Posted on 06/20/2013 5:24:15 PM PDT by BenLurkin
As far as we know, Earth is the only place in the Universe where life has arisen, let alone developed an intelligent civilization.
This baffling contradiction is known as the Fermi Paradox, first described in 1950 by the physicist Enrico Fermi.
Scientists have been trying to resolve this mystery for decades, listening for radio signals from other worlds. We’ve only sampled a fraction of the radio spectrum, and so far, we haven’t detected anything that could be a signal from an intelligent species.
How can we explain this?
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
“Still appearing to two-toothed Mississippi and Louisiana swamp dwellers. If ETs are so smart what is their navigation so screwed?”
Because they REALLY like Cajun cookin’?
Suppose the sun were the size of a smallish grapefruit. At that scale Alpha Centari would be 1800 miles away. The center of the milky way galaxy would be 12,000,000 miles away. The moon, the farthest humans have been, is about an inch away.
If they wanted our beautiful planet for themselves, they might dumb us down enough to create a race of slaves.
Anybody see any evidence of dumbing down?
It’s a great big universe
And we’re all really puny
We’re just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
It’s big and black and inky
And we are small and dinky
It’s a big universe and we’re not.
What contradiction?
I like the indogenes... heh
What is your definition of intelligent? Whale intelligent? Dolphin intelligent? Dog intelligent?
At what level is an ET just dumb enough to eat?
Maybe it’s us. Just sayin’
Maybe they think we are stuck up, or nerds or something.
Planet of the cows would be awesome.
Robert Forward’s “Saturn Rukh” presents an interesting possibility of an encounter with an intelligent race in the atmosphere of Saturn. They are intelligent enough to converse with but have no technology and virtually no useful knowledge.
Abiogensis seems to be assumed in all his possible solutions to the paradox.
I’m glad you like it.
“Everybody’s gone surfin, surfin USA!”
There’s no paradox; every single star system in our universe could host an advance, intelligent civilization and there’s no way we could possibly know.
Still peddling the bogus “Fermi Paradox”. :’) :’P
It’s a great big universe
And we’re all really puny
We’re just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
You might think that you’re essential
Try inconsequential
It’s a small world after all!
If they believe in evolution from an initial single-cell life form, mathematics says the universe isn’t old enough for us to have evolved. I’m sure that adding another life system under the same parameters would make the odds a bit bigger.
Anyone who’s read Accelerando by Charles Stross knows that any sufficiently advanced civilization inevitably disappears up its own backside....
I had not heard of Ringworld when I saw your post. Coincidentally, the author Larry Niven is being interviewed right now on the Coast To Coast radio program (5:15 a.m. EDT).
It is well worth the read.
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