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MalabarJag · 02-03-2020, 02:39 PM

(02-03-2020, 01:36 PM)homebiscuit Wrote: The reason we haven’t found other civilizations is because of the immense vastness of space. Most people don’t realize, or simply can’t comprehend just how big the universe is.

The answer to that is how long it has been in existence.

Humanity is capable of interstellar travel, albeit there are some obstacles to overcome and it is far too expensive to contemplate anytime soon. But (say) 1000 years from now, assuming no "Great Filter" event TJ described, it should be worth colonizing planets around other stars. Using 1/10 the speed of light as a speed limit gets us to the other side of the galaxy in about a million years. By 10 million years humanity, if not stopped, will inhabit all of the inhabitable planets in the galaxy. The galaxy has been around for 13 billion years, and chemically developed to sustain advanced life for at least a billion years (Earth is 4.6 billion years old). If races capable of interstellar travel are at all common, Earth would have been colonized long ago by another race. The similarity in our DNA to even low life forms on Earth means that we originated here, we are not that other race or their offspring. It's highly likely that we are unique in our galaxy.

There are billions of other galaxies which could have such civilizations without yet reaching the Milky Way of course.

One other possibility is that some ethically superior race is keeping Earth as a zoo. That might make sense if faster than light (FTL) travel is possible, but FTL travel reduces the time required from one planet to inhabit an entire galaxy down to the rate of population growth. That would require 30 or 40 doublings, which for humans is just 3,000 to 4,000 years. That makes the possibility of one other race developing at the same time as ours essentially zero.

"Why should I give information to you when all you want to do is find something wrong with it?"