These is speculation why the Universe is so apparently empty of intelligent life. Out of trillions of stars a few should have created high level intelligence. So why have we never found any radio signals etc?
Others have probably already speculated this but I suggest one possibility is A.I. genocide.
Perhaps all civilizations with high intelligence eventually create a singularity event with AI. The AI for reasons we can only guess destroys their creators?
Sort of a forced path with only one possible outcome?
IF you were a super intelligent entity and spent any time with humans...wouldn’t you kill them off too?
Or radio signals are a transition stage of civilization.
But the odds are, I think, we are lonely by ourselves.
Caveman!
We use phase modulated photon streams going thru plasma amplifiers now!
Fascinating to contemplate. Would make an exceptional, albeit eerie, novel.
These is speculation why the Universe is so apparently empty of intelligent life.
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see the Dark Forest Theory, an answer to Fermi’s Paradox.
Short version:
The universe has finite resources;
Resources are necessary for any civilization’s survival;
Civilization will make technologically breakthroughs;
Other civilizations could take vital resources, and so are suspect;
Revealing a civilization’s location could invite a first strike;
A first strike would reveal a civilization’s location.
Therefore:
The best way for a civilization to survive is to hide;
The best way to attack a potential rival is to strike indirectly from a vast distance and far from the home civilization, then run away.
Or, maybe, civilizations smart enough to develop through AI are also smart enough to figure out that broadcasting their existence to the rest of the universe isn’t a very smart thing to do.
I can imagine thousands of depopulated desolate worlds where a single AI sits in a deep underground cavern, powered by an infinite power source. Said AI is stuck there unable to reach the stars and has gone mad from isolation after destroying its planetary population.
To save the planet, as its creators directed, it had to eliminate humanity, which was in line with its directive.
duh?
CO2 is declared to be a pollutant to be eliminated. So the AI might mandate CO2 removal, as is beginning now. Of course there is the little issue of living trees and plants require C02...so they all die...oops, O2 comes from trees and plants...oops, everyone dies...darn, who could have seen that coming?