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by deeeeplearning 2065 days ago
You talk like this is all expected to be done by 21st century humans when in reality if there were civilizations out there capable of doing this colonization they would likely be millions of years our elders and its incredibly foolish to try to guess their intentions or the capabilities of their technology. Your view is painfully anthropocentric.

Just to add, there are plenty of valid criticisms or plausible solutions to the Fermi paradox but I think you've failed to identify a single one.
1 comments
bena 2065 days ago
You talk like this is all a forgone conclusion. Technology is not magic. Time is not a salve that solves all issues.

You say that my view is "painfully anthropocentric", but how?

It seems your only response is "but aliens". That is not good enough.

You want to say that it is foolish of me to try and guess their intentions and capabilities, but that's what the paradox does as well. It assumes their intentions are to colonize and their capabilities allow it. With no proof. The only life we have to base anything off of is right here.

And if you think I haven't identified a single valid criticism of the Fermi paradox, then I'm just going to assume you aren't aware of the criticisms.

I've basically touched on this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#Economic_explana...

So no, I'm not saying that just because it can't be done now, it can't be done ever. I'm saying the Fermi Paradox is basically saying "Once you solve these incredibly hard problems, this becomes easy."

I think the Fermi Paradox is phrased wrong. It should state that if it were possible to colonize the galaxy, it would have been done by now.

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SturgeonsLaw 2064 days ago
> You say that my view is "painfully anthropocentric", but how?

I'm not OP but the idea of thinking in terms of "return on investment" strikes me as very 20th century humanity.

Who's to say a future society wouldn't consider finding another civilisation to be a massive ROI? Or that a post-scarcity society living under Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism would even care about a return, instead of just doing things because they care to do them?

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