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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: 3, Interesting) by Taibhsear on Tuesday July 18 2017, @03:40PM (1 child)
Why is electricity necessary? We didn't start with it. I can easily see an underwater technology advancement as such:
Organisms near thermal or volcanic vents notice certain rocks can be melted into more pure metals that can be worked with stone or natural tools (like mantis shrimp mallet hands). Then said metals can be fashioned into other tools or containers to generate steam power via similar volcanism or chemical reactions to generate mechanical power for propulsion or gears/pulleys/etc. Not to mention some organisms can migrate between water and air with no problems so once on land can create any necessary electrical technology or protective containers to isolate the electrical components from the ocean. Even without electricity there's still the possibility of creating photonic circuitry (much farther down the line technologically speaking). Even some aquatic organisms have "figured out" (evolved) air flight. Flying fish for example.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @03:14AM
It's necessary for the simple reason that it's not just one component or another, it's involved in pretty much every component necessary for creating, building and flying space craft. The inability to communicate without electricity alone is sufficient to warrant the assumption. Not to mention that without electricity, your capacity for developing engines is greatly reduced and building computational equipment based on fluidonic computation requires a great deal of space.
Even if you don't find that to be compelling, there's also the issue of chemistry. Developing sophisticated chemistry requires a lab environment where the chemicals don't juts float away. Between chemical reactions and electricity, it's hard to devise a method of transport that doesn't rely on either those things or biological processes to move things. To date, no living things of any meaningful size has been put into space and survived without a space craft.