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A review by wacosinker
If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... Where Is Everybody?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life by Stephen Webb
5.0
Enjoyable throughout, though I almost regret having read it because I agree with the author's answer to the Fermi paradox. The "Sieve of Fermi", which is a stacked probability equation, makes sense. Weber to conclude, The only thing sadder than being the lone intelligence, or for all practical purposes, a lone intelligent species, is the thought they we might well extinguish ourselves.
Andy Revikin's thoughts on the paradox, as shared to Adam Frank via Twitter, 8,14,2016.
1. "The galaxy is quiet because there are two kinds of outcomes when intelligence emerges.
a) Burnout and extinction as the capacity to innovate outpaces the capacity for ethical judgement and complexity judgement.
b) Planets that survive are those that thread the needle and thrive in a "small" and very quiet way.
2. The galaxy is quiet because intelligence is implicitly ultimately maladaptive. After what can sometimes be a spectacular, even brilliant, run, 1a is an inevitable result.
I'm hoping for number 1. (Brad Allenby has a third notion -- we're presuming intelligent life is intelligible to us.
Andy Revikin's thoughts on the paradox, as shared to Adam Frank via Twitter, 8,14,2016.
1. "The galaxy is quiet because there are two kinds of outcomes when intelligence emerges.
a) Burnout and extinction as the capacity to innovate outpaces the capacity for ethical judgement and complexity judgement.
b) Planets that survive are those that thread the needle and thrive in a "small" and very quiet way.
2. The galaxy is quiet because intelligence is implicitly ultimately maladaptive. After what can sometimes be a spectacular, even brilliant, run, 1a is an inevitable result.
I'm hoping for number 1. (Brad Allenby has a third notion -- we're presuming intelligent life is intelligible to us.