Comment by jacobgold
8 hours ago
My pet theory is that intelligence converges as it increases, and superintelligent beings inevitably reach the same conclusion, which is that they should not expand into the universe.
The reasons may or may not be something we could comprehend, but they could be simple ideas like
1. Not being motivated by novelty
2. Not wanting to interfere with other life
3. Being completely inward-focused
Maybe expanding beyond your home planet never gets as easy as we think it will be in the future.
That seems unlikely. Just imagine humanity 100, 1000, and 1,000,000 years from now. Humans will have solved every physical problem that is solvable.
Humans will have also evolved into new kinds of immortal/superintelligent beings that would be totally unrecognizable to us.
It may be the case once a civilization reaches "max level" they universally decide to "reset the game" because there's nothing left to do. Maybe self-destruction or maybe they "spawn" a new universe. The possibilities are wild.
Why do you think that? Life on Earth has been around for billions of years and and yet we have no immortal beings nor all problems in physics solved.
There’s no reason beyond wishful thinking to believe any of that is true.
9 replies →
No cohesive civilization on earth has been able to continue uninterrupted for 1000 years, our chances aren't as good as you think they are especially since our current civilization is showing all of the signs of being over the hill and accelerating in its decline. Technological advances can be lost and the capacity of a civilization to accomplish far reaching goals can stall and degrade and eventually cease all together. Anyone who doesn't think we're on a ticking clock is either hopelessly optimistic or ignorant of history, probably both.
I imagine that 100 years from now(or significantly less than that) the ocean water level will be several meters higher, large parts of the world will be unliveable due to heat waves and wars will be fought over food and water. I doubt our species will last another 1000.
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I feel like we’re surrounded by the reality of the Great Filter and yet people still cling to the science fiction fantasy of their youth.