[ExI] fermi question alive and well

[Stuart LaForge]

John Clark wrote:

>  We could [spot] a Kardashev Type 2 civilization anywhere in the  
> galaxy and a type 3 anywhere in the observable universe.

Could we spot a Type 2 civilization on the other side of the galactic  
bulge with all the intervening dust and gas? How about one just on the  
other side of Barnard 68?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard_68

And Type 3 civilizations are not possible without FTL. How do you hold  
a galactic civilization together when it takes 70,000 years to get  
news at the speed of light from the frontier? Think about how  
unmanageable the Roman Empire became when the communication lag with  
the frontier was months instead of tens of millennia. And these are  
supposed to be machines that live at faster subjective speeds than we  
do? Are super-smart machine intelligences superhumanly patient as well?

Stuart LaForge