The Fermi Paradox - an explanation
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Seems very unsciency…
@LuFins-Dad said in The Fermi Paradox - an explanation:
Seems very unsciency…
There you go:
The paper has not yet been peer-reviewed.
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That theory, that technology destroys civilizations before it allows them to populate the universe, is probably old and common enough that it would be difficult to pinpoint who first thought of it. The first time I heard it was when Michiu Kaku was on Art Bell's show 30 years ago.
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I also think that the dinosaurs were around for millions (hundreds of millions) of years. They were intelligent life, and if the giant meteor did not kill them all, they may still be around today.
They were intelligent life, yet never built a house, never had machines, etc.
There may many many examples of this type of intelligent life out there in the universe.
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In Reynolds' universe, intelligent life pops up all the time. Machine-capable, space-faring intelligence, that is.
But, a long time ago, the propensity to destroy themselves, and potentially others, was recognized by one of the oldest space-faring civilizations. They developed a system of AI to check on these nascent space-farers. And, as soon as they became even remotely dangerous (like with the use of nuclear weapons), the AI (Reynolds calls them "The Inhibitors") snuffs them out - all life on the planet is erased, and the threat is removed.
The builders of the AI are long-since gone, but The Inhibitors are still out there. And that's the premise of his "Revelation Space" saga.
I've commented on it before. Reynolds is not an easy read. He's very dense, very - how can I put it - assuming that you'll eventually catch on to his concepts. He doesn't explain things, though in the read, they become clear. Reynolds is a challenging and visionary science fiction writer.
From Wiki:
" Fermi's paradox is explained as resulting from the activities of an inorganic alien race referred to by its victims as the Inhibitors, which exterminates sentient races if they proceed above a certain level of technology. The trilogy consisting of Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap (the Inhibitor trilogy)[1] deals with humanity coming to the attention of the Inhibitors and the resultant war between them."
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In Reynolds' universe, intelligent life pops up all the time. Machine-capable, space-faring intelligence, that is.
But, a long time ago, the propensity to destroy themselves, and potentially others, was recognized by one of the oldest space-faring civilizations. They developed a system of AI to check on these nascent space-farers. And, as soon as they became even remotely dangerous (like with the use of nuclear weapons), the AI (Reynolds calls them "The Inhibitors") snuffs them out - all life on the planet is erased, and the threat is removed.
The builders of the AI are long-since gone, but The Inhibitors are still out there. And that's the premise of his "Revelation Space" saga.
I've commented on it before. Reynolds is not an easy read. He's very dense, very - how can I put it - assuming that you'll eventually catch on to his concepts. He doesn't explain things, though in the read, they become clear. Reynolds is a challenging and visionary science fiction writer.
From Wiki:
" Fermi's paradox is explained as resulting from the activities of an inorganic alien race referred to by its victims as the Inhibitors, which exterminates sentient races if they proceed above a certain level of technology. The trilogy consisting of Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap (the Inhibitor trilogy)[1] deals with humanity coming to the attention of the Inhibitors and the resultant war between them."
Personally, I think the most likely reason we’ve not been contacted is that the universe is inconceivably huge, and nobody’s managed to get past the speed of light limitation, which could easily be an unbreakable speed limit.
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Personally, I think the most likely reason we’ve not been contacted is that the universe is inconceivably huge, and nobody’s managed to get past the speed of light limitation, which could easily be an unbreakable speed limit.
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Fermi Paradox - an explanation:
the universe is inconceivably huge
If you watch a bit of the Reynolds TED talk, he puts that in perspective.
