[extropy-chat] FWD [forteana] Re: Aliens at the Science Museum

[Terry W. Colvin]

Tim Chapman wrote:

> http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1555324,00.html
> But, as the physicist Enrico Fermi once asked, in a question now known
> as Fermi's paradox: "Where is everybody?"

Hi TIm,
a bit like Olber's, Fermi's "paradox" is no such thing, merely a
product of our - hopefully temporary - ignorance.

In simple terms Fermi's complaint is like a rugrat moaning "why
don't those tall people talk to _us_?" or, more closely, like an
octopus saying "theoretically it's possible for beings to live on
dry land but we see no evidence for it!"

Ie - the `paradox' is meaningless because we're not yet equipped
to "see" or "hear" communications among advanced civilizations -
as Carl Sagan said ""A civilization very much more advanced than
we will be engaged in a busy communications traffic with its
peers; but not with us, and not via technologies accessible to
us."
("Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence" - 1973 p.
366)

cheers
Ray D



-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
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