[ExI] for the fermi paradox fans

Keith Henson hkeithhenson at gmail.com
Thu Jun 5 17:53:06 UTC 2014


On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 5:00 AM,   "spike" <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>
> Where the hell is everybody?

I don't think anyone knows, but my guess is that we will know in a generation.

There are two main choices, one is that we are the first.  In which
case the future is flat out unknown.  I know it seems unlikely given
the scale of the universe or even the galaxy, but someone has to be
first.

The other is that all technically inclined races find a hole in the
universe that allows them to escape this "vale of tears."

If I was forced to guess, I would say that hole is uploading and
probably massive speeding up.  If that's the case, technically
inclined species never leave their star system, and probably don't
even leave their home planet--ever.

Sigh.  Such a comedown if this is right.

I have a copy of the 1975 Space Manufacturing Facilities conference at
Princeton.  Things were looking so bright in those days, but even then
the seeds were not too far from sprouting.

Richard Feynman had written "There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom" in
1959 and Eric Drexler was only four years from finding it and only 6
years from his first nanotechnology paper in _Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences_.

Keith



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