[ExI] Galactic civilizations may be impossible

[Keith Henson]

On Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 2:32 AM BillK via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> Galactic civilizations may be impossible. Here’s why.
> December 11, 2024   Adam Frank
>
> The problem for galactic-scale civilizations comes down to two numbers.
> For galactic-scale civilizations to exist in our Universe, they would
> have to overcome two major hurdles related to physics and biology.
> <https://bigthink.com/13-8/galactic-civilizations-may-be-impossible-heres-why/>
>
> One is the sheer distance between each society.

If what we see in the cluster around Tabby's star is aliens, distance
up to a couple of thousand light years does not seem to inhibit
spreading out.  To what extent (if any) the cluster of stars might be
considered a single society is a good question.

If you don't have FTL, it does take a while to go long distances.  But
slow your perception down enough (warp 8) and you can cross the galaxy
in a subjective day.

> The other is biological life span.

Now for this group, a limit on biological lifespan is silly.
Nanotechnology should allow keeping a lifeform repaired as long as you
want, and of course, we have uploading as an alternative.

Been discussed here for decades.

Keith

> Astronomer Adam Frank outlines the difficulties with each problem.
> ----------------------
>
> Reality is a pain. Spoiling all our fun!
> BillK
>
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