The Fermi Paradox, and growth of urban legend (“better” retellings)

[Multicolored Lemur]

See also the YouTube:
“An Octopus' Coconut Home”

On a flat ocean bottom without hiding spots, the smart octopus carried two coconut shells.

Just as an example that intelligence can be quite different than human intelligence.

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Next up . . .

How ice-encrusted Europa and many similar worlds could evolve life.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

Jupiter's moon Europa

Maybe life?

Where Are All the Intelligent Aliens? Maybe They're Trapped in Buried Oceans

E.T. may be out there, silently swimming in frigid oceans beneath miles and miles of ice.

www.space.com

' . . Last week [2017], planetary scientist Alan Stern offered up another idea: Maybe intelligent life is widespread throughout the galaxy but most of it lives in deep, dark subsurface oceans that are cut off from the rest of the cosmos. . '

' . . Buried oceans also provide a far more stable environment than surface waters do, potentially giving life more time, on average, to evolve intelligence and complexity, added Stern, who's based at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.


'"Impacts and solar flares, and nearby supernovae, and what orbit you're in, and whether you have a magnetosphere, and whether there's a poisonous atmosphere — none of those things matter," he told Space.com. . '

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Or maybe not.

Interesting.

In either case, it’s another possible place for life, potentially even intelligent life.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

Europa Up Close | Why Europa – NASA's Europa Clipper

Earth’s first mission to conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon, Europa. NASA’s Europa Clipper will determine if this ocean world has environments suitable for life to exist.

europa.nasa.gov

Even though smaller than Earth, Europa might have more water. Or maybe not . . . because the thickness of the ice might be on the high side of the estimates.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

on Earth . . .

black smoker by Galápagos Islands

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white smokers elsewhere

“ . . The food chain . . . relies on a core process called chemosynthesis, which is carried out by bacteria. . ”

Hydrothermal vents: survival at the ocean's hot springs

Oceans are crucial for life on Earth - but did it begin at a hydrothermal vent?

www.nhm.ac.uk

And from this chemical source of energy, life can get larger and more complex, to octopi and dolphins [didn’t happen on Earth, or rather happened from photosynthesis chain of life] and perhaps life we’ve never even thought of.

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And on Europa, due to Jupiter’s tidal flexing of the moon, might potentially be a somewhat similar situation [but without the competition from the photosynthesis chain of life].

Or, it might not.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

The Dark Forest Hypothesis

“The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him.”

Beyond "Fermi's Paradox" XVI: What is the "Dark Forest" Hypothesis? - Universe Today

A recent addition to the list of possible resolutions to the Fermi Paradox: nobody is broadcasting because they don't want to be found!

www.universetoday.com

Besides species viewing their own survival as essential (of course they do!), there is the issue of “when meeting other civilizations, where communication is extremely difficult and intentions cannot be gauged.” This is compounded by communication delays, for example, of 40 years just to send and receive a message from a planet a scant 20 light-years away, and by the possibility of a tech explosion. For example, even if we or they send a fleet of attack ships, the destination planet might have much better military technology by the time we get there.

Best just to lay low as in a dark forest.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

The Dark Forest is the middle book of a trilogy by Chinese science-fiction writer Liu Cixin (in Chinese tradition, the family name Liu comes first, although not all western publishers have followed this).

Now, a regular person reviewing the book said the first 200 pages are crap and then it settles down into a decent science fiction story. So, if you want to jump ahead, sure, I often do that with books.

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In any case, perhaps a useful corrective to overly rosy and optimistic views about SETI.