From: kasprj@operators.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: Where is everyone? (was Re: Denial of Humanity)
Reply-To: kasprj@rpi.edu
Organization: The Big Wedge
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 02:03:53 GMT

In article <45077@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>, f3w@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Mark Gellis) writes:
|> 
|> Astronomer Michael Hart has proposed that there are no aliens, that we
|> are the first technological intelligence in the galaxy.
|> 
|> If intelligent life has existed in the galaxy for more than ten or twenty
|> million years, he argues, then an "aggressive" civilization--i.e., one with
|> enough interest in exploration and colonization that at least a small part
|> of its population would travel to nearby star systems, and after a few
|> generations those colonies would launch their own starships, and so on--
|> would have colonized the entire galaxy.  
|> 
|> Now, we evolved.  Earth was not colonized nor was it dismanted for the
|> raw materials it represented.  If the aliens are out there, why did this
|> happen?
|> 
|> Could the aliens have missed us?  Unlikely, if they made it to this part
|> of the galaxy.  Sol is larger and brighter than 95% of the stars in the
|> galaxy; it might not last as long as some stars, but five billion years 
|> is a long time even if you are immortal, and Sol represents a fortune in
|> solar kilowatts compared to your average M-type star.
 
 This is true. But maybe it's too much energy. Or maybe too little. We don't
know how likely _our_ type of life is to evolve, as opposed to some low-
temperature forms circling red dwarf stars (which are more common and more 
long-lived than our sun). Perhaps these lifeforms _have_ colonized our solar
system - out on Triton or Pluto. Earth is about as attractive to them as 
Mercury is to us. I'm not saying it's likely, but it's certainly not beyond
possibility.
 
 Conversely, perhaps the most common form of life evolved on planets of hot
blue stars like Sirius. Our sun is just too dim to be worth the trouble. 
This seems even less likely to me, but again, it could happen.

|> The only solution that makes any sense to me is that the aliens have 
|> interdicted us.  Why would they do this? 
 
 Because Political Correctness is a long-term evolutionary advantage. (-:
 
|> The one thing that aliens can get from Sol system, and from Earth, that
|> they cannot get from any other solar system is information.  Genetic
|> information-- millions of species--and, once humans evolved, cultural
|> information.
 
 I'm not convinced. Of what use would this information be? If they were 
advanced enough to travel between stars, I'd think they'd also be able to
engineer any genetic patterns they liked, rather than waiting for the slow
and haphazard method of evolution to do their work. Cultural information?
What is that? And why would they want it?
 
 One possible reason for interdiction comes from Clarke's _2001_ and sequels:
they're lonely, and would like someone - anyone - else to talk to. So they 
shelter the "backward" planets until the civilizations are ready to join the
galactic community, and foster the development of intelligence wherever 
possible. Once again, who's to say it's not true?
 
 If you think about it, and many SF writers have, there are planty of reasons
why the aliens who may be out there haven't contacted us yet. Some of them 
seem pretty far-fetched, but in a big enough cosmos, even far-fetched things 
happen eventually.
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 ___/  | Jim Kasprzak, computer operator @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA
/____ *| Why can't people stop taking things so seriously? 
     \_| "All I want is to have my peace of mind" - Boston   
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