[ExI] Lethal future was Watson on NOVA

[Richard Loosemore]

Keith Henson wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 12:38 AM,  Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 03:13:18PM -0500, David Lubkin wrote:
>>
>>> I'm still pissed at Sagan for his hubris in sending a message to the
>>> stars without asking the rest of us first, in blithe certainty that "of
>>> course" any recipient would have evolved beyond aggression and
>>> xenophobia.
>> The real reasons if that they would be there you'd be dead, Jim.
>> In fact, if any alien picks up the transmission (chance: very close
>> to zero) they'd better be farther advanced than us, and on a
>> faster track. I hope it for them.
> 
> I have been mulling this over for decades.
> 
> We look out into the Universe and don't (so far) see or hear any
> evidence of technophilic civilization.
> 
> I see only two possibilities:
> 
> 1)  Technophilics are so rare that there are no others in our light cone.
> 
> 2)  Or if they are relatively common something wipes them *all* out,
> or, if not wiped out, they don't do anything which indicates their
> presence.
> 
> If 1, then the future is unknown.  If 2, it's probably related to
> local singularities.  If that's the case, most of the people reading
> this list will live to see it.

Well, not really an extra one, but I count four items in your 2-item list:

1)  Technophilics are so rare that there are no others in our light cone.

2)  If they are relatively common, there is something that wipes them 
*all* out (by the time they reach this stage they foul their own nest 
and die), or

3)  They are relatively common and they don't do anything which 
indicates their presence, because they are too scared that someone else 
will zap them, or

4)  They are relatively common and they don't do anything which 
indicates their presence, because they use communications technology 
that does not leak the way ours does.


Richard Loosemore