From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Tue Jul 23 2002 - 22:04:41 PDT
Somehow I think we're looking at this in far too human a perspective.
We are judging by what we think are moral standards that would bring
the ETI out of hidden study mode and accept us into the Galactic Club,
the United Federation of Planets, the Interstellar Empire, what have you.
I grant you that not killing each other any more could be something of
an incentive to an ETI wanting to make peaceful, civilized contact with us,
but once again we are thinking humanly on this.
For all we know they could end up only talking to the whales and dolphins.
But even more possible, they don't even know we exist yet. Or worse,
there aren't that many of them around. I don't think it's just a question
of "are we good enough for the rest of the cosmic community?", I think
it's a question of "do they even know we're alive?"
Did you know if we could send out a probe to explore a new star every
hour of every day, we still would have explored only *half* the Milky Way
galaxy in *ten million years*!
That's what I think is the answer to the Fermi Paradox: Only so many
planets have life, and only so many create life that is intelligent and
aware, and only so many of them create cultures that actually want
to explore space in person. Even then it takes a long time to study
the stars for signs of other beings. They just haven't found us yet,
or they have and their hello transmissions are taking centuries to reach
us from their location. And we are an impatient and instant self-gratification
culture that doesn't live very long and hasn't been civilized and technological
for very long, either.
And ask yourself this: What reasons do an ETI require for contact us,
either remotely or in person?
Larry
----- Original Message -----
From: David M. Ocame
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 12:28 AM
To: public@setileague.org
Subject: Re: SETI public: Jill Tarter on the Fermi Paradox
Hmmm...interesting, and it's logical. Rule number 1 - if you're not involved in the war, leave the war zone, if you can.
So then, we are being tested. And we are creating our own Final Exam? If we live beyond this technological infancy of ours, we might be mature enough, as a civilization, to warrant contact? Or something like that?
Makes sense to me.
73! Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: Noel
To: public@setileague.org
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2002 5:45 PM
Subject: SETI public: Jill Tarter on the Fermi Paradox
Dear List,
During the Bioastronomy 2002 conference in Australia at Hamilton Island
this subject was talked about during a number of sessions. There are many
possible answers to the Drake Equation that will affect the outcome of the
Fermi Paradox. One idea touted around at the conference was time it takes
a technological civilization to become stable and pass the danger zone of
self destruction. If you look at the ascent of man (and woman) as a tool maker
and plot this on a graph (vertical) and compare it to time (horizontal) you will see
an exponential curve. We all know that an exponential rise like this can't continue
indefinitely. So, it seems that there is a real danger for a technological race of
beings (like us) to eventually self destruct using their own tools (warfare).
We are in this dangerous part of the curve right now and maybe the answer to
the Fermi Paradox lies in our own troublesome existence and how we deal with it.
Noel C. Welstead
Volcor Eastern Australia
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 23 2002 - 22:14:25 PDT