Kaku was one of the original string field theorists, a paradigm that holds that the universe is composed of perhaps seven more dimensions than we observe in our daily lives. If that s true, an unthinkably sophisticated biological species could even now be traversing the galaxy and beyond by simply stepping through doorways. AI may take some inspiration from biological systems and on our side I think there s going to be a blurring over time between the mechanical and the biological. Whatever superior intelligence emerges from human ingenuity will be the first that the Milky Way has seen, asserts physicist Frank J. Tipler of Tulane University. Tipler calculates that Earth s hospitality to complex life is exceedingly rare to start with.
Intelligence is just one very costly survival tool.
On another world, the equivalent of an australopithecine like Lucy may have evolved bigger fangs and claws, or wings, instead of bequeathing bigger brains to posterity. UCLA professor of physics and astronomy Benjamin Zuckerman seconds Tipler s doubts about extraterrestrial intelligence but shies away from any spiritual readings into its implications. Although it predates the Drake Equation, it s often used as a riposte to it. People play enormous games with the Drake Equation. He s a strict empiricist.