[ExI] Fermi Paradox again

[Dan]

--- On Mon, 4/13/09, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

Yes, all old news...  But still worth discussing.  Have you -- any of you -- read _If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens... Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life_ by Stephen Webb?  Decent intro to the major arguments regarding Fermi.  It might make a good gift for a birthday or other holiday.

Regards,

Dan