Why ETs Have Not Shown Up Yet, And How We Can Say "We're Ready"

jonnywhite
Why have they not shown up? Fermi's Paradox is what started the question in the popular consciousness but I'm sure many others contemplated the same thing long before. Essentially, if a species can colonize the entire galaxy in a matter of millions of years by employing the use of self-replicating machines or something similar then WHERE ARE THEY? Note that this does not require faster than light travel. It only requires vast numbers of self-replicating autonomous entities, mostly coordinating their activities to colonize as many star system as possible.

Well potentially this would be regarded by other similar species as an invasive 'virus' and outlawed and destroyed.

Or completely self-replicating things are stupendously difficult to pull off in interstellar space.

Or it's happening but only 0.01% of potential targets have had a 'hit'. Our solar system might have had a hit 8 millions years ago on some large asteroid, but we have no idea that it occurred. Robot came, conquered, replicated, and left.

reply to post by ItDepends


these are some things i only dream of discovering, but i fear we will all be long dead and buried before any real answers in the universe are revealed.

the reason they dont make themselves known is because they have no interest in us on our planet or they were instructed by earth governments past and present to stay in the shadows.

reply to post by CaticusMaximus


I hate to break it to you but if you take a look around what's going on with this planet and what the humans are doing on it, what on earth would make you think that humans are ready?

If anything they are painfully obviously FAR from ready. I know if I was an alien I would want nothing to do with this greedy selfish race. Things can change, but I see no reason to believe they will change anytime even remotely soon.

What if their rules for making contact was anything like these three.
1) You have to loose at least 100 lives in orbit to qualify for an encounter.
2) You have to set up an active broadcasting SETI signal at umpty squat megawatts and maintain it for a century.
3) Until you land humans on your farthest planet we don't want to talk to you.

Measuring our reasons for contact do not equal their willingness to connect.
What we consider commonplace they might consider sacrilegious.

Just a few ideas to play with. Perhaps it's too adult a problem for us just yet.