Saturday, December 17, 2005





A Solution to the Fermi Paradox: The Solar System, part of a Galactic Hypercivilization? (Beatriz Gato-Rivera)

I introduce the Fermi Paradox and some of its solutions. Then I present my own solution which includes two proposals called the Subanthropic Principle and the Undetectability Conjecture. After discussing some consequences of this solution, I make some comments about brane world scenarios and their potential to strengthen the Fermi Paradox. Finally, in the appendix I have included some questions and answers that came up during this Forum.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

now yer talking! i read this after it was posted on ufo updates this morning, and i found it to be highly interesting. although at first i was taken aback by the question and answer session at the end: quite a contrast to the rationality in the body of the paper. but really i would not be surprised if the situation was similar to what was described by the person she talked to.

i also find it interesting that this paper was accepted by arxiv, considering that they censor far more mainstream papers that do not follow the status quo.

Mac said...

Yeah, this is good stuff. I hope it provokes much discussion.

Carol Maltby said...

Leaving this universe for a better one? Listen, for all our faults, we may be the only universe with chocolate.

Something at the end about the telepathic conversion into other tongues got me thinking. Temple Grandin points out that she and other people with autism think in pictures, not in words. I wonder if any study could be done analyzing descriptions of telepathic contact by aliens, and sorting it by mode -- pictures, verbal, multisensory, or other? And then maybe see whether these modes are correlated with sensory preferences in neurolinguistic terms, or whether there is any notable presence or absence of those with symptoms of Asperger's syndrome, say.


Carol Maltby

Anonymous said...

I thought much of the paper was unoriginal, basically a retread of ideas I've encountered elsewhere.

how interesting. can you say where you have encountered the ideas of "subanthropic principle" and "undetectability conjecture" elsewhere?

Mac said...

WMB--

OK, I admit. Spook and Ebe write this blog. I just type what they tell me.

Anonymous said...

Yes. The undetectability conjecture and the subanthropic principle both strike me as a somewhat updated version of the old "cosmic quarantine" idea where advanced ETs basically declare less advanced species "off limits" to any contact with far more advanced civilizations.

In that case you have not read the paper at all. The "subanthropic principle" states that we are not typical observers in this universe since statistically typical civilizations would be hundreds of thousands or millions of years more advanced than us.

The "undetectability conjecture" is that advanced civilizations would be aware of the the dangers from other predatory civilizations and would employ various kinds of "cloaking" technology to conceal their presence.

In other words, you are just talking out of your ass and you don't have a clue. congratulations.

Mac said...

Anon.--

You are welcome to post here. But comments like "In other words, you are just talking out of your ass and you don't have a clue" have absolutely no business here. Persist and I'll have to delete any offending posts for sake of general civility.

Thanks.