[ExI] fermi paradox

[Kevin Freels]

> Do you understand how science works? 
Yes. And science does something really neat. Over time, we learn new and 
exciting things. We learn to do things that were previously thought 
impossible. And the last I checked, it was not a regular practice to 
totally disregard the improbable as if it were impossible. Saying that 
ALL civilizations destroy themselves because we can't see ANY  is just 
too big of a leap. Saying that there we are ALONE based on such a small 
amount of data (relatively) is a big leap as well. Especially this early 
in the game. I don't pretend to know the answer. But I am not confounded 
by the paradox either. I simply think we have much more to learn before 
we can draw that line. If we don't blow ourselves up and we run into 
other civilizations in the the future I will be proven right. If 
humanity dies, I may have been wrong. But even then it wouldn't be certain.

> Does negative proof ring a bell?
>   
    That was my point. Negative proof doesn't work. But just because I 
can't prove something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It may mean that I 
lack the tools or the knowledge to prove it. But again, I am not stating 
that I can prove the paradox is wrong right at this moment. I am looking 
at this from a historical perspective and seeing that the paradox may 
only a problem because we make too many assumptions. Our technology is 
still young.
> If it't not observable, even in principle, we don't have to spend any thought on it.
> There is an infinity of such things, and our resources are very finite.
>   
Again, not true. I didn't say it was not observable at all. Only very 
difficult to observe with our current tools. Again, there is a 
difference. Why all the black and white reasoning? If no one spent 
thought on anything except what they could readily observe with the 
tools they already had, where would we be?

> None, unfortunately.
>   
lol. You do have a sense of humor. I apologize.
>
> Any particular reason you top-posted this, without trimming citations?
>
>   
Yes. I was accessing from work though a webmail account and it was 
giving me all sorts of formatting trouble and would error forcing me to 
start over. After a few attempts I just top-posted to get the brief 
version of what I wanted to say out.
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