[ExI] fermi question alive and well

[Dylan Distasio]

I find the most simple explanation for the Fermi paradox is that the odds
of intelligent life evolving and being able to reach a technological level
that starts at the industrial revolution and reaches the level we are at
now are infinitesimally small despite the vastness of potentially habitable
planets in the observable universe, let alone develops the abilities to be
classified as a Type 2 civilization.

The chain of events that got humanity to where we are today strikes me as
extremely unlikely based on the evidence (or lack thereof) around ETs.

Granted, we don't know the odds of even "simple" life evolving, but even if
prokaryotic (or equivalent) life is common throughout the universe, the
various leaps required to get to intelligence and later civilization where
knowledge accelerates before extinction are mind boggling as far as I'm
concerned.

On Sat, Mar 30, 2019 at 5:15 PM Stuart LaForge <avant at sollegro.com> wrote:

>
> Quoting John Clark:
>
> >> *When it comes to ET, I don't think we know precisely what we are
> looking
> >> for or how to go about looking for it.*
> >>
> >
> > We are looking for a civilization that makes use of high frequency light
> > and outputs low frequency light as a waste product, and we know exactly
> how
> > to look for it, with infrared and microwave telescopes, but we've never
> > seen even a hint of it.
>
> Admittedly Gaia is a game changer, before her it was very easy for an
> astronomer to overlook a far away Dyson sphere by mistaking it for a
> nearby brown dwarf. Especially since the farther away it was the more
> likely light from it would pass through clouds of gas and pick up
> absorption lines.
>
> Stuart LaForge
>
>
>
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