SETI and the Cosmic Quarantine Hypothesis (Where is Everybody?)

Astrobiology Magazine ^ | October 17/05 | Steven Soter

[kanawa]

Long. Snipped as much as I could and still retain the argument.

[RadioAstronomer]

Bttt for further review. Want to answer this tonight. :-)

[keithtoo]

" Only if we can intelligently regulate our growth-obsessed and self-destructive tendencies is our civilization likely to survive long enough to achieve interstellar communication.

This is a typical BS conclusion made by someone who thinks they are thinking.

One of humanity's most self-destructive tendencies is the attempt to regulate human freedom through the regulation of growth and so-called self-destructive tendencies.

The most truly self-destructive human tendency is the need to control others.

[Sam the Sham]

Bilge.

The creator of "Dilbert" (I forget his name) once said that mankind's last invention would be the holodeck. Once people can create a private fantasy paradise for themselves they will never leave. Who would choose the pain and suffering and disappointments of real life if there were a holodeck to fulfil your every fantasy ?

So I think technologically advanced civilizations invented holodeck technology before they invented warp drives. And they had no reason to colonize or emigrate.

[Brett66]

Our global technological civilization, with its roots in the Mediterranean Bronze Age, is now arguably headed for collapse......

By most appearances, the dominant civilization on our planet is of the expansive territorial type, and is thus headed for self-destruction.

Good to know someone can predict with such certainty the future of the human race. < /sarc >

[JRandomFreeper]

The Drake equation presupposes that we aren't the first intelligent species. Drake got conned by the anthopomological assumption.

/john

[kanawa]

The conclusion bothers me too.
What about the premise tho'?
"the dominant civilization on our planet is of the expansive territorial type"

It is ironic that his conclusion just seems to be another expression of the postulated problem.

[i_dont_chat]

"Where is everybody?"

I guess WE ARE everybody!

[Coyoteman]

If civilizations exist in our galaxy with levels of technology at least equal to our own, we might be able to detect some of them using radio telescopes. And if civilizations exist with technologies far in advance of our own, we might expect them to have colonized millions of habitable worlds in the Milky Way, and even to have visited our own planet.

Another alternative: civilizations exist which do not communicate using radio or even the electromagnetic spectrum as we know it. Lots of possibilities out there.

In fact, the lack of radio communications may actually suggest other civilizations are using different, and more advanced, methods. Just as we discovered the radio some 100 years ago, perhaps we will discover the next method of communication in a few years.

[kanawa]

Who would choose the pain and suffering and disappointments of real life if there were a holodeck to fulfil your every fantasy ?

The fact that it is not real might deter some.

[BenLurkin]

Even if there are other civilizations close enough to us to make contact -- we are probably better off if they don't know we are here.

[beef]

So, if we don't submit to being ruled by liberals, the aliens will destroy us. Sounds like a plank for the Dem's '08 platform.

[JustDoItAlways]

In terms of colonization and why we haven't been visited, it may simply be impossible to travel between the stars.

The best spaceships we can currently think of would take at least 1,000 years to travel to the nearest star. What if they actually got there and found out there was nothing particularly interesting in this new solar system, certainly no habitable planets. Start out on another 1,000 year trek to next star, only to find the same thing?

There are other civilizations out there. We will eventually hear one of them through SETI. Then we can send back a message that will take 5,000 years to get there. Maybe there is no interstellar communication as well no interstellar travel. It might just be that facts are facts.

[XEHRpa]

> This is a typical BS conclusion made by someone who thinks they are thinking.

They've been around for centuries. They even have a name: Malthusians.

[JRandomFreeper]

Maybe. So far. And we haven't done too badly (as far as I'm concerned).

/john

[AntiGuv]

[Dark Skies]

Reading this article, I fell asleep and hit my head on my keyboard...a regular occurance.

But the issue is not the detection of life that might not want to be detected. Isn't it the resolution of the issue that thousands...maybe even millions...of people believe they have been abducted since childhood.

Do I believe? Actually, I have no experience in this matter so I have not formed an opinion. But many traumatized humans have the same story of abduction by the same creatures doing the same sexual probing and testing.

I have an idea what might be happening...but it is just a theory.

But why do scientists look where evidence IS NOT... and ignore where evidence IS.

If this were a crime, these detectives would be laughed out of town.

[RadioAstronomer]

In fact, the lack of radio communications may actually suggest other civilizations are using different, and more advanced, methods. Just as we discovered the radio some 100 years ago, perhaps we will discover the next method of communication in a few years.

For long haul comm, EM is the easy way of doing it. Fast (speed of light) and does not take the energy required to produce gravity waves. I would place money on the table that EM is still the best method for long haul comm even 10,000 years from now.

[Dallas59]

"By most appearances, the dominant civilization on our planet is of the expansive territorial type, and is thus headed for self-destruction."

What dominant civilization could they be talking about????? Gee...let me guess...

[Bogey78O]

He makes a logical fallacy assuming an advanced civilization would prohibit an aggressive destructive civilization from advancing. Just look at the West vs. the Arab world for proof of the opposite.