[ExI] Alien Civilizations May Only Be Detectable For A Cosmic Blink Of An Eye

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 20/10/2025 23:52, BillK wrote:
> Our problem is that we can't know what these uploaded civs will be like.
> Our sun won't die for around 5 billion years. The uploads are living
> at perhaps a million times faster than those years. They are
> effectively immortal. What will they be thinking or developing during
> that time?
> Their high-speed connectivity may lead to some kind of giant
> distributed intelligence. 'Individuals' may not even exist anymore, so
> they could not decide to leave and go off exploring in the physical
> world. (Of course they could explore in virtual worlds that were
> created for them). An uploaded group mind should be able to
> self-correct any mental problems that arise.

That makes me think of something else, another possibility re. a 'great 
filter'.

The challenges facing biological civilisations might fade into 
insignificance compared to the problems uploaded civs. might face, once 
they start to tinker with their mental processes. There are probably 
many ways that a group intelligence, for instance, might go 
catastrophically wrong. It's already been pointed out here that there 
are dangers to being able to modify your own mind. That might be a 
greater filter than the one facing intelligent biological life. And 
besides, the more intelligent you get, the easier it is to invent (even 
accidentally) a 'doomsday weapon'.
There are probably a whole set of filters, maybe without end. Maybe the 
fate of all intelligent life is to fuck itself over, sooner or later.
Maybe the clouds around the Tabby stars are not an alien civilisation, 
but the ruins of one. Which, from a distance, might not look too 
different from a natural phenomenon.

This kind of speculation reminds me of probably the only decent idea in 
Cixin Liu's 'Three-Body Problem', Cosmic Sociology.

-- 
Ben