[ExI] Fermi Paradox again (Was: Where’s my body’s Control Panel?)

[BillK]

On 4/13/09, Dan wrote:
>
> Yes, but you still have to establish why, in a million years, if it takes that long for a
> filter to deploy, why an ETI hasn't done some mega-engineering or other things to
> give away its presence.  Your view depends on all these things turning out right.
> I'm merely questioning that.  Why?  To me, your view just sounds like a "just so"
> story.  Why are there are no cars in the parking lot on Sunday?  The Bigfoot got
> them all.  Why is there no evidence of Bigfoot?  Well, he has superstealth powers.  :)
>


Here are two papers to consider.

An old one from 1999 blames gamma ray bursts for destroying
intelligent life. So intelligent life will only get a chance to
develop after the frequency of GRBs dies down.
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9901322

A new paper from Jan 2009 says that transmissions from ET get fainter
the longer the distance they have to travel, so that there could be
200 civilizations in our galaxy and they would never hear each other.
http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.3863

This paper is discussed here
http://arxivblog.com/?p=1167
and all the usual objections are raised in the comments.

BillK