Our Galaxy Should Be Teeming With Civilizations, But Where Are They?

Project Phoenix ^ | 25 Oct 01 | Seth Shostak

[steve-b]

The simplest answer is that, to get to another star system you have to adapt to living in an "interstellar ark" -- and once you've done so it's easier to just take what you need from asteroids and comets than to re-adapt to living on planets.

For all we know, there could be thousands of old mining traces in our own Belt.

[OK]

Maybe our civilization is the only one living in an Oprah world where reaching out to other civilizations is thought to be beneficial. Civilizations tend to war with each other on Earth.

Another point is that maybe they just don't want us to know that they are there for their own reasons. Perhaps we are too primitive to be taken seriously.

Another point is that space travel might not be restricted to speeds that our limited science understands in 2001 AD.

[Dog Gone]

I postulate that no other civilization has been able to solve the problem of faster than light travel. The distances are huge and the challenges immense.

It doesn't do much good to colonize a new planet, only to discover that it has a strain of flu that is 100% fatal.

Civilizations also have a nasty tendency to self-destruct, and species have a tendency to go extinct rather quickly.

[RightWhale]

we are waaaaaay out on the end of an inconsequential arm of our home galaxy

It's true we inhabit an ordinary star system in a minor arm of the Milky Way far from downtown. Our star is also in the middle of a vacuum bubble 500 light years across that was cleared out by a supernova sometime back. We're not only living in a rural area, but in a rural area that has been stripped of a lot of natural resources such as interstellar gas of various kinds.

[amordei]

Fermi realized that any civilization with a modest amount of rocket technology and an immodest amount of imperial incentive could rapidly colonize the entire Galaxy.

Yeah, whatever. No sane person with even a rudimentary knowledge of physics, much less an expert, could possibly believe something this preposterous.

Actually, contrary to those who think that the speed of light cannot be breached, it can be and has (quite recently in separate lab tests). Fermi's paradox is therefore alive and well.

[malakhi]

"Earth: Mostly harmless"

[RLK]

Space travel is not as easy as conjectured. Traveling at the speed of light is too slow to get you anywhere and requires massive amounts of energy. The probability of contact with life forms on other solar systems or galaxies is small. If there are other civilizations, they have no reason to even believe we're here. At the speed of light, they haven't even received our 50s TV sitcoms yet.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"Basically a civilization would revert to savagery or kill themselves off..."

Carl Sagan believed this and felt that for a civilization to move to a period of galactic or even intergalactic exploration, they must be able to overcome this obstacle that we as a species now face.

[RightWhale]

there could be thousands of old mining traces in our own Belt

Seeing as how we don't have much info on what happened right here on earth even 10,000 years ago, and we have just begun to look around the other planets and asteroids in the solar system, the possibility that others have come and gone many times cannot be denied. Just because we don't see them now doesn't mean they never passed through gobbling up this and that on the way.

[Don Myers]

"Our Galaxy Should Be Teeming With Civilizations, But Where Are They?"

Well, don't look here. Beam me up, Scotty.

[GingisK]

...aliens got a good look at us...

I agree. We're a "bad neighborhood" to be avoided.

[Destructor]

Isn't it obvious? The aliens observed our civilation, and determined that as a species, humankind are basically a bunch of a******s! So, they decided to stay as far away from earth as possible,until we eventually destroy ourselves!!This brings to mind a good question: How do we know that we really know that we want to have contact with alien life forms? What if they turn out to be more savage than we humans!?!

[sendtoscott]

At the speed of light, they haven't even received our 50s TV sitcoms yet.

That's only 50 years. Fermi was talking about 10 million. Why aren't we picking up their sitcoms?

[GingisK]

They considered technical and sociological arguments for why the aliens weren't hanging out nearby....

... and ignored all of the evidence packed into government files...

[RightWhale]

a rudimentary knowledge of physics

The galaxy is about 100,000 light years across. The speed of light doesn't need to be exceeded to allow for a civilization to spread out and occupy the entire galaxy in 10 million years from GO! Or even 1 million years. Getting to the next galaxy [Andromeda] is a different story.

[#3Fan]

Just like the earth, if the galaxy is conquered, there would end up being one superpower that makes the rules. Perhaps the one that makes the rules has ruled that earth is to be left alone for the most part.

[Senator Pardek]

As you know, it's theorized that those beings on any given planet who are the most intelligent sprung forth from predators.

In 100 years, every nation on this planet will have the ability to destroy all of humanity with ease. There will still be Osama Bin Ladens - I truly doubt that man will ever reach the stars because of these facts.

I believe Sagan was right when he posited that "advanced" civilizations, by definition, will wipe themselves out (long before interstellar travel is achieved).

[#3Fan]

For all we know, there could be thousands of old mining traces in our own Belt.

Like the perfectly square tunnels of South America.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"Earth: Mostly harmless"

Excellent. You have obviously obtained a copy of The Guide that has Ford Prefect's updated entry for our planet in it.
I was unaware that he had been able to send off his report to Megadodo Publications. Where ever did you get it? =;^)