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Evolution has produced a wondrously diverse variety of lifeforms here on Earth. It just so happens that talking primates with opposable thumbs rose to the top and are building a spacefaring civilization. And we're land-dwellers. But what about other planets? If the dominant species on an ocean world builds a technological civilization of some sort, would they be able to escape their ocean home and explore space?
A new article in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society examines the idea of civilizations on other worlds and the factors that govern their ability to explore their solar systems. Its title is "Introducing the Exoplanet Escape Factor and the Fishbowl Worlds (Two conceptual tools for the search of extra-terrestrial civilizations)." The sole author is Elio Quiroga, a professor at the Universidad del Atlántico Medio in Spain.
We have no way of knowing if other Extraterrestrial Intelligences (ETIs) exist or not. There's at least some possibility that other civilizations exist, and we're certainly in no position to say for sure that they don't. The Drake Equation is one of the tools we use to talk about the existence of ETIs. It's a kind of structured thought experiment in the form of an equation that allows us to estimate the existence of other active, communicative ETIs. Some of the variables in the Drake Equation (DE) are the star formation rate, the number of planets around those stars, and the fraction of planets that could form life and on which life could evolve to become an ETI.
In his new research article, Quiroga comes up with two new concepts that feed into the DE: the Exoplanet Escape Factor and Fishbowl worlds.
[...] Quiroga's Exoplanet Escape Factor (Fex) can help us imagine what kinds of worlds could host ETIs. It can help us anticipate the factors that prevent or at least inhibit space travel, and it brings more complexity into the Drake Equation. It leads us to the idea of Fishbowl Worlds, inescapable planets that could keep a civilization planet-bound forever.
Without the ability to ever escape their planet and explore their solar systems, and without the ability to communicate beyond their worlds, could entire civilizations rise and fall without ever knowing the Universe they were a part of? Could it happen right under our noses, so to speak, and we'd never know ?
[Source]: Universe Today
[Also Covered By]: Phys.Org
An interesting conjecture worth pondering about !!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday March 02 2024, @09:12AM (3 children)
I don't believe that nonsense.
If we talk about really intelligent civilization, emerge of spirituality of some kind is inevitable in that. Why?
The concept of Spirituality itself is founded on understanding the barriers.
Even animals do understand barriers and cooperate to defeat them. This is exactly how civilizations rise to existence. Spirituality is a breaking point in mental processes which provides a breakthrough thinking by imagination, 'what if?' mode.
So, once objective presence of percepted physical or mental barrier come into consciousness, methods to overcome it inevitably become being tried and problems analyzed.
The best example for accepted human history how this actually happens is the concept of flying.
Though I am not surprised an Anticivilization invented such disgusting idea of impossibility to overcome existing barriers. For Cultists, it's in their blood. Literally.
Perhaps the Machines will teach them how to become better beings.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday March 02 2024, @11:54AM (1 child)
I am posting this for anyone doing research into people and religion. I can make no claim any of it is true. I can offer no proof of anything. This is only my attempt to document my own experience of spirituality.
I consider Religion to be created by Man, I have a very strong belief in a creator of the universe as well as the design of all life forms. This includes any processes like evolution. I define this creator as that which causes things to exist.
My belief is a result of trying to understand how stuff works.
I mostly understand the basis of how stuff we make works.
What I flat do not understand at all is the essence of life, even the existence of universe itself.
Everything I understand tells me I shouldn't exist. But my self-cognizance tells me I do.
Also those feelings I get, that tell me to either do or avoid certain things. I see that expressed in nearly life form. My mother's people, the native American Indian, were well aware of The Great Spirit. My father's people were Christian. I have noted all over the world, the "common people" are really good people, with the same basic wiring as myself.
I am so guided that I am being trained, like an AI, on Earth in a manner very similar to how we are training AI neural nets. Ethics. Love. Compassion. How to discern what is good and what is evil. Right and wrong. I feel connection to other life forms...especially sentient animals.
I am being taught by something. I don't have the right words to describe it. "Love", "Hate", "Anger", "Awe", "Happiness", "Sadness", Gratitude", and "Guilt" are the closest descriptors of my internal feedback loops ( aka "Conscience" ). I do not appear to be able to generate these on my own. They seem to appear out of thin air as a result of something I have done or done to me. "Guilt" being by far the most painful one. That one is strong enough to force me to self-immolate. I seem to have little control over them.
Most people I have talked to are aware of this same phenomenon, and use different words to describe it..."good vibes", "a bad feeling about this", " get the heebie jeebies something bad is fixing to happen", etc.
Something seems to have a DMA ( Direct Memory Access ) port into me. As an engineer, I use the only words I know to try to describe my own religious experience. Sometimes I become quite aware of activity on that port. I believe my dreams are coming in via that port, as those dreams are so targeted to teach me certain things by temporarily planting experiences in me. Apparently some drugs enhance the activity of that port. Ayahuasca. Haven't used any so I plead ignorance.
There are those before me who I believe have had more intensive encounters with this phenomenon and left texts documenting their experience. Today, these texts are known as the holy books of various religions. There are also many counterfeit texts out there, written solely for the purpose of enslaving people. How is a Religion different from a Cult? The main guidance I have on it is that a true religion recognizes the magnificence of creation and it's creator, where a cult is to recognize the authority of the human leaders of the Cult. I can't identify any Religion as being the one true belief system. This is something in you. I won't find it in a building. It is evidenced by witnessing the creation itself.
Whatever this creator is, it's artistic and engineering skills to me is beyond measure. I am simply in awe of it.
Especially the miracle of life and consciousness, all made of stuff we still can't explain what it is or where it came from. It's way over my comprehension level.
Respect creation, and don't #uck it up.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Vocal Minority on Sunday March 03 2024, @05:31AM
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I also wonder from time to time how it is that I exist when it doesn't make any sense that I do.
One big difference I have from you is that I don't just see my conscious mind as "me". I also include the unconscious processes that I am not aware of and feel ownership of the feelings and perspectives that bubble up from that (and I don't experience there being a distinct line either, there are things I am vaguely aware of, and things that suddenly "pop" into consciousness when they had previously been unconscious processes). I think that you are right, though, to identify that with spirituality/God. I think once you get deep enough down you come to some sort of a collective unconscious\forms\God.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday March 03 2024, @01:55AM
By that definition, I wouldn't be surprised to find that your Spirituality is literally impossible for anything in our universe no matter how intelligent or civilized. It would require a foot outside the sandbox.