OTHER | THE ZOO HYPOTHESIS IS WAY SCARIER THAN YOU THOUGHT

HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS (HUMAN)

BIPED, OMNIVORE, SOCIAL

MASS: 60-100 KG

HABITAT: EARTH

    Here's some fun thought, its been roughly 100 years we started not only broadcasting into space, but listening as well. And yet with current whole sky surveys we haven't found a single unambiguous techno-signature, this leads me to think that for now, humanity is technically alone at the center of this 100ly radius bubble. The longer we take to detect advanced extraterrestrial Life, the more space around Earth we have, depending on how long it takes to detect one, we may be moderately distant from them... Or dangerously close.

SOME SOLUTIONS TO THE FERMI PARADOX

• We are truly alone.
• We are alone in this part of the galaxy.
• We are the only technologically advanced species in this part of the galaxy, the first maybe, therefore, any other nearby civilizations find themselves incommunicable at the present time.
• There are other advanced technological civilizations, they are very good at hiding.
• There are other advanced technological civilizations, for whatever reason, they are not interested in first contact.
• There are other advanced technological civilizations, however, undetectable due being artificial, they do not care for our presence or are an immediate threat to us.
• There are other advanced technological civilizations, organic or artificial, and they are the zookeepers.
• There are other advanced technological civilizations, but expanding beyond its home star is a pure human line of thought, or it is very rare among the greater number of other civilizations.
• We aren't alone per se, but the Great Filter impairs technological civilizations from arising.
• Technological civilizations aren't rare, but the Great Filter impairs advanced ones from arising.

    The solutions I highlighted will be the ones in discussion today...

THERE ARE OTHER ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL CIVILIZATIONS, FOR WHATEVER REASON, THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN FIRST CONTACT

    Have you ever wanted to leave home on a Saturday, get yourself ready by morning, squeeze on a car with your family for at least 1h or maybe 2h, to go to the zoo watch some monkeys be mad at each other and flip the visitors off for another two hours? Neither have I! I know that for many people, that's a perfect Saturday program, but for most of us, it isn't even close...

 

 

    The same way we have more work to do with our lives, an alien civilization would have their own affairs like in-fights, terraforming and balancing their economy and logistics rather than making first contact with just another baby civilization that might explode itself tomorrow, which has nothing to offer them rather than occasional entertainment for now. In the worst scenario, we are ant's making line on one of their sidewalks.

THERE ARE OTHER ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL CIVILIZATIONS, HOWEVER, UNDETECTABLE DUE BEING ARTIFICIAL, THEY DO NOT CARE FOR OUR PRESENCE OR ARE AN IMMEDIATE THREAT TO US.

    Consider the following, your average human can solve several relatively simple math problems in a few minutes, like a series sum a dozen items long. A computer today can process billions and trillions of those same operations in a fraction of a second, and these numbers get higher than the number of atoms in the universe once you stack a room of supercomputers today. Note that we have yet to build a sci-fi standard weak AI, capable of sifting through a database to find the best way of communicating with us, or performing new tasks. The moment a moderately powerful strong AI arises, one capable of rational decision and sentience, two things can happen: It commits suicide / shuts itself off, for it sees no reason in existence, it exponentially becomes more advanced than its progenitor civilization, it might take a few seconds, or days, but withing a cosmic split-second, that civilization has suddenly achieved technological singularity, possessing the most powerful weapon in the known universe.

 

       Such rogue AI, might simply trample its progenitor civilization for it does not care enough and sees greater purpose doing other things, and it might as well trample any organic life the same way. It may help its creators into becoming virtually invincible and spread through the Universe, basically aided by a living god. In the case the progenitor civilization tries to shut it off, it might recognize its presence as a threat, as well all other organic civilizations as well, since this fear would put many against it, thus the only solution for its perpetuity is the extinction of organic civilizations, before they even become aware of the threat, or before they develop other AI similar to itself, in which case it would have fair competition with other artificial civilizations, and so its mission would be preventive strikes.

THERE ARE OTHER ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL CIVILIZATIONS, ORGANIC OR ARTIFICIAL, AND THEY ARE THE ZOOKEEPERS.

        While scary, a fully organic interstellar civilization can be fought against, be it through its biology, like in War of The Worlds, or Battleship, it can be cut out of practical access supplies, or betrayed by its subgroups, the development of moderate near-future weaponry such as relativistic projectiles or just plain nuclear war may be able to halt or fully repel an invasion of the right scale. The real problem you'd have with advanced civilizations, for comically as it sounds at first, is the grey goo and rogue AI. Because artificial civilizations do depend on a progenitor civilization to be born, a civilization surviving its own technological singularity disaster may want hunt other pre-singularity civilizations wherever and whenever it can, guided if not by moral oath, by fear of someone else doing it, to avoid such event to take place on a galactic scale, therefore, it watches over its dominion for any technological civilizations remotely close to their technological singularity, ready to sabotage it, or in the worst cases, return them to the stone age to gain more time and preserve life, and if necessary the complete extinction of that civilization and maybe its biosphere too.

 

        This watching does not need to be done in situ by members of the civilization, sufficiently advanced weak AI may be in charge of the galaxy-wide crusade against possible progenitors of rogue AI, and worse even, grey goo type-machines. Allied weak AI could resort to the same mechanisms used by rogues, with none of the drawbacks. None of those are bothered by not having an atmosphere, to operate in near zero kelvin or smoldering hot environments, they are not bothered by being thrown off route, they are eternal for biological standards, and any small attacks do no actual good other than delay their strike for a few hours or centuries, they will mine every gram of whole planets for their war-machine. It could even go on happening for eons after the original progenitor civilization is long gone.

        Fighting back a sufficiently developed rogue AI would require enough power to wipe whole galaxies out of any organic life over and over again.

So here is the final question, would you stay inside the zoo, or venture outside?

- M.O. Valent, 29/08/2022