[ExI] Silence in the sky-but why?

[spike]

>>...the NASA deep space images show galaxies, jillions of them,
disappearing in the unimaginably vast distance, any direction we gaze...

Subject: Re: [ExI] Silence in the sky-but why?

On Sun, Sep 1, 2013 at 6:46 PM, Adrian Tymes  wrote:
> No offense, spike, but making conclusions based on that is a fallacy 
> just like assuming that there must be other civilizations out there 
> just because there are so many stars. 


I had another thought on this, which may not be in our ever-expanding
catalog of possible explanations for the silence of the cosmos.

We have mention before that we need to master the use of iron and the other
heavy elements, nearly all the elements on the chart for that matter, before
advanced technology is even possible.  It is possible that some planets,
otherwise inhabitable, would be too short of metals, or that they could be
inaccessible, as in the case of an ocean planet with no dry land.

Advanced life forms might also need some supply of abundant fossil fuel or
some access to practically unlimited quantities of concentrated energy, as
in our case with coal.  This notion then suggests that our current attempt
at a singularity is a one-shot event.  If we fail this time, this
millennium, then the supply of easily-attainable energy is gone forever.  If
we burn up the coal beds and the oil in the next few hundred years and fail
to develop something renewable and sustainable, it is too easy to envision
human populations dwindling back down to the actual steady-state carrying
capacity of the planet for our size mammal, perhaps a billion souls, but
without the ability to develop or even maintain current technology.  Then we
would be unable to advance beyond what I have envisioned as an AD1000-ish
level of technology for lack of easily-available energy.  Even at current
intelligence levels, humankind would be stuck at that level of technology
indefinitely, with no clear path forward.

So this current surge towards a singularity may be a one-shot deal, do it
now or do it not, forever.

spike