There's a theory that advanced civilizations always hit a dead end somewhere. At some point, the cost of maintaining a civilization exceeds the benefits it provides. Aliens probably can't escape that rule either. You can't just create endless super-resources that ignore the laws of physics. So even if intelligent life exists out there, I doubt they're far more advanced than human civilization.
But isn't it kind of lonely to think that we humans are the only intelligent life form in the universe?
Well, it's pretty lonely when you make a thread and nobody replies.
Even if intelligent life were born somewhere in the universe, the odds of its peak overlapping with humanity's are basically a miracle. Assuming a civilization lasts 100,000 years, what are the chances that those 100,000 years happen to overlap in the vast expanse of cosmic time? Probably less than 0.1%.
The idea that they can visit Earth relies on the premise that infinite energy and ultra-advanced technology are absolute musts. If we're talking about intelligent life forms at our level or lower, wouldn't they be out there if we searched the whole universe? We just wouldn't be able to recognize each other's existence.
I saw this really interesting video recently about how a highly developed civilization figured out a way to secure power just to keep their digitized selves alive.
I want to watch that.
Here it is. It's an English video, but it has Japanese subtitles.
This is a god-tier channel, thanks for sharing.
Going off-topic a bit, but isn't it ironic how humanity depends on fossil fuels that will eventually run out?
They've been saying it'll run out in 50 years... for the past 50 years, so we're safe.
When I die, I'm thinking of getting stuck in a peat bog and turning into a fossil fuel. I haven't been able to contribute anything to humanity while I'm alive, you see.
In soil with a rich water supply, the carbon components just wash away into the ocean, so you wouldn't become oil.
I heard somewhere that back in the day, there weren't any microorganisms capable of breaking down carbon, which is why oil was created, but nowadays it's impossible for new oil to form.
It's weird how the Earth conveniently has a liquid sleeping underground that's perfectly suited for humans...
I really feel like our reliance on fossil fuels is terrifying. Cynically mocking things like decarbonization and CO2 reduction is trendy right now, but long-term, it's something humanity absolutely has to do.
I used to think that too, but we're so dependent on naphtha, which is a byproduct of heavy oil refining, that we literally can't survive without heavy oil in the end. I wonder if there's any alternative to naphtha that doesn't come from fossil fuels.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries actually proposed that naphtha can be made from hydrogen. Though, naturally, it requires electricity.
It's so sad how Greta is being made a laughingstock all over the world. Humanity's just gonna go extinct eventually.
She might be dead serious, but the problem is all the adults around her reeking of money.
Nuclear fusion and things like that are the answer, right?
With the recent war in Iran, energy policies are being forcibly re-evaluated, so maybe this could turn out to be a blessing in disguise...
It makes me dream about things like—what if a new kind of organism is born during the depletion process, and we use them as a reference to build new organs...? I wonder if humans could adapt to something like that.
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