OkieHawk wrote:Alright, after reading about the Fermi Paradox (glad to have learned about it at least) there is a slight flaw in it's assumption. This flaw is that we are applying our knowledge of human technology and trying to use it as the basis for alien technology. If there is intelligent life elsewhere, isn't there the possibility that they have a way of shielding their transmissions from us? Or, it may be something that we have heard, but didn't realize what it really was.
I realize that this is part of the counterpoint to Fermi, and one that I agree with.
The problem with this solution to the paradox, and there is more than one..but I will address one..is that it requires massive uniformity of motive and approach. Optimists believe the galaxy may be the home of a million civilizations (a number that will surely increase with the new Red Dwarf idea). Perhaps SOME of them would "shield" themselves from us, put us under a kind of Star Trek-ian quarantine. But the explanation requires all civilizations to behave the same way. It also requires, if youre saying they shield themselves from us, more advanced civilizations. What about the onces that arent? The galaxy "should" have thousands and thousands of civilizations that have billions of years of head starts on us..
Actually, the problem may be even worse. It may not just require uniformity among all cultures, but among individuals. In hyper advanced (K3) level of civiliazations presumably individuals would have the capability to communicate with the stars.
As far as the objection that we see UFOs.. well.. the extraordinary claims about UFOs are never provided hand in hand with extraordinary evidence. Certainly there are some things we cant explain.. of course. Not all murders are are solved either. But its a big jump from "lights in the sky" to "oh, must be aliens".
“If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give them a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.”