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After decades of searching, we still haven't discovered a single sign of extraterrestrial intelligence. Probability tells us life should be out there, so why haven't we found it yet?
The problem is often referred to as Fermi's paradox, after the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Enrico Fermi, who once asked his colleagues this question at lunch. Many theories have been proposed over the years. It could be that we are simply alone in the universe or that there is some great filter that prevents intelligent life progressing beyond a certain stage. Maybe alien life is out there, but we are too primitive to communicate with it, or we are placed inside some cosmic zoo, observed but left alone to develop without external interference. Now, three researchers think they think they[sic] may have another potential answer to Fermi's question: Aliens do exist; they're just all asleep.
According to a new research paper accepted for publication in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, extraterrestrials are sleeping while they wait. In the paper, authors from Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute and the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade Anders Sandberg, Stuart Armstrong, and Milan Cirkovic argue that the universe is too hot right now for advanced, digital civilizations to make the most efficient use of their resources. The solution: Sleep and wait for the universe to cool down, a process known as aestivating (like hibernation but sleeping until it's colder).
Understanding the new hypothesis first requires wrapping your head around the idea that the universe's most sophisticated life may elect to leave biology behind and live digitally. Having essentially uploaded their minds onto powerful computers, the civilizations choosing to do this could enhance their intellectual capacities or inhabit some of the harshest environments in the universe with ease.
[Related]:
The idea that life might transition toward a post-biological form of existence
Sandberg and Cirkovic elaborate in a blog post
The Dominant Life Form in the Cosmos Is Probably Superintelligent Robots
Where even 3 degrees Kelvin is not cold enough, do you think that we would ever make contact with any alien ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @06:24AM (7 children)
Electricity might be more difficult but I don't think it's a showstopper given there's stuff like electric eels.
Developing fire and associated tech-paths is probably an issue. Harder to smelt stuff without stuff like fire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @06:30AM (5 children)
As soon as coral grows high enough to breach the surface of the water, land animals can evolve on top of coral, and eventually fire can be invented.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday July 18 2017, @07:02AM (4 children)
The idea is that these ocean planets have extremely deep oceans. Can coral grow to become 100+ km tall? And even if some sort of coral land plateau magically forms, there won't be any metal production up there. Your stone tools will actually be made of coral and will be used to scrape lichen off the coral (until you starve).
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @07:20AM (3 children)
100 km coral reef? lol is that the major obstacle.
Yes, we developed the eye, the nervous system, immune system, but 100 km coral...pfft are you nute?
A lot "just happens" in 3-4 billion years.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday July 18 2017, @07:29AM (2 children)
If it "just happens", why don't we have undersea mountains of dead coral poking out of the deepest parts of the oceans? Maybe because it's physically impossible.
Everest is about 9 km high and 100 km is the shallow water level on some ocean planets.
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(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:27AM
Because ocean floor gets completely replaced every few million years?????
Right... please, point me to some ocean planets that don't exist just in your (or someone else's) imagination. Unless someone goes there and measures things, all we have is imagination. Like imagination about internal structure of Jupiter or our Sun. Heck, we never even drilled into the mantle of Earth! All we have is indirect measurements (which is sooo much better than about any other planet, never mind plants outside our Solar System).
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday July 18 2017, @03:19PM
Where are you getting this number from? The deepest point in Earth's oceans is just shy of 11 km.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday July 18 2017, @07:05AM
Volcanicity might be used to provide the required heat.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.