Posted on 04/10/2015 11:52:04 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The argument claiming that extraterrestrials don’t exist was actually proposed by the astronomer Michael Hart, in a paper he published in 1975. Hart supposed that if an extraterrestrial civilization arose in the galaxy it would develop interstellar travel and launch colonizing expeditions to nearby stars. These colonies would, in turn, launch their own starships spreading a wave of colonization across the galaxy.
How long would the wave take to cross the galaxy? Assuming that the starships traveled at one tenth the speed of light and that no time was lost in building new ships upon arriving at the destination, the wave, Hart surmised, could cross the galaxy in 650,000 years.
Even allowing for a modicum of time for each colony to establish itself before building more ships, the galaxy could be crossed in two million years, a miniscule interval on a cosmic or evolutionary timescale. Hart asserted that because extraterrestrials aren’t already here on Earth, none exist in our galaxy.
Hart’s argument was extended by cosmologist Frank Tipler in 1980. Tipler supposed that alien colonists would be assisted by self-reproducing robots. His conclusion was announced in the title of his paper ‘Extraterrestrial intelligent beings do not exist’.
Why is it important that Hart’s argument wasn’t really also formulated by the eminent Enrico Fermi? Because Fermi’s name lends a credibility to the argument that it might not deserve. Supporters of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) want to search for evidence that alien civilizations exist by using radio telescopes to listen for radio messages that extraterrestrials may have transmitted into space. Interstellar signaling is vastly cheaper than a starship, and is feasible with technology we have today.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
That is opinion, not fact.
What is going to hit the fan is leftist tyranny. All the problems you describe are the product of institutional corruption. That will end shortly. The mad children have been given their best chance to take over and they have utterly destroyed themselves. Wait and see what hits the fan.
I’ve been waiting and it hasn’t happened yet because it won’t happen. We are being overrun with foreigners who don’t give a tinker’s damn about freedom, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or anything else but open borders, EBT cards, and other government “freebies.” They out-number and out-vote the patriots. When it all comes apart, they will form the nucleus of an incompetent and oppressive one-party state, which will be hard-pressed to maintain even a sliding standard of living. Such a regime will need only dole out a few loaves of bread and a few lumps of coal every month to keep their constituents content. I have serious doubt such a regime will have even the inclination to fund vast space exploration projects.
I have no interest in living in your world.
That’s obvious. What are you going to do when this whole thing collapses in on itself? Retreat to Roddenberryland and commune with Spock?!
Not everything will collapse. There remains the authority of the Lord who reigns forever.
Note: this topic is from . Thanks BenLurkin. I find neither Fermi's Paradox nor the H-T Conjecture compelling.
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