[ExI] Lethal future was Watson on NOVA

[Keith Henson]

On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 12:38 AM,  Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 03:13:18PM -0500, David Lubkin wrote:
>
>> I'm still pissed at Sagan for his hubris in sending a message to the
>> stars without asking the rest of us first, in blithe certainty that "of
>> course" any recipient would have evolved beyond aggression and
>> xenophobia.
>
> The real reasons if that they would be there you'd be dead, Jim.
> In fact, if any alien picks up the transmission (chance: very close
> to zero) they'd better be farther advanced than us, and on a
> faster track. I hope it for them.

I have been mulling this over for decades.

We look out into the Universe and don't (so far) see or hear any
evidence of technophilic civilization.

I see only two possibilities:

1)  Technophilics are so rare that there are no others in our light cone.

2)  Or if they are relatively common something wipes them *all* out,
or, if not wiped out, they don't do anything which indicates their
presence.

If 1, then the future is unknown.  If 2, it's probably related to
local singularities.  If that's the case, most of the people reading
this list will live to see it.

Keith

PS.  If anyone can suggest something that is not essentially the same
two situations, please speak up.