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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: 4, Funny) by KritonK on Tuesday July 18 2017, @07:59AM (6 children)
Aliens are already on Earth. It' just that we... I mean they are hiding from y... I mean us.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @08:32AM (2 children)
Learn pronouns, alien idiots.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @08:40AM
Zhe sounded just fine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @01:01PM
yeah because I don't know about you but when I'm on my deathbed,
I'm going to moan over how I didn't correct everyone's grammar on
the intertubes, and only caught a few. hey, sounds like a religion
someone could get behind!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday July 18 2017, @03:05PM (2 children)
You jest, but there's a fellow named "Crazy John" that thinks I'm an alien. He also thinks he's been abducted by aliens before.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 4, Funny) by DECbot on Tuesday July 18 2017, @05:33PM
So, can you tell us about the time you abducted Crazy John?
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @05:35PM
There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis