From: Doug Skrecky (oberon@vcn.bc.ca)
Date: Wed Jan 27 1999 - 02:38:07 MST
Question: Where are all the ETs?
The problem: Picture the following. Ten thousand years from now the
first self-replicating InterStellar Probe is launched from Earth. In
another ten thousand years it encounters a habitable planet in another
solar system. It then proceeds to build a factory which can manufacture
other probes, and in time terraform the planet, and accomplish other
tasks that it has been programed with. Millions, billions and then
trillions of other probes are sent out and eventually in say 10 to 100
million years all solar systems in the entire galaxy has been visited.
We presume there must be other planets with life on them, and further
presume that some must have intelligent life on then. There seem to exist
no technical or other reasons for why at least one self-replicating
InterStellar probe has not then launched by at least one intelligent
species in the past. No probes have ever been detected, therefore these
probes do not exist, therefore the intelligent species that could have
launched them do not exist. The problem is to account for why no such old
ETs exist.
One possible answer may be found in the January 23,1999 issue of New
Scientist. James Annis, an astrophysicist thinks old ETs did not exist
because gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have repeatedly sterilized large parts of
our galaxy before intelligent life has had time to evolve. Presumably
only the most radiation resistant bacteria buried deep in the mantle
could survive a nearby GRB - but evolution would still be reset
effectively to zero each time a nearby GRB occurred. The rate that GRBs
occur in our galaxy was much more frequent in the past - once every few
million years. This could account for why old ET civilizations never
existed, as there was never enough time for intelligent life to evolve
before a sterilizing event occurred. Now that these GRBs occur only every
few hundred million years, has it become possible for a few lucky planets
(such as Earth) to avoid being fried long enough for intelligent life to
evolve. In earth's case I assume this reprieve has been at least the last
600 million years since the end of the precambrian era, though possibly a
distant GRB might account for the mass extinction event at the end of the
Permian epoch?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:02:56 MST