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Stephen Hawking on Intelligent Life in the Universe, an insightful discussion.

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posted on Jan, 20 2010 @ 09:55 AM
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fermis paradox drew a robust and spirited response especially in the 1980s. But all the answers are more conveluted and pose more problems than the simplest answer. Tech intelligence is rare.


It's my position that tech intelligence may not be that rare, but that what is rare, is that two tech intelligences, in close proximity, and in the same period of development as to effect communication, is rare...based on the age of the Universe, and the benchmark age of an advanced civilization (of which we have only our own, to use for comparison)... But a mere blip of time....



posted on Jan, 20 2010 @ 03:56 PM
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lots of interesting ideas being brought up. As far as what Hawking said, he's simply using the scientific method. He certainly considers the possibility of intelligent life on other worlds, he simply has no concrete data to support that, and as such it wouldn't be very "scientific" of him to do anything but speculate and imagine various possibilities.

An interesting idea I've always considered but can't recall ever hearing is that because the earth is more than 1/3 the accepted age of the universe (assuming the "accepted" age is accurate) we could be relatively old. It may be possible that humans are among the earliest forms of intelligent life. I don't necessarily believe this, just an idea.

And for the person who mentioned that we have found celestial bodies that defy the laws of physics, I am interested to hear more about that, but please don't use Newtonian physics to back up that claim as we have known for quite some time that Newton wasn't entirely accurate.

Oh, and by the way, I agree with what Gazrok in the previous post.

[edit on 20-1-2010 by anonymousstranger]



posted on Jan, 22 2010 @ 03:22 AM
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reply to post by Gazrok
 


thats an interesting thought but that wouldnt stop more advanced civs detecting less advanced civs. It also doesnt explain why we see no large optical beacons in our galaxy, why earth hasnt been colonized in the last 2.5 billion years or why we dont detect any alien probes in our solar system or in orbit around earth.

so while interesting i would say as an answer to the fermi paradox its lacking not to mention an order of magnitude more complex than more simple answers.


[edit on 22-1-2010 by yeti101]



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