Explanation: What's happening at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy? To help find out, the orbiting Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have combined their efforts to survey the region in unprecedented detail in infrared light. Infrared light is particularly useful for probing the Milky Way's center because visible light is more greatly obscured by dust. The above image encompasses over 2,000 images from the Hubble Space Telescope's NICMOS taken last year. The image spans 300 by 115 light years with such high resolution that structures only 20 times the size of our own Solar System are discernable. Clouds of glowing gas and dark dust as well as three large star clusters are visible. Magnetic fields may be channeling plasma along the upper left near the Arches Cluster, while energetic stellar winds are carving pillars near the Quintuplet Cluster on the lower left. The massive Central Cluster of stars surrounding Sagittarius A* is visible on the lower right. Why several central, bright, massive stars appear to be unassociated with these star clusters is not yet understood.
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| THYPE MARK II | PROJECTS No. 1 | |
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| Thype is preparing to rock, brothers and sisters. The stars have eyes... | ||
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| ©2007 WAYNE BARLOWE - WAYNEBARLOWE.COM - All rights reserved. |
Loading Image...ScienceDaily (Jan. 17, 2008) — Astronomers have announced that a mystery object orbiting a star 170 light-years from Earth might have formed from the collision and merger of two protoplanets. The object, known as 2M1207B, has puzzled astronomers since its discovery because it seems to fall outside the spectrum of physical possibility. Its temperature, luminosity, age, and location do not match up with any theory.
The Fermi paradox is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations.
The extreme age of the universe and its vast number of stars suggest that if the Earth is typical, extraterrestrial life should be common.[1] In an informal discussion in 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi questioned why, if a multitude of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exist in the Milky Way galaxy, evidence such as spacecraft or probes are not seen. A more detailed examination of the implications of the topic began with a paper by Michael H. Hart in 1975, and it is sometimes referred to as the Fermi-Hart paradox.[2] Another closely related question is the Great Silence[3]—even if travel is hard, if life is common, why don't we detect their radio transmissions?
There have been attempts to resolve the Fermi Paradox by locating evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations, along with proposals that such life could exist without human knowledge. Counterarguments suggest that intelligent extraterrestrial life does not exist or occurs so rarely that humans will never make contact with it.
Starting with Hart, a great deal of effort has gone into developing scientific theories about, and possible models of, extraterrestrial life, and the Fermi paradox has become a theoretical reference point in much of this work. The problem has spawned numerous scholarly works addressing it directly, while various questions that relate to it have been addressed in fields as diverse as astronomy, biology, ecology, and philosophy. The emerging field of astrobiology has brought an interdisciplinary approach to the Fermi paradox and the question of extraterrestrial life.
The Fermi paradox is a conflict between an argument of scale and probability and a lack of evidence. A more complete definition could be stated thus:
The apparent size and age of the universe suggests that many technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations ought to exist.
However, this hypothesis seems inconsistent with the lack of observational evidence to support it.
The first aspect of the paradox, "the argument by scale", is a function of the raw numbers involved: there are an estimated 250 billion (2.5 x 1011) stars in the Milky Way and 70 sextillion (7 x 1022) in the visible universe.[4] Even if intelligent life occurs on only a minuscule percentage of planets around these stars, there should still be a great number of civilizations extant in the Milky Way galaxy alone. This argument also assumes the mediocrity principle, which states that Earth is not special, but merely a typical planet, subject to the same laws, effects, and likely outcomes as any other world. Some estimates using the Drake equation support this argument, although the assumptions behind those calculations have themselves been challenged.
The second cornerstone of the Fermi paradox is a rejoinder to the argument by scale: given intelligent life's ability to overcome scarcity, and its tendency to colonize new habitats, it seems likely that any advanced civilization would seek out new resources and colonize first their own star system, and then the surrounding star systems. As there is no conclusive or certifiable evidence on Earth or elsewhere in the known universe of other intelligent life after 13.7 billion years of the universe's history, it may be assumed that intelligent life is rare or that our assumptions about the general behavior of intelligent species are flawed.
The Fermi paradox can be asked in two ways. The first is, "Why are no aliens or their artifacts physically here?" If interstellar travel is possible, even the "slow" kind nearly within the reach of Earth technology, then it would only take from 5 million to 50 million years to colonize the galaxy.[5] This is a relatively small amount of time on a geological scale, let alone a cosmological one. Since there are many stars older than the sun, or since intelligent life might have evolved earlier elsewhere, the question then becomes why the galaxy has not been colonized already. Even if colonization is impractical or undesirable to all alien civilizations, large scale exploration of the galaxy is still possible; the means of exploration and theoretical probes involved are discussed extensively below. However, no signs of either colonization or exploration have been generally acknowledged.
The argument above may not hold for the universe as a whole, since travel times may well explain the lack of physical presence on Earth of alien inhabitants of far away galaxies. However, the question then becomes "Why do we see no signs of intelligent life?" as a sufficiently advanced civilization[6] could potentially be seen over a significant fraction of the size of the observable universe.[7] Even if such civilizations are rare, the scale argument indicates they should exist somewhere at some point during the history of the universe, and since they could be detected from far away over a considerable period of time, many more potential sites for their origin are within our view. However, no incontrovertible signs of such civilizations have been detected.
It is currently unclear which version of the paradox is stronger.[8]
In 1950, while working at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the physicist Enrico Fermi had a casual conversation while walking to lunch with colleagues Emil Konopinski, Edward Teller and Herbert York. The men lightly discussed a recent spate of UFO reports and an Alan Dunn cartoon[9] facetiously blaming the disappearance of municipal trashcans on marauding aliens. They then had a more serious discussion regarding the chances of humans observing faster-than-light travel of some material object within the next ten years, which Teller put at one in a million, but Fermi put closer to one in ten. The conversation shifted to other subjects, until during lunch Fermi suddenly exclaimed, "Where are they?" (alternatively, "Where is everybody?")[10] One participant recollects that Fermi then made a series of rapid calculations using estimated figures (Fermi was known for his ability to make good estimates from first principles and minimal data, see Fermi problem.) According to this account, he then concluded that Earth should have been visited long ago and many times over.[10][11]
While numerous theories and principles attend to the Fermi paradox, the most closely related is the Drake equation.
The equation was formulated by Dr. Frank Drake in 1960, a decade after the objections raised by Enrico Fermi, in an attempt to find a systematic means to evaluate the numerous probabilities involved in alien life. The speculative equation factors: the rate of star formation in the galaxy; the number of stars with planets and the number that are habitable; the number of those planets which develop life and subsequently intelligent communicating life; and finally the expected lifetimes of such civilizations. The fundamental problem is that the last four terms (fraction of planets with life, odds life becomes intelligent, odds intelligent life becomes communicative, and lifetime of communicating civilizations) are completely unknown. We have only one example, rendering statistical estimates impossible, and even the example we have is subject to a strong anthropic bias.
A deeper objection is that the very form of the Drake equation assumes that civilizations arise and then die out within their original solar systems. If interstellar colonization is possible, then this assumption is invalid, and the equations of population dynamics would apply instead.[12]
The Drake equation has been used by both optimists and pessimists with wildly differing results. Dr. Carl Sagan, using optimistic numbers, suggested as many as one million communicating civilizations in the Milky Way in 1966, though he later suggested that the number could be far smaller. Skeptics, such as Frank Tipler, have put in pessimistic numbers and concluded that the average number of civilizations in a galaxy is much less than one.[13] (Note that, even though there is at least one civilization in our galaxy, the average or "most likely" number of civilizations in our galaxy as described by this equation may still be smaller than one. In other words, the fact that there is at least one civilization in our galaxy does not mean that this was a likely outcome. This is an excellent example of anthropic bias. No civilization can use itself to estimate the average number of civilizations in a galaxy, since if there was not at least one civilization the question could not arise.). The Drake equation computes only the long-term average number of civilizations; even if the average number of civilizations per galaxy is less than one, there could be more than one in any given galaxy at any given time.
Frank Drake himself has commented that the Drake Equation is unlikely to settle the Fermi paradox; instead it is just a way of organizing our ignorance on the subject.
One obvious way to resolve the Fermi paradox would be to find conclusive evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Various efforts to find such evidence have been made since 1960, and several are ongoing. As human beings do not have interstellar travel capability, such searches are being carried out at great distances and rely on careful analysis of very subtle evidence. This limits possible discoveries to civilizations which alter their environment in a detectable way, or produce effects that are detectable at a distance, such as radio emissions. It is very unlikely that non-technological civilizations will be detectable from Earth in the near future.
One difficulty in searching is avoiding an overly anthropocentric viewpoint. Conjecture on the type of evidence likely to be found often focuses on the types of activities that humans have performed, or likely would perform given more advanced technology. Intelligent aliens might avoid these "expected" activities, or perform activities totally novel to humans.
Radio technology and the ability to construct a radio telescope are presumed to be a natural advance for technological species[14] theoretically creating effects that might be detected over interstellar distances. Sensitive observers of the solar system, for example, would note unusually intense radio waves for a G2 star due to Earth's television and telecommunication broadcasts. In the absence of an apparent natural cause, alien observers might infer the existence of terrestrial civilization.
Therefore, the careful searching of radio emissions from space for non-natural signals may lead to the detection of alien civilizations. Such signals could be either "accidental" by-products of a civilization, or deliberate attempts to communicate, such as the Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence's Arecibo message. A number of astronomers and observatories have attempted and are attempting to detect such evidence, mostly through the SETI organization, although other approaches, such as optical SETI also exist.
Several decades of SETI analysis have not revealed any main sequence stars with unusually bright or meaningfully repetitive radio emissions, although there have been several candidate signals. On August 15, 1977 the "Wow! signal" was picked up by The Big Ear radio telescope. However, the Big Ear only looks at each point on the sky for 72 seconds, and re-examinations of the same spot have found nothing. In 2003, Radio source SHGb02+14a was isolated by SETI@home analysis, although it has largely been discounted by further study. There are numerous technical assumptions underlying SETI that may cause human beings to miss radio emissions with present search techniques; these are discussed below.
Detection and classification of exoplanets has come out of recent refinements in mainstream astronomical instruments and analysis. While this is a new field in astronomy — the first published paper claiming to have discovered an exoplanet was released in 1989 — it is possible that planets which are likely to be able to support life will be found in the near future.
Direct evidence for the existence of life may eventually be observable, such as the detection of biotic signature gases (such as methane and oxygen) — or even the industrial air pollution of a technologically advanced civilization — in an exoplanet's atmosphere by means of spectrographic analysis.[15] With improvements in our observational capabilities, it may eventually even be possible to detect direct evidence such as that which humanity produces (see right).
However, exoplanets are rarely directly observed (the first claim to have done so was made in 2004[16]); rather, their existence is usually inferred from the effects they have on the star(s) they orbit. This means that usually only the mass and orbit of an exoplanet can be deduced. This information, along with the stellar classification of its sun, and educated guesses as to its composition (usually based on the mass of the planet, and its distance from its sun), allows only for rough approximations of the planetary environment.
Prior to 2009, methods for exoplanet detection were not likely to detect life-bearing Earth-like worlds. Methods such as gravitational microlensing can detect the presence of "small" worlds, potentially even smaller than the Earth, but can only detect such worlds for very brief moments of time, and no follow-up is possible. Other methods such as radial velocity, astrometry, and the transit method allow prolonged observations of exoplanet effects, but only work with worlds that are many times the mass of Earth, at least when performed while looking through the atmosphere. These seem unlikely candidates to harbor Earth-like life. However, exoplanet detection and classification is a very active sub-discipline in astronomy, with 373 such planets being detected between 1988 and 2009,[17] and the first possibly terrestrial planet discovered within a star's habitable zone being found in 2007.[18] New refinements in exoplanet detection methods, and use of existing methods from space, (such as the Kepler Mission, launched in 2009) are expected to detect and characterize terrestrial-size planets, and determine if they are within the habitable zones of their stars. Such observational refinements may allow us to better gauge how common potentially habitable worlds are, and therefore allow us a much better idea of how common life in the universe might be; this would have a profound influence over the expectations behind the Fermi Paradox itself.
As noted, given the size and age of the universe, and the relative rapidity at which dispersion of intelligent life can occur, evidence of alien colonization attempts might plausibly be discovered. Also, evidence of exploration not containing extraterrestrial life, such as probes and information gathering devices, may await discovery.
Some theoretical exploration techniques such as the Von Neumann probe could exhaustively explore a galaxy the size of the Milky Way in as little as half a million years, with relatively little investment in materials and energy relative to the results. If even a single civilization in the Milky Way attempted this, such probes could spread throughout the entire galaxy. Evidence of such probes might be found in the solar system—perhaps in the asteroid belt where raw materials would be plentiful and easily accessed.[19]
Another possibility for contact with an alien probe—one that would be trying to find human beings—is an alien Bracewell probe. Such a device would be an autonomous space probe whose purpose is to seek out and communicate with alien civilizations (as opposed to Von Neumann probes, which are usually described as purely exploratory). These were proposed as an alternative to carrying a slow speed-of-light dialogue between vastly distant neighbours. Rather than contending with the long delays a radio dialogue would suffer, a probe housing an artificial intelligence would seek out an alien civilisation to carry on a close range communication with the discovered civilization. The findings of such a probe would still have to be transmitted to the home civilisation at light speed, but an information-gathering dialogue could be conducted in real time.[20]
Since the 1950s direct exploration has been carried out on a small fraction of the solar system and no evidence that it has ever been visited by alien colonists, or probes, has been uncovered. Detailed exploration of areas of the solar system where resources would be plentiful—such as the asteroids, the Kuiper belt, the Oort cloud and the various planetary ring systems—may yet produce evidence of alien exploration, though these regions are vast and difficult to investigate. There have been preliminary efforts in this direction in the form of the SETA and SETV projects to search for extraterrestrial artifacts or other evidence of extraterrestrial visitation within the solar system.[21] There have also been attempts to signal, attract, or activate Bracewell probes in Earth's local vicinity, including by scientists Robert Freitas and Francisco Valdes.[22] Many of the projects that fall under this umbrella are considered "fringe" science by astronomers and none of the various projects have located any artifacts.
Should alien artifacts be discovered, even here on Earth, they may not be recognizable as such. The products of an alien mind and an advanced alien technology might not be perceptible or recognizable as artificial constructs. Exploratory devices in the form of bio-engineered life forms created through synthetic biology would presumably disintegrate after a point, leaving no evidence; an alien information gathering system based on molecular nanotechnology could be all around us at this very moment, completely undetected. Clarke's third law suggests that an alien civilization well in advance of humanity's might have means of investigation that are not yet conceivable to human beings.
In 1959, Dr. Freeman Dyson observed that every developing human civilization constantly increases its energy consumption, and theoretically, a civilization of sufficient age would require all the energy produced by its sun. The Dyson Sphere was the thought experiment that he derived as a solution: a shell or cloud of objects enclosing a star to harness as much radiant energy as possible. Such a feat of astroengineering would drastically alter the observed spectrum of the sun, changing it at least partly from the normal emission lines of a natural stellar atmosphere, to that of a black body radiation, probably with a peak in the infrared. Dyson himself speculated that advanced alien civilizations might be detected by examining the spectra of stars, searching for such an altered spectrum.[23]
Since then, several other theoretical stellar-scale megastructures have been proposed, but the central idea remains that a highly advanced civilization — Type II or greater on the Kardashev scale — could alter its environment enough as to be detectable from interstellar distances.
However, such constructs may be more difficult to detect than originally thought. Dyson spheres might have different emission spectra depending on the desired internal environment; life based on high-temperature reactions may require a high temperature environment, with resulting "waste radiation" in the visible spectrum, not the infrared.[24] Additionally, a variant of the Dyson sphere has been proposed which would be difficult to observe from any great distance; a Matrioshka brain is a series of concentric spheres, each radiating less energy per area than its inner neighbour. The outermost sphere of such a structure could be close to the temperature of the interstellar background radiation, and thus be all but invisible.
There have been some preliminary attempts to find evidence of the existence of Dyson spheres or other large Type-II or Type-III Kardashev scale artifacts that would alter the spectra of their core stars, but optical surveys have not located anything. Fermilab has an ongoing program to find Dyson spheres,[25] but such searches are preliminary and incomplete as yet.
A variant on this topic is galactic scale constructs. This evidence is even more detrimental to the "life is common" theory. Direct observation of thousands of galaxies shows no evidence of an artificial construction or modification. This implies that the rate of evolution of a species which can create galaxy spanning superstructures is less than once per 10,000 galaxies per 13 billion years or 10^-18 per year.
Certain theoreticians accept that the apparent absence of evidence proves the absence of extraterrestrials and attempt to explain why. Others offer possible frameworks in which the silence may be explained without ruling out the possibility of such life, including assumptions about extraterrestrial behaviour and technology. Each of these hypothesized explanations is essentially an argument for decreasing the value of one or more of the terms in the Drake equation. The arguments are not, in general, mutually exclusive. For example, it could be that both life is rare, and technical civilizations tend to destroy themselves, or many other combinations of the explanations below.
One explanation is that the human civilization is alone in the galaxy. Several theories along these lines have been proposed, explaining why intelligent life might be either very rare, or very short lived. Implications of these hypotheses are examined as the Great Filter.[26]
Those who believe that extraterrestrial intelligent life does not exist argue that the conditions needed for life—or at least complex life—to evolve are rare or even unique to Earth. This is known as the Rare Earth hypothesis, which attempts to resolve the Fermi paradox by rejecting the mediocrity principle, and asserting that Earth is not typical, but unusual or even unique. While a unique Earth has historically been assumed on philosophical or religious grounds, the Rare Earth Hypothesis uses quantifiable and statistical arguments to argue that multicellular life is exceedingly rare in the universe because Earth-like planets are themselves exceedingly rare and/or many improbable coincidences have converged to make complex life on Earth possible.[27] While some have pointed out that complex life may evolve through other mechanisms than those found specifically here on Earth, the fact that in the extremely long history of life on the Earth only one species has developed a civilization to the point of being capable of space flight and radio technology seems to lend more credence to the idea of technologically advanced civilization being a rare commodity in the universe.
For example, the emergence of intelligence may have been an evolutionary accident. Geoffrey Miller proposes that human intelligence is the result of runaway sexual selection, which takes unpredictable directions. Steven Pinker, in his book How the Mind Works, cautions that the idea that evolution of life (once it has reached a certain minimum complexity) is bound to produce intelligent beings, relies on the fallacy of the "ladder of evolution": As evolution does not strive for a goal but just happens, it uses the adaptation most useful for a given ecological niche, and the fact that, on Earth, this led to language-capable sentience only once so far may suggest that this adaptation is only rarely a good choice and hence by no means a sure endpoint of the evolution of a tree of life.
Another theory along these lines is that even if the conditions needed for life might be common in the universe, that the formation of life itself, a complex array of molecules that are capable simultaneously of reproduction, of extraction of base components from the environment, and of obtaining energy in a form that life can use to maintain the reaction (or the initial abiogenesis on a potential life-bearing planet), might ultimately be very rare.
Additionally, in the nondirectional meandering from initial life to humans, other low-probability happenings may have been the transition from prokaryotic cells to eukaryotic cells and the transition from single-cellular life to multicellular life.
It is also possible that intelligence is common, but industrial civilization is not. For example, the rise of industrialism on Earth was driven by the presence of convenient energy sources such as fossil fuels. If such energy sources are rare or nonexistent elsewhere, then it may be far more difficult for an intelligent race to advance technologically to the point where we could communicate with them. There may also be other unique factors on which our civilization is dependent.
Insofar as the Rare Earth Hypothesis privileges Earth-life and its process of formation, it is a variant of the anthropic principle. The variant of the anthropic principle states the universe seems uniquely suited towards developing human intelligence. This philosophical stance opposes not only mediocrity, but the Copernican principle more generally, which suggests there is no privileged location in the universe. It is also opposed by increasing evidence that humans are not the only intelligent/language/tool using/making species (or however else you define the concept) on our planet.[28]
Opponents dismiss both Rare Earth and the anthropic principle as tautological — if a condition must exist in the universe for human life to arise, then the universe must already meet that condition, as human life exists — and as an unimaginative argument. According to this analysis, the Rare Earth hypothesis confuses a description of how life on Earth arose with a uniform conclusion of how life must arise.[29] While the probability of the specific conditions on Earth being widely replicated is low, we do not know what complex life may require in order to evolve.
Technological civilizations may usually or invariably destroy themselves before or shortly after developing radio or space flight technology. Possible means of annihilation include nuclear war, biological warfare or accidental contamination, nanotechnological catastrophe, ill-advised physics experiments[30], a badly programmed super-intelligence, or a Malthusian catastrophe after the deterioration of a planet's ecosphere. This general theme is explored both in fiction and in mainstream scientific theorizing.[31] Indeed, there are probabilistic arguments which suggest that humanity's end may occur sooner rather than later. In 1966 Sagan and Shklovskii suggested that technological civilizations will either tend to destroy themselves within a century of developing interstellar communicative capability or master their self-destructive tendencies and survive for billion-year timescales.[32] Self-annihilation may also be viewed in terms of thermodynamics: insofar as life is an ordered system that can sustain itself against the tendency to disorder, the "external transmission" or interstellar communicative phase may be the point at which the system becomes unstable and self-destructs.[33]
From a Darwinian perspective, self-destruction would be a paradoxical outcome of evolutionary success. The evolutionary psychology that developed during the competition for scarce resources over the course of human evolution has left the species subject to aggressive, instinctual drives. These compel humanity to consume resources, increase longevity, and to reproduce — in part, the very motives that led to the development of technological society. It seems likely that intelligent extraterrestrial life would evolve similarly and thus face the same possibility of self-destruction. And yet, for species self-destruction to provide a good answer to Fermi's Question, it would have to be very nearly universal. That is, this possibility would have a probability of very nearly 1.0. It has been suggested that a successful alien species would be a superpredator, as is Homo sapiens.[34]
This argument does not require the civilization to entirely self-destruct, only to become once again non-technological. In other ways it could persist and even thrive according to evolutionary standards, which postulates creating producing offspring as the sole goal of life - not "progress," technology or even intelligence.
Another possibility is that intelligent species beyond a certain point of technological capability will destroy other intelligence as it appears. The idea that someone, or something, is destroying intelligent life in the universe has been well explored in science fiction[35] and scientific literature.[3] A species might undertake such extermination out of expansionist motives, paranoia, or simple aggression. In 1981, cosmologist Edward Harrison argued that such behavior would be an act of prudence: an intelligent species that has overcome its own self-destructive tendencies might view any other species bent on galactic expansion as a kind of virus.[36]
This hypothesis requires at least one civilization to have arisen in the past, and the first civilization would not have faced this problem.[37] However, it could still be that Earth is alone now. Like exploration, the extermination of other civilizations might be carried out with self-replicating spacecraft. Under such a scenario,[35] even if a civilization that created such machines were to disappear, the probes could outlive their creators, destroying civilizations far into the future. If anything like this occurs then their method of hunting does not appear to use bait.
If true, this argument reduces the number of visible civilizations in two ways - by destroying some civilizations, and forcing others to remain quiet, under fear of discovery (see They choose not to interact with us) so we would see no signs of them.
Religious and philosophical speculation about extraterrestrial intelligent life long predates the modern scientific inquiry into the subject. Some religious thinkers, including the Jewish rationalist commentator Rabbi Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340–1410/1411)[38] and the Christian philosopher Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464), posited the possibility of such extraterrestrial intelligence. On the other hand, at least some strains within the various Western religious traditions suggest the uniqueness of human beings in the divine plan and would counsel against belief in intelligent life on other worlds.[39]
Religious reasons for doubting the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life resemble some forms of the Rare Earth Hypothesis. The argument here would be a teleological form of the strong anthropic principle: the universe was designed for the express purpose of creating human (and only human) intelligence.[40]
It may be that technological extraterrestrial civilizations exist, but that human beings cannot communicate with them because of various constraints: problems of scale or of technology; because their nature is simply too alien for meaningful communication; or because human society refuses to admit to evidence of their presence.
It may be that non-colonizing technologically capable alien civilizations exist, but that they are simply too far apart for meaningful two-way communication.[41] If two civilizations are separated by several thousand light years, it is very possible that one or both cultures may become extinct before meaningful dialogue can be established. Human searches may be able to detect their existence, but communication will remain impossible because of distance. This problem might be ameliorated somewhat if contact/communication is made through a Bracewell probe. In this case at least one partner in the exchange may obtain meaningful information. Alternatively, a civilization may simply broadcast its knowledge, and leave it to the receiver to make what they may of it. This is similar to the transmission of information from ancient civilizations to the present.[42]
The problem of distance is compounded by the fact that timescales affording a "window of opportunity" for detection or contact might be quite small. Advanced civilizations may periodically arise and fall throughout our galaxy, but this may be such a rare event, relatively speaking, that the odds of two or more such civilizations existing at the same time are low. There may have been intelligent civilizations in the galaxy before the emergence of intelligence on Earth, and there may be intelligent civilizations after its extinction, but it is possible that human beings are the only intelligent civilization in existence now. The term "now" is somewhat complicated by the finite speed of light and the nature of spacetime under relativity. Assuming that an extraterrestrial intelligence is not able to travel to our vicinity at faster-than-light speeds, in order to detect an intelligence 1,000 light-years distant, that intelligence will need to have been active 1,000 years ago. Strictly speaking, only the portions of the universe lying within the past light cone of Earth need be considered, since any civilizations outside it could not be detected.
There is a possibility that archaeological evidence of past civilizations may be detected through deep space observations — especially if they left behind large artifacts such as Dyson spheres — but this seems less likely than detecting the output of a thriving civilization.[citation needed]
A related argument holds that other civilizations exist, and are transmitting and exploring, but their signals and probes simply have not arrived yet.[43] However, critics have noted that this is unlikely, since it requires we are currently at a very special point in time, when the galaxy is transitioning from empty to full. This particular portion is just a tiny fraction of the life of a galaxy, so the odds we exist at such a moment are low.[44]
Many assumptions about the ability of an alien culture to colonize other stars are based on the idea that interstellar travel is technologically feasible. While the current understanding of physics rules out the possibility of faster than light travel, it appears that there are no major theoretical barriers to the construction of "slow" interstellar ships. This idea underlies the concept of the Von Neumann probe and the Bracewell probe as evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.
It is possible, however, that present scientific knowledge cannot properly gauge the feasibility and costs of such interstellar colonization. Theoretical barriers may not yet be understood and the cost of materials and energy for such ventures may be so high as to make it unlikely that any civilization could afford to attempt it. Even if interstellar travel and colonization are possible, they may be difficult, leading to a colonization model based on percolation theory.[45] Colonization efforts may not occur as an unstoppable rush, but rather as an uneven tendency to "percolate" outwards, within an eventual slowing and termination of the effort given the enormous costs involved and the fact that colonies will inevitably develop a culture and civilization of their own. Colonization may thus occur in "clusters," with large areas remaining uncolonized at any one time.
A similar argument holds that interstellar physical travel may be possible, but is much more expensive than interstellar communication. Furthermore, to an advanced civilization, travel itself may be replaced by communication, through mind uploading and similar technologies.[46] Therefore the first civilization may have physically explored or colonized the galaxy, but subsequent civilizations find it cheaper, faster, and easier to travel and get information through contacting existing civilizations rather than physically exploring or traveling themselves. In this scenario, since there is little or no physical travel, and directed communications are hard to see except to the intended receiver, there could be many technical and interacting civilizations with few signs visible across interstellar distances.
Humanity's ability to detect and comprehend intelligent extraterrestrial life has existed for only a very brief period — from 1937 onwards, if the invention of the radio telescope is taken as the dividing line — and Homo sapiens is a geologically recent species. The whole period of modern human existence to date (about 200,000 years) is a very brief period on a cosmological scale, while radio transmissions have only been propagated since 1895. Thus it remains possible that human beings have neither been searching long enough to find other intelligences, nor been in existence long enough to be found.
One million years ago there would have been no humans for any extraterrestrial emissaries to meet. For each further step back in time, there would have been increasingly fewer indications to such emissaries that intelligent life would develop on Earth. In a large and already ancient universe, a space-faring alien species may well have had many other more promising worlds to visit and revisit. Even if alien emissaries visited in more recent times, they may have been misinterpreted by early human cultures as supernatural entities. (As proposed by Erich von Däniken)
This hypothesis is more plausible if alien civilizations tend to stagnate or die out, rather than expand. In addition, "the probability of a site never being visited, even [with an] infinite time limit, is a non-zero value."[47] Thus, even if intelligent life expands elsewhere, it remains statistically possible that such extraterrestrial life might never discover Earth.
There are some assumptions that underlie the SETI search programs that may cause searchers to miss signals that are present. For example, the radio searches to date would completely miss highly compressed data streams (which would be almost indistinguishable from "white noise" to anyone who did not understand the compression algorithm). Extraterrestrials might also use frequencies that scientists have decided are unlikely to carry signals, or do not penetrate our atmosphere, or use modulation strategies that are not being looked for. The signals might be at a datarate that is too fast for our electronics to handle, or too slow to be recognised as attempts at communication. "Simple" broadcast techniques might be employed, but sent from non-main sequence stars which are searched with lower priority; current programs assume that most alien life will be orbiting Sun-like stars.[48]
The greatest problem is the sheer size of the radio search needed to look for signals, the limited amount of resources committed to SETI, and the sensitivity of modern instruments. SETI estimates, for instance, that with a radio telescope as sensitive as the Arecibo Observatory, Earth's television and radio broadcasts would only be detectable at distances up to 0.3 light years.[49] Clearly detecting an Earth type civilization at great distances is difficult. A signal is much easier to detect if the signal energy is focused in either a narrow range of frequencies (Narrowband transmissions), and/or directed at a specific part of the sky. Such signals can be detected at ranges of hundreds to tens of thousands of light-years distance.[50] However this means that detectors must be listening to an appropriate range of frequencies, and be in that region of space to which the beam is being sent. Many SETI searches, starting with the venerable Project Cyclops, go so far as to assume that extraterrestrial civilizations will be broadcasting a deliberate signal (like the Arecibo message), in order to be found.
Thus to detect alien civilizations through their radio emissions, Earth observers either need more sensitive instruments or must hope for fortuitous circumstances: that the broadband radio emissions of alien radio technology are much stronger than our own; that one of SETI's programs is listening to the correct frequencies from the right regions of space; or that aliens are sending focused transmissions such as the Arecibo message in our general direction.
It may be that alien civilizations are detectable through their radio emissions for only a short time, reducing the likelihood of spotting them. There are two possibilities in this regard: civilizations outgrow radio through technological advance or, conversely, resource depletion cuts short the time in which a species broadcasts.
The first idea, that civilizations advance beyond radio, is based in part on the "fiber optic objection": the use of high power radio with low-to-medium gain (i.e., non-directional) antennas for long-distance transmission is wasteful of spectrum, yet this "waste" is precisely what makes these systems conspicuous at interstellar distances. Humans are moving to directional or guided transmission channels such as electrical cables, optical fibers, narrow-beam microwave and lasers, and conventional radio with non-directional antennas is increasingly reserved for low-power, short-range applications such as cell phones and Wi-Fi networks. These signals are far less detectable from space. Analog television, developed in the mid-twentieth century, contains strong carriers to aid reception and demodulation. Carriers are spectral lines that are very easily detected yet do not convey any information beyond their highly artificial nature. Nearly every SETI project is looking for carriers for just this reason, and UHF TV carriers are currently the most conspicuous and artificial signals from Earth that could be detected at interstellar distances. But advances in technology are replacing analog TV with digital television which uses spectrum more efficiently precisely by eliminating or reducing components such as carriers that make them so conspicuous. Using our own experience as an example, we could set the date of radio-visibility for Earth as December 12, 1901, when Guglielmo Marconi sent radio signals from Cornwall, England, to Newfoundland, Canada.[51]. Visibility is now ending, or at least becoming orders of magnitude more difficult, as analog TV is being phased out. And so, if our experience is typical, a civilization remains radio-visible for approximately a hundred years. So a civilization may have been very visible from 1325 to 1483, but we were just not listening at that time. This is essentially the solution, "Everyone is listening, no one is sending."
More hypothetically, advanced alien civilizations evolve beyond broadcasting at all in the electromagnetic spectrum and communicate by principles of physics we don't yet understand. Some scientists have hypothesized that advanced civilizations may send neutrino signals.[52] If such signals exist they could be detectable by neutrino detectors that are now under construction.[53] If stable wormholes could be created and used for communications then interstellar broadcasts would become largely redundant. Thus it may be that other civilizations would only be detectable for a relatively short period of time between the discovery of radio and the switch to more efficient technologies.
A different argument is that resource depletion will soon result in a decline in technological capability. Human civilization has been capable of interstellar radio communication for only a few decades and is already rapidly depleting fossil fuels and confronting possible problems such as peak oil. It may only be a few more decades before energy becomes too expensive, and the necessary electronics and computers too difficult to manufacture, for societies to continue the search. If the same conditions regarding energy supplies hold true for other civilizations, then radio technology may be a short-lived phenomenon. Unless two civilizations happen to be near each other and develop the ability to communicate at the same time it would be virtually impossible for any one civilization to "talk" to another.
Critics of the resource depletion argument point out that an energy-consuming civilization is not dependent solely on fossil fuels. Alternate energy sources exist, such as solar power which is renewable and has enormous potential relative to technical barriers.[54] For depletion of fossil fuels to end the "technological phase" of a civilization, some form of technological regression would have to invariably occur, preventing the exploitation of renewable energy sources.
Another possibility is that technological civilizations invariably experience a technological singularity and attain a posthuman (or postalien) character. Theoretical civilizations of this sort may have altered drastically enough to render communication impossible. The intelligences of a post-singularity civilization might require more information exchange than is possible through interstellar communication, for example. Or perhaps any information humanity might provide would appear elementary, and thus they do not try to communicate, any more than human beings attempt to talk to ants.
Even more extreme forms of post-singularity have been suggested, particularly in fiction: beings that divest themselves of physical form, create massive artificial virtual environments, transfer themselves into these environments through mind transfer, and exist totally within virtual worlds, ignoring the external physical universe. Surprisingly early treatments, such as Lewis Padgett's short story Mimsy were the Borogoves (1943), suggest a migration of advanced beings out of the presently known physical universe into a different and presumably more agreeable alternative one.
One version of this perspective, which makes predictions for future SETI findings of transcension "fossils" and includes a variation of the Zoo hypothesis below, has been proposed by singularity scholar John Smart.[55]
It is possible that the belief that alien races would communicate with the human species is merely an assumption, and that alien civilizations may not wish to communicate, even if they have the technical ability. A particular reason that alien civilizations may choose not to communicate is the so-called Zoo hypothesis: the idea that alien civilizations avoid contact with Earth so as not to interfere with our development, or to preserve an isolated "zoo or wilderness area".[56] Another possible reason has been discussed above under technological singularity – they may be too absorbed in pursuits of their own making.
Many other reasons that an alien race might avoid contact have been proposed. Aliens might only choose to allow contact once the human race has passed certain ethical, political, or technological standards, e.g., ending poverty/war or being able to master interstellar travel. They may not want to interfere with our natural independent progress[57], or the Earth may have been set as an explicit experiment that contact would ruin[58].
These ideas are most plausible if there is a single alien civilization within contact range, or there is a homogeneous culture or law amongst alien civilizations which dictates that the Earth be shielded. If there is a plurality of alien cultures, however, this theory may break down under the uniformity of motive flaw: all it takes is a single culture or civilization to decide to act contrary to the imperative within our range of detection for it to be abrogated, and the probability of such a violation increases with the number of civilizations.[59] This idea, and many others, become more plausible if we estimate that our galaxy has only a relatively small number of civilizations, or that all civilizations tend to evolve similar cultural values in regard to contact, or that all civilizations follow the lead of some particularly distinguished civilization (a hegemony).[citation needed]
A related idea is that the perceived universe is a simulated reality. The planetarium hypothesis[60] holds that beings may have simulated a universe for us that appears to be empty of other life, by design. The simulation argument[61] by Bostrom holds that although such a simulation may contain other life, such life cannot be much in advance of us since a far more advanced civilization may be correspondingly hard to simulate.
An alien civilization might feel it is too dangerous to communicate, either for us or for them. After all, when very different civilizations have met on Earth, the results have often been disastrous for one side or the other, and the same may well apply to interstellar contact[62]. Even contact at a safe distance could lead to infection by computer code, or even ideas themselves (see meme). Perhaps prudent civilizations actively hide not only from us but from everyone, for they fear it is the nature of intelligent life to destroy others.
Perhaps the Fermi paradox itself - or the alien equivalent of it - is the ultimate reason for any civilization to avoid contact with other civilizations, even if no other obstacles existed. From any one civilization's point of view, it would be unlikely for them to be the first ones to make first contact and therefore likely for them to face the same possibly fatal problems that supposedly prevented the earlier civilizations from contacting them. So perhaps every civilization keeps quiet because of the possibility that there is a real reason for others to do so.
Another possibility is that human theoreticians have underestimated how much alien life might differ from that on Earth. Alien psychologies may simply be too different to communicate with human beings - or even to understand the concept of communication - and they are unable or unwilling to make the attempt. Human mathematics, language, tool use, and other concepts and communicative capacity may be parochial to Earth and not shared by other life.[63]
It is not clear that a civilization of intelligent beings must be technological. If an alien species does not develop technology, because it is difficult in its environment, because it chooses not to, or for any other reason, it will be very hard for human beings to detect.[64] Intelligence alone, as opposed to life, is not necessarily visible across interstellar distances. While there are various remote sensing techniques which could perhaps detect life-bearing planets, none of them has any ability to distinguish intelligent but non-technical life from non-intelligent life. Not even any theoretical methods for doing so have been proposed, short of an actual physical visit by an astronaut or probe. This is sometimes referred to as the "algae vs. alumnae" problem.[64]
It may be that intelligent alien life forms not only exist, but are already present here on Earth. They are not detected because they do not wish it, human beings are technically unable to, or because societies refuse to admit to the evidence.[65] Carl Sagan and Iosif Shklovsky[66] argued for serious consideration of "paleocontact" with extraterrestrials in the early historical era, and for examination of myths and religious lore for evidence of such contact.
It is possible that a life form technologically advanced enough to travel to Earth might also be sufficiently advanced to exist here undetected. In this view, the aliens have arrived on Earth, or in our solar system, and are observing the planet, while concealing their presence. Observation could conceivably be conducted in a number of ways that would be very difficult to detect. For example, a complex system of microscopic monitoring devices constructed via molecular nanotechnology could be deployed on Earth and remain undetected, or sophisticated instruments could conduct passive monitoring from elsewhere.
Mainstream scientific publications have occasionally addressed the possibility of extraterrestrial contact,[67] but the scientific community in general has given little serious attention to claims of unidentified flying objects. UFO researchers[68] argue that evidence supports the reality of UFOs as anomalies but does not necessarily support an extraterrestrial origin, and that closer examination of UFO data may confirm or falsify the Fermi paradox and/or the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Others[citation needed] use complex conspiracy theories to allege that evidence of alien visits is being concealed from the public by political elites who seek to hide the true extent of contact between aliens and humans. Scenarios such as these have been depicted in popular culture for decades, as for instance the movie Men in Black.
This theory was (jokingly) suggested to Fermi himself by his fellow physicist, Leó Szilárd, who suggested that extraterrestrials "are already among us - but they call themselves Hungarians", a humorous reference to the peculiar Hungarian language, unrelated to most other languages spoken in Europe.
Slang Words Used on Pacifia (Beta Virginis IV) | |
| Baruuba | FC (Floating California) term for something that is utterly absurd, baroque and wasted, but still for some reason likable. The term later spread to other clades. |
|---|---|
| Bellboy | 1/ (archaic) Derogatory term for people from Bell Islands, once a mainstream political center. 2/ Any unpopular and/or conservative political leadership. |
| Big Surf | a common FC and FC-influenced term for the Utopia Sphere Cetan ISO |
| Bordist | Solarian, someone from the Dominion, especially any of the local Solarist clades or Dominion colonial administration (note, unlike its use outsystem, locally this term is almost always derogatory; equivalent to the Pacifican |
| Deep Blue | a popular floater and mariner term for the Utopia Sphere Cetan ISO |
| Discordian | (archaic) ancient Mainstream term for FCs. The original meaning long lost, it is sometimes used now as a poetic complement. (see related term Discwuzitian) |
| Dolphin Money | General term for any in-system enhanced dolphin investments |
| Ecobox | Portable greenhouse producing food to make a zep or ship self-sufficient. |
| Equatorials | Archaic term for floaters and mariners. Does not have to mean inhabiting the equatorial zone. |
| FC | Floating California |
| Floater | Culture or clade on the surface of Pacifica that dwells in permanent airborne habitats (Floatcits) |
| Friend | Term used by the inhabitants of Pacifica for each other. |
| Floatcit | Floating city, zeps or houseboats moving together for a celebration, cooperative fishing, education or just for fun. Among the mainstream the term has connotations of sin and excitement. |
| Fundies | (archaic) Christian conservatives and fundamentalists. Not pejorative. |
| Ghost habitat | Abandoned habitat, mostly in the Kuiper and Oort belt. Ghost habitats previously owned by Pioneers can be dangerous due to booby traps and defences left behind. |
| Gnomes | Arcadians |
| Godling | A Pacifican term, originally a disparaging term for the fundies, later applied to anyone who follows an ecclesiastic religion (e.g. Universalists, Umma, Dominion). |
| Great Whale, | The a popular term for the Utopia Sphere Cetan ISO |
| Greenzep | Zeppelin with a double transparent membrane, pumping an algae solution in the interstitial space. The algae grow in the sunlight, producing protein and methane that can be used to fuel the zep. |
| Hull | Affectionate term for one's boat. Space-going Pacificans also use it to refer to their ship |
| Hwissan | Floater and mariner term for a enhanced dolphin, regardless of whether they come from Hwsii or not |
| Hypercane | Super-hurricanes that persist for a long time, circling the planet. The original term denoted supersonic hurricanes; such phenomena do not exist on Pacifica at present, thanks to Utility Fog weather control. |
| Jess Debacle | Historically, the failed attempt by mainstream President Jess to force FC into the fold. Later become a term for ill-advised projects that get the opposite result from the intended. Also |
| Lib | Liberty, the old mainstream NA capital, site of the Pacifica Uprising, now a quaint holiday town. |
| Mariner | Any aquatic clade on Pacifica, or space habitat descendants thereof. |
| Mighty Song | the dolphin term for the Utopia Sphere Cetan ISO Na New America Clade State, located in Franklin orbit. |
| Orbital | Orbital habitats or space stations. |
| Poseidon | a popular term among some more strongly modified mariners and some cyborg floaters for the Utopia Sphere Cetan ISO |
| s tushy | historical conservative's slang for something truly cool. Generally used in a mocking way by Pacificans |
| Relatives | FC term for floaters, mariners, or technorats not in FC. 2 Rocky = |
| Salt breath | Lung disease, making the throat and lungs dry and |
| School | Group of Friends moving together. 2 Technorats = |
| Temperates | (archaic) The Mainstream, conservative Technorats and Fundies, as opposed to floaters and mariners. Someone who is out of date or out of touch with current events. |
| Underwave | Personal four-seat submarine. 2 Yurg = |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| AIball oh-one | |
Beta Virginis: Planetary system containing Pacifica | |
| Galactography | Rich in culture and history, Beta Virginis and the surrounding Virginis Combine Territories are an important Inner Sphere region where many clades meet and interact. |
|---|---|
| System | : Beta Virginis |
| Stellar Type | : F9 V |
| Companion | : none |
| Region | : Inner Sphere Old Core, 35.55 light-years from Sol |
| Planets | : The planets were originally named by long range observers after Old Earth continents and SolSys planets. Most have since been renamed. New Africa renamed Aiball Oh-one Originally Near-stellar Venusian, aiformed to diamondoid-silicon planetary ISO - this hot Diamond Belt world was optimised by isolationist ai for solidstate civilizations. Following the Transcension there remain numerous large structures. While mostly inert, they can be dangerous if certain automatic defences are triggered. However, anything of value has long since been removed. Mostly inhabited by old thermophile prospectors and scavenger clades. Solar Dominion protectorate New Asia renamed Aiball One-oh Originally EuVenusian, aiformed to diamondoid-silicon planetary ISO - this Diamond Belt world has been optimised by the same ai civilizations that modified Aiball Oh-One. Following the Transcension there remain numerous large structures, but little of real value remains. The planet is inhabited by scavengers and a few bohemians. Solar Dominion protectorate New Europe renamed Isoai Originally EuVenusian, and in the process of being terraformed, all the colonists were killed following the Hu-AI war, and the planet aiformed. Since the Transcension it has been mostly uninhabited, apart from a TRHN presence and few scavenger and vec clades. There are believed to be still some isolationist ai civilizations in some of the silicon-diamondoid superstructures. Technically Solar Dominion protectorate, although many of the colonies are of TRHN affiliation. New America renamed Pacifica - Frozen Rockball - terraformed to Pelagic Gaian - the main biont superpower in the region. Utopia Sphere affiliation, strong links with Oro Mistral and Beta Arae. Technorat orbital halo. New Australia renamed Adams - EuJovian - Helium industry and floater cities, some moons inhabited - Solar Dominion affiliation. New Antarctica renamed Green - EuJovian - floaters, a few atmosphere miners, ai, technorats, and orbitals. Technically Solar Dominion, although Monroe hab is NoCoZo affiliated, and some of the technorat orbitals are aligned with the TRHN New Luna - MicroJovian - a few orbital and moon-based small polities; also a beam-rider station. A smallish but fairly rich world, extensively modified. Deeper Covenant affiliation. New Mars - SubJovian - atmosphere miners, and orbitals. Various clades. Nominally Solar Dominion New Jupiter - renamed Hale - SubJovian - tweaks, vecs, ai on moons and orbitals - a small population of jovics in the atmosphere. Joint Solar Dominion / Utopia Sphere affiliation. New Saturn - renamed Franklin - SubJovian - mostly old traditionalist clades like the Naists and House Bves'a in a number of orbitals. There are are also some assorted space adapts and others. Varied affiliations. |
| AI | AI overseers: Cetan ISO, also lesser toposophics for according to individual polities AI's ethos: Utopic |
| Polities | : at least a hundred different major polities in the system, the only one of any size being the Pacifica Commonwealth on Pacifica. Most are member states of the Virginis Combine, and loosely aligned with the Utopia Sphere Affiliation: according to individual polity |
| Colonized | : 856 A.T. |
| Psyche Art and Culture | : varies greatly according to individual polity Language: Pacifician, Douh, Solarian, Technoratic, Metasoft Standard, Hwsii, Isoballese TRHN, Betareaese, Monroeian, Greenic, Deeperspeak, Adamian, and many other languages are all spoken somewhere or other in the system. In some cases a particular polity, world, House, or clade has a completely different language or set of languages to its neighbors. However, knowledge of Betareaese and Solarian will usually mean the visitor e has no problems in communicating in most habitats, even without translation software. |
| Population | : more than 3 billion system wide Population by planet (incl. orbitals): Aiball Oh-one, Aiball One-oh, and Isoai no more than several million each, most in orbitals, with a few surface dwellers _Pacifica_ - surface: 106 million. orbital: 268 million Adams cloudcities: 12 million, orbitals and moons: 460 million Green cloudcities: 5 million, orbitals and moons: 1,650 million New Luna about 130 million (mostly orbitals) New Mars about 51 million (mostly orbitals) Hale - cloudcities: 2 million, orbitals and moons 350 million Franklin - orbitals and moons: about 200 million |
| Travel | Stargate: Island Gate - to Beta Arae (Utopia sphere) Beamrider Station: Cycle 232 - New Luna has a beamrider station (serving two cycle routes) and colony |
| Hazard Rating | : 0.0 to 4.0 (according to polity, district, world etc); up to 9.0 in some ai ball areas |
| Visa Restrictions | : varies according to individual polity |
| Freedom of Movement | : varies according to individual polity |
| Environmental Requirements | : Earth-normal environments on Pacifica, most orbitals and some of the domed outsystem cities; some of the jovic habitats however require environment suits and/or special modifications |
| Sites of Interest | : see entries for individual worlds |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Aiballoneoh | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| IsoAI | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Pacifica | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Adams | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Green | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| New Luna | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| New Mars (Beta Virginis) | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Hale | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Franklin | |
An early interstellar empire |
 Image from Steve Bowers |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Milky Way Galaxy showing major arms | |
Reactionless craft developed and used by the Highest Archailects; the vessel is apparently entirely enclosed within a Void Bubble | |
 Image from Sreve Bowers | |
| Void ships are apparently invisible within their bubble of curved space; but on occasion the space-time disturbance which they create can be observed when it passes in front of a celestial object such as a star | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Black Angel in deep Space | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Node Euclid, one of the one thousand Jupiter-class processor nodes which surrounds the star Deneb Algiedi. Around the star can be seen the primary swarm of power collection nodes | |
Galactography | |
| System | Ain Soph Aur |
|---|---|
| Primary | Delta Capricorni (Deneb Algiedi) - Distance from Sol: 39ly |
| Stellar Type | A5 (modified to A8); a companion star orbits close to the primary |
| Region | Inner Sphere Imperial Capital (Keter Dominion) |
| Planets | No natural planets remain in the Delta Capricorni system. Rather all available planetary mass, as well as some 240 Jovian masses of material removed from the two stars, has been converted into power collection systems, computronium, and habitats. Additional construction material has also been imported from other star systems. |
| Important Local Artificial Intelligence | AI overseer: Keter AI's ethos: Supports lesser beings who attempt to refine themselves and reach perfection, although it is also one of the most aloof archailect clusters - it is up to everything to strive, but the only thing Keter provides is the light to aim at. (see also - Keterism) |
| Infrastructure and Major Industries: | Exports - commodities: exotic matter, iso parts, computronium, godtech devices, transapient expert systems, high toposophic simulations, magmatter products (various), godseeds. Imports - commodities: personality constructs, crude organobiota, cultural databases, personality copies, amat. Angelnetting : Angelnetting within the Ain Soph Aur system is virtually total in all areas. Major Orbitals: Orbiting around and between the various Jupiter- nodes that form the core of the Ain Soph Aur system are a huge number of smaller habitats, orwood forests, and computronium nodes. Some 10 million habitat structures, arranged into 1000 orbital bands enclose the Delta Capricorni star. Beneath the innermost layer of habitats and computronium nodes, a power collection swarm intercepts some 95% of available solar energy. Only 5% of the radiant energy of the star is allowed to shine into space to illuminate those habitats and environments that have the most need of solar input. These are typically placed in equatorial orbits around the star, while environments that are better suited to sunless conditions are mainly clustered into orbits that are primarily shaded by the collector array. |
| Population: | Some 28 trillion corporeal entities and several orders of magnitude more software-based beings inhabit the Ain Soph Aur system at any given time. The system population covers a huge range of races and clades from near-baselines to vecs, to provolves, to neogens and practically everything in between. The sheer size of Terragen Civilization precludes representatives from all the known races being present in the Ain Soph Aur swarm, but to the casual observer it can often seem like they are trying. |
| Travel | Stargates: Transfinity to Aleph Absolute Deep Wisdom to Everypath Pax Infinitus to Fredholm Bright Door to Barboro Eschaton to Branswerg Spaceports: None specific. Transportation within the Ain Soph Aur system is provided by one of the most sophisticated systems in the known galaxy. Halo technology, similar to that employed by the Black Angel ISO system, lifts and moves transport pods at high speed, while protecting their passengers from the associated acceleration forces. Using this system, it is possible to reach any point in the Ain Soph Aur system within a standard day. This same system provides transport to and from the local wormhole gates and controls the path of any interstellar vessels that may enter the system via normal space. Hazard Rating : 0.0 Ain Soph Aur is the symbolic center of the Keter overmind and completely safe for any sophonts in the system. It should be noted, however, that Ain Soph Aur represents only a fraction of the total computronium mass of the entire entity known as Keter and that other processor nodes may not be as optimized for habitation by guest beings. Visa Restrictions : Access to the Ain Soph Aur system is heavily regulated. Entrance visas must be granted by the priesthood caste. Exact reasons for either the granting or denial of a visa are often not forthcoming. On occasion access is granted by invitation rather then request, again for reasons that may not be readily apparent to the sophont so recognized. |
 Image from Bernd Helfert |
 Image from Bernd Helfert |
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Combined visible and infrared images of M104.
Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt (University of Arizona), and the SINGS Team
Visible: Hubble Space Telescope/Hubble Heritage Team
May 12, 2008
The Sombrero Galaxy
An “accretion disk” of dark dust and gas surrounds this mighty collection of 400 billion stars. It is electrical energy that powers and shapes these features.
M104 is probably the most spectacular representation of “lens-shaped” galaxies that has been produced by any telescope. Originally discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781 and then added to Messier’s famous catalog in the same year, M104 remains a centerpiece of scientific investigation after more than 300 years. William Herschel independently rediscovered M104 in 1784.
The Sombrero Galaxy is actually much larger than what can be seen in the image above. The galaxy is surrounded by a halo of stars, dust and gas that indicate it may actually be an elliptical galaxy that contains a more robust interior configuration. Shorter time exposures reveal distinct spiral arms radiating from the center and it is referred to as a “spiral galaxy” by astronomers. M104 is surrounded by globular clusters in the hundreds – a much richer population than our own Milky Way or most other observed galactic bulges.
Astronomers have long maintained that galaxies are clouds of hydrogen gas and intergalactic dust that have been compressed by gravity until they coalesce into glowing thermonuclear fires. In the recent past, the community has also proposed that the centers of most galaxies contain black holes of unbelievable magnitude. It is the activity of these “gravitational point sources” – some as powerful as the gravity field from 200 million stellar masses – that causes the galaxies to spin, globular clusters to spawn, tremendous jets of gamma and x-rays that span thousands of light-years to appear, and (among many other features) “radio lobes” that are larger than the galaxy out of which they discharge.
As most conventional researchers have noted, the fact that galaxies and other celestial objects spin is attributed to the early formation of their structure. A galactic embryo is said to possess an angular momentum that increases as it begins to fall into its own gravity well. In an oft-repeated illustration of how this occurs, we can visualize an ice-skater doing a pirouette. As the skater’s arms are drawn in closer to the body, the spin-rate increases. Thus, as the galaxy begins to contract the acceleration of the cloud increases, causing spiral arms to form, a disk of material to begin surrounding the central nucleus and globules from eddy-currents within the gases to condense into stars. This all occurs because the spin in the cloud overcomes the gravitational attraction through centrifugal force, throwing material outward like a drop of paint on a spinning platter.
The Electric Universe model does not permit the condensation of galaxies from cold, inert hydrogen and specks of zircon no bigger than an molecule. So, what are galaxies?
In 1981, Hannes Alfvén presented his hypothesis for “electric galaxies”. He said that galaxies are actually very much like a device invented by Michael Faraday, the homopolar motor. A homopolar motor is driven by magnetic fields induced in a circular aluminum plate or some other sufficiently conductive metal. The metal plate is placed between the poles of an electromagnet that causes it to spin at a steady rate proportional to the input current. The meter attached to the wall in most backyards that determines monthly electric bills is a homopolar motor. So, what does this mean for galactic genesis and evolution?
Galaxies exist within an inconceivably large filamentary circuit of electricity that flows through the cosmos from beginning to end. There is no way to know where this current flow rises, or to what electrode it is attracted, but we see the effects of its electromagnetic fields in the magnetism and synchrotron radiation that permeate space. That electricity organizes itself within fields of plasma that are sometimes larger than galaxy clusters. The plasma is composed of neutral atoms, but a small fraction of electrons, protons and other charged particles are also present. Those particles, and the charge-neutral ones they sweep along with them, are driven by the larger electromagnetic field to form “pinches” of matter.
As many of the plasma pioneers have pointed-out, plasma isolates its charges within “double-layers” folded inside helical tubes called Birkeland currents. As the currents propagate, their mutual attraction causes them to “pinch” into tighter and tighter helices. In Electric Universe theory, the clusters that formed in the pinch zones of Birkeland current strands around M104 show it to be extremely active. The large number of clusters and a distinct “homopolar disk” are a sign of electrical activity.
Filaments exist everywhere: from sparks that leap from doorknob to fingertip after walking across a nylon carpet, to flashes of lightning, to collimated “jets” of x-rays that erupt from the axes of galaxies (and stars), to the cosmic “strings” of superclusters that make-up the large-scale structure of the universe. To elicit such displays the forces of gravity and inertia alone appear to be insufficient.
The primal electrical energy source is orders of magnitude more powerful than gravity. The “plasma ropes” that comprise Birkeland currents attract one another over distance in a linear relationship, rather than through the “square-of-the-distance” proportions of gravity. That makes Birkeland currents the most powerful long-range attractors (and also short-range repulsors) in the universe. Electric currents flowing through dusty plasma beget and sustain the galaxies.
By Stephen Smith
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Science Fiction Fandom
The Future is Now
SCIENCE FICTION FANDOM is a series of TV shows showing activities at various Science Fiction Conventions (Cons) that have taken place in the Boston, Massachusetts, USA area. The show was created for, and originally broadcast on Malden Access TV, but is available for broadcast on other cable access stations. The shows below are in Real Player format. A broadband connection is needed to view them.
22. January 2008
Brother Guy on Ice
Presentation at Boskone 44. Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, PhD presents a slide show of his 1996 trip to
Antarticia to search for meteorites. Brother Guy is an astronomer assigned to the Vatican Observatory.
He is also the curator of the Vatican Meteorite Collection
23. February 2008
Debate: Star Wars vs Star Trek: Looking Deeper
Debate panel at the 2008 Arisia con. Description from the Pocket Program:
"This panel is one of the new debate panels at Arisia. It is built around the question of which series had a more profound
impact on society at large and fannish society in particular. As with all such debates, the question is unanswerable, but it
gives us a wonderful way to deeply explore a very interesting question."
Panel members:
Star Wars side: Ian Randal Strock (www.sfscope.com), Hugh Casey,
MaryAnn Johanson (moderator),
Star Trek side: Jeff Warner & Jim Zavaglia.
Also available as a stereo mp3 file
24. March 2008
Will 2008 Be The Year When eBooks Make It?
Panel discussion at Boskone 45. eBooks are Electronic-Books .. books without paper (dead tree books).
eBooks have been around in various forms for years, but are gaining in popularity. You can now buy
dedicated eBook readers, but at this point they are still fairly expensive. Just what is needed for eBooks
to be a success?
Panel members: Don D'Ammassa, Charles Stross, Darlene Marshall and Ellen Asher.
Also available as a stereo mp3 audio file.
25. April 2008
The Rise of Modern Science
Panel discussion at Boskone 45. Description from the program schedule: "What happened in the Middle Ages which
lead to the rise of modern science? Why did it happen first in Europe and not elsewhere? How did science grow if the
Middle Ages were really an "age of faith" without reason?"
Panel members: Michael F. Flynn, Brother Guy Consolmagno, and John Farrell
Also available as a mp3 audio file
26. May 2008
Non-Genre Films that Fans Love
Panel discussion at ARISIA 2008. Description from the program schedule: "There's nothing fantastic about MEMENTO,
but it somehow feels like science fiction. What other realist movies are especially attractive to fans of SF and fantasy?
What are the qualities that make them feel like genre?
Panel members: Julie Tenney, Sonya Taaffe, Eric M. Van & Adam Lipkin.
Also available as a mp3 audio file
Click for list of movies discussed on the panel
27. June 2008
THE LIVING DEAD
June is ZOMBIE MONTH at Science Fiction Fandom !! Part 1: a panel discussion at ARISIA 2008.
Description from the program scheudle. "Forty years after George Romero gave us
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD his zombies still walk among us in remakes, new films from Romero himself, and
astonishing recent movies from others ranging from SHAUN OF THE DEAD to 28 WEEKS LATER.
Why is the SF/horror subgenre so enduring? What are its classics and which are merely athe walking dead?"
Panel members: Michael A. Horne, Garen Daly, Tim Lieder, Adam Lipkin
Also available as an audio mp3 file
28. June 2008
Mind If We Pick Your Brraains? The Zombie Panel
June is ZOMBIE MONTH at Science Fiction Fandom !! Part 2: a panel discussion at BOSKONE 45.
Description from the program directory: "Suddenly the undead are all around us. Last year a top-selling comic featured
a zombie Spider-Man. Brad Pitt and J. Michael Straczynski are said to be bringing to life a movie of Max Brooks's zombie
apocalypse novel World War Z. The spring Zombie Walk to Harvard Square gets bigger every year.
If you know anything about this, please help us answer a few questions. Where did this zombie idea come from?
Why such staggering popularity? What do zombies really want? Hey, why are you looking at us like that?"
Panel members: Seanan McGuire, Sonya Taaffe, John Langan, Michael Swanwick & Bob Eggleton.
Also available as an audio mp3 file
29. July 2008
What is LARP, and Why Would I Want To Do It?
Panel discussion at ARISIA 08. LARP is Live Action Role Playing. Panel members give us a look into the LARP world,
what it is, how it is usually done, and where to find local (Boston area) events.
Panel members: Anna Bradley, Chad Bergeron, Mark Waks, John Bacon & Michael Ventrella.
Also available as an audio mp3 file.
30. July 2008
Part 1 .. Can't Stop The Serenity 2008 screening, Boston, MA
All around the world fans of the cancelled TV show FIREFLY get together once a year to screen the feature movie,
SERENITY, that was made continuing the story. This is a fundraiser for Joss Whedon's favorite charity EQUALITY NOW,
and local charities. In Boston the local charity was the GREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK.
Part 2 .. Modern SF&F Radio Drama in New England
Panel at Arisia 08. Description from the program directory:
"Join the producers of several New England-based audio theater projects in a discussion of their work and of the mediums's
viability for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror storytelling. The panel will include the producers of 'Red Shift', 'The Fantastic Fate of
Frederick Farnsworth the Fifth', 'Second Shift' and others."
Part 2 also available as a mp3 audio file
31. August 2008
Why Don't We Believe in UFO's?
Panel at Boskone 45. Description from the program book: "Is it true that SF readers are less likely than the general public
to believe in the existence of UFOs, drive-by probes by Gray aliens, etc.? Is it that we're more scientifically informed,
or just less open-minded than we think? Is there any good evidence for these phenomena generally? Why is this stuff
not likely to be true? What evidence whould it take to convince us?
Panel members: Glenn Grant, Eric M. Van, Jennifer Dunne & F. Brett Cox
Also available as a mp3 audio file
32. August 2008
Demonstration by members of the Higgins Armoury Sword Guild:
Swordplay through the Ages
Description from the Boskone 45 Program Schedule: The sword was the weapon par excellence for hundreds of years, and the
symbol of nobility and might. During that time its techniques changed dramatically. From the subtleties of the knightly longsword to
the simplicity of the military saber, watch the HASG demonstrate authentic swordplay styles, taken from the surviving manuals of the
longsword, rapier, backsword, and saber.
33. September 2008
Firefly, The Best Series In The Verse
Panel discussion at 3 Pi-Con August 2008 in West Springfield, MA. One of the panel members is Keith R.A. DeCandito who
wrote the novelization of the movie Serenity.
Also available as a mp3 audio file
34. September 2008
Star Trek, Does It Have A Future?
Panel discussion at 3 Pi-Con, August 2008 in West Springfield, MA.
Also available as a mp3 audio file
35. October 2008
10 Years Of StarGate
Panel discussion at Arisia 2008. Description from the Program Directory: A discussion and farewell toStarGate SG1.
How did it affect SF television? Will Stargate:Atlantis have similar long legs?
Panel members: Terri Osborne, MaryAnn Johanson & James T. Henderson Jr.
Also aailable as a mp3 audio file
For more information on the BOSKONE science fiction convention click here.
For more information on the NOREASCON4 convention click here
For more information on UNITED FAN CON click here
For more information on ARISIA '07 click here
For more information on Pi-Con click here
If you are a fan of Farscape or Firefly / Serenity you may enjoy listening to the podcasts:
The ScapeCast: http://www.scapecast.org
The Signal: http://www.serenityfirefly.com
For more information on the show, SCIENCE FICTION FANDOM, contact the producer, Richard Amirault ( ramirault_at_verizon_dot_net )
