Transcript
Here's a depressing theory for why aliens have not visited the Earth and why they might never visit. These are the sorts of things that I think of on my way to play volleyball. First off, let's say that we evolved naturally on Earth, and those conditions exist elsewhere in the universe, so other life forms have existed, or do exist right now. But what are the odds that they're at the exact same stage of development that we are? Pretty low, which means some are probably way, way ahead of us, or at least have had the time to get way ahead of us. to travel between the stars, and so far it looks like, who knows if we can actually get past light speed, but it does seem like it will be possible, technologically feasible, to travel between the stars. So where are they? Some theorize that we haven't seen them yet because life is inherently self-extinguishing. Think about it. In the 50,000 or so years that humans have been progressing technologically, we now have developed the ability to basically destroy our entire planet. Not only that, we can destroy it with nukes, but we can also wipe out our species. with some sort of crazy bioengineered virus. We can deplete the entire contents of our planetary resources to the point where it can no longer sustain life. And who knows, maybe along the technological development path, there will be a very easy way that we could accidentally create a black hole and just entirely wipe out our planet. So if the evolutionary drive to succeed and develop in a way that actually lets us develop technology is paired with all these pitfalls that could potentially wipe out a species, then it could be that pretty much every species that has ever existed, assisted, wipes itself out before it gets to the point of being able to travel amongst the stars. Depressing, right?
Additional notes
If aliens are reading this: Hi! I would like 3 phnorgleblasters please. Delivered by tuesday if possible.
References
- No linked source, study title, DOI, or PMID found in the available source material.