famous computer scientist who first postulated them.”

“Self-replicating probes.”

“Yeah. It is actually not all that particularly hard for an advanced civilization to create them. The unmanned probes were automated and operated on fairly simple software. They travelled at sublight speed. They searched for coherent signals and home it on them. When they get a lock they then shove an asteroid to set it on a collision course with the signal source. Then they make more probes from raw material in the ejecta and go out again.”

“But that’s awful!”

“I know. We call them Berserkers, named after the SF author Fred Saberhagen who first wrote several stories about them. Berserkers are just another type of predator, one that preys on intelligent life. Remember what I showed you earlier - that predators will always be found anywhere life exists? It is a universal constant.”

“So is that what happened to the Earth?”

“No. But it would have. Sooner or later.”

“Really?”

“Keiichi, the TV signals transmitted from I Love Lucy in the 1950’s were dozens of light-years out in space by your time. Eventually a Berserker would have locked on and it would have all been over. So even if the KBO didn’t hit, Earth was going to be doomed anyway. I’m sorry.”

“But if Earth’s technology had gotten advanced enough, quickly enough, before they got there then perhaps a defense..”

“No. Then Earth would have just succumbed to gray goo or something else.”

“You think so? Why?”

“Because it’s a simple fact that most sentient races don’t reach the level of spaceflight, or if they do, it is not for very long. Such civilizations typically self-destruct. Or they turn inward. Or they turn murderous.”

“You mean like the Scorpio galaxy, the Empire fighting the Rebel Alliance and all that.”

“Yes. It was remarkable how long their space-faring era lasted given how unstable and violent it was. All that destruction. But all that occurred a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.”

“What happened to them?”

“Some moved on, but most destroyed themselves. The typical pattern.”

“The typical pattern?”

“Eventually these civilizations self-destruct. They reach a critical turning point. Technology progresses faster, then faster, then even faster still, until the line goes almost straight up. Vernon Vinge called it the ‘singularity’. When this happens every individual possesses incredible power. They become demigods, or they think they are. It’s not unlike how Asgard was.”

“And it takes just one bad apple to wreck the whole barrel. Like Sena.”

“Yes. When every person has the power and technology to destroy the world, sooner or later one of them will. Life is delicate. It takes only one deflected asteroid or one vial of grey goo to wipe out all life overnight. It could even be accidental, a science experiment that goes out of control.”

“It’s unstable.”

“The problem is that Earth’s technology would have rapidly progressed to the point where any idiot could build a world-ending weapon, be it biosphere-eating nanites or whatever, even by mistake.”

“So Earth never got to see a cool Star Trek future.”

“Sadly, no. Life is just too fragile. The Star Trek film Into Darkness showed how just one person could mess up even as advanced a civilization as that one. It’s just too easy to drop stuff from orbit.”

Keiichi’s shoulders slumped. “Great. Now you are just bumming me out.”

“Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to. I’m just trying to explain why God had to cut short the story’s ending in Revelation and rescue the survivors. Otherwise nobody would have survived.”