Comment by api
13 days ago
Sometimes when I think about this it makes me wonder if we should take the dark forest hypothesis seriously (re: Fermi paradox).
Not only are we the only species to reach this kind of technology but among humans the first group to reach space was the Nazis. Today the innovation in that area seems driven by militaristic states and by people who seem ideologically adjacent. In other words it’s driven by very aggressive territorial members of one of the most aggressive territorial species.
We can’t generalize from one example of evolution, but if this is indicative of a common pattern then there might be some scary MFs out there. Our radio signals have been spreading for a while, so for all we know something is on its way to cleanse the universe of all forms of life that offend its god (or whatever its genocidal rationalizations is).
If this is true then we die. There is zero chance of resisting something with the technology to travel the stars and perhaps a million years or more head start on us. It’d be like an Apache attack helicopter versus a termite mound.
I had this thought when I saw the ideological turn (or mask removal) of certain people in the space industry. I found it metaphysically disturbing. Again… if there is other advanced life and if this is the pattern of how you evolve to become spacefaring, then we are doomed.
> Today the innovation in that area seems driven by militaristic states and by people who seem ideologically adjacent.
Today it's Musk driving space technology forward, and I don't see him acting militaristic.
> Musk driving space technology forward, and I don't see him acting militaristic.
Surely, you jest. He's heavily entwined his companies with the US military. StarLink is used heavily in battlefield communications [1]. He sought to deny the courtesy to one of our allies when Russia disrupted Ukraine's satellite communications, but eventually reversed course over the optics of it [2].
Musk's Grok is going to be used by the Pentagon for the usual pursuits of police states everywhere [3].
1. https://spacenews.com/spacexs-expanding-role-in-u-s-defense/
2. https://irregularwarfare.org/articles/when-a-ceo-plays-presi...
3. https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-gains-favor-as-pentagon-emb...
None of those suggest "heavily intertwined". More like the US military has decided that it's a smart move to take advantage of Musk's technology.
As for the Ukraine thing, I read that Musk was trying to comply with US law in avoiding making foreign policy.
It's no surprise that the military uses Starlink, just like they use cars.
As for grok, of course the military is going to buy what they want.
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There could be life on other planets. It could even be (somewhat) suitable for humans to live without a full space suit
But I find it unlikely the exact combination of factors, of which there are dozens or more, will be present such that it’s any place anyone actually wants to settle. Like what if the planet was much like Earth except the gravity was 1.2G. Or the atmosphere was only 500 mb, or surface temp was just barely above freezing. That would be deal breaker for just about everyone
But why would a species that built an Apache helicopter want to waste its resources on attacking a termite mound?
It doesn’t need to be rational.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/mar/03/afghanistan.lu...
The thought experiment I’m doing is asking what happens if there is a link between hyper aggressive species and certain kinds of intelligence and technological development.
It could just be a fluke of our evolution and history that there seems to be a link, but what if it’s a pattern. If true this would mean any spacefaring intelligence is likely to be quite scary.