Psience Quest

There Used to Be Aliens in Our Galaxy, but They Killed Themselves Off


Caroline Delbert

Quote: But there’s a problem with that line of thinking. A civilization that we’d see from this far away, let alone one that could have built something like a Dyson sphere, is likely to be peering back at us.

Quote:These researchers wanted to add nuance to the discussion by increasing the depth of their analysis, and they wanted to gauge how relatively “old” any alien civilizations are likely to be. This is a critical factor in whether or not a civilization can even travel in space or put out intergalactic feelers, because they can only do that from a key “sweet spot.”

Quote:They could even be extinct. In fact, the research includes parameters for extinction and the idea of “self annihilation,” a probability that could be extraordinarily high.

I've always wondered about these self-annihilation assumptions.  They seem so anthropomorphic to me.  Why should we assume that an uber-advanced life form would have such tendencies?