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posted by janrinok on Wednesday June 06 2018, @10:48AM   Printer-friendly
from the own-worst-enemy dept.

"Alexander Berezin, a theoretical physicist at the National Research University of Electronic Technology in Russia, has proposed a new answer to Fermi's paradox — but he doesn't think you're going to like it. Because, if Berezin's hypothesis is correct, it could mean a future for humanity that's 'even worse than extinction.'

'What if,' Berezin wrote in a new paper posted March 27 to the preprint journal arxiv.org, 'the first life that reaches interstellar travel capability necessarily eradicates all competition to fuel its own expansion?'" foxnews.com/science/2018/06/04/aliens-are-real-but-humans-will-probably-kill-them-all-new-paper-says.html

In other words, could humanity's quest to discover intelligent life be directly responsible for obliterating that life outright? What if we are, unwittingly, the universe's bad guys?

And if you are not sure what the Fermi paradox is then the link should help, and there is a long explanation of that one in the article.


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  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday June 06 2018, @09:28PM (2 children)

    by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday June 06 2018, @09:28PM (#689562)

    Is there any reason to assume the size of a moon has any bearing on it's likelihood of supporting life? For example, if Jupiter were closer to the sun Europa would potentially be quite Earth-like. It might supporting a thriving ecosystem even as it is.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday June 06 2018, @09:58PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday June 06 2018, @09:58PM (#689579) Journal

    Less surface gravity means more atmospheric escape, especially if the object is closer to the star, as it would be if Jupiter was orbiting at 1 AU. The oceans of Europa, Enceladus, Pluto, etc. are protected by an icy crust. If Europa had surface oceans instead of subsurface oceans, these would be lost to space.

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    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday June 06 2018, @10:27PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday June 06 2018, @10:27PM (#689593)

      Fair enough. Though you wouldn't want Jupiter to orbit at 1AU - Jupiter itself is a fairly potent heat source, combined with the sun it might boil away Europa's oceans long before the atmosphere could be blown away.