Self replicating probes traveling at 10% the speed of light could spread throughout the entire Milky Way galaxy in just half a million years. When you consider that the Milky Way Galaxy is 13.5 BILLION years old, this is an extremely insignificant amount of time. These self replicating probes resemble life in their drive to reproduce, consume resources, and prevent the eradication of their strain. Von Neumann probes from different alien civilizations could compete with each other in a Darwinian fashion, and slowly fill the galaxy.
The question is, why is there no evidence of these probes? The concept of these probes btfos most explanations for the Fermi Paradox. I saw this interesting paper that tries to address the contradiction, but I’m not entirely satisfied with its conclusion.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1903.00770.pdf
So, what’s the answer? Is abiogenesis and the formation of multicellular life really such an incalculable miracle that we are alone?
I was thinking it might fit under the “Dark Forest” theory, where in a ruthless galaxy such probes are carefully concealed or not sent out at all for fear of being traced back to their origin point.
Thoughts?
The question is, why is there no evidence of these probes? The concept of these probes btfos most explanations for the Fermi Paradox. I saw this interesting paper that tries to address the contradiction, but I’m not entirely satisfied with its conclusion.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1903.00770.pdf
So, what’s the answer? Is abiogenesis and the formation of multicellular life really such an incalculable miracle that we are alone?
I was thinking it might fit under the “Dark Forest” theory, where in a ruthless galaxy such probes are carefully concealed or not sent out at all for fear of being traced back to their origin point.
Thoughts?
