NdGT is Great

[vorlon13]

Even if humanity has a godawful WWIII, civilization will rise again. Will that one learn anything from the first? Idunno, and it doesn't matter. If #2 screws up there will be a #3, ad infinitum.

Each rise gets harder, easy oil will be gone, easy minerals and ores dispersed, environmental degradation will be a problem too, but while humanity is regrouping, nature will take over. Look how verdant and plush the area around Chernobyl is.

Even a 10,000 year climb back to where we are now (and I think even a devastating war might only run the clock back 1000 years) and we're still in the running for winning the galaxy.

[AFTT47]

Vorlon, I think you majorly overestimate the desire to fill the galaxy. How much would a civilization advance in the time it takes to fully make use of the resources in a single solar system? A lot! From the perspective of beings who have self-directed their evolution and become hundreds of times (at least) smarter than us, blazing across the galaxy with the intent to exploit it may not seem like a worthwhile enterprise at all. They wouldn't need to and they probably wouldn't be so insecure to feel an urge to expand just for the sake of expansion.

[vorlon13]

It only has to appeal to ONE (1) civilization in the last X billions of years. The millions of other slacker civilizations will just be also rans.

BTW, the more populated people seem to feel the galaxy is, the more likely it is we would be seeing signs of that one advanced and spreading civilization.

Where are they ?

Unless it's us . . . .

[abaris]

BTW, the more populated people seem to feel the galaxy is, the more likely it is we would be seeing signs of that one advanced and spreading civilization.

Where are they ?

Unless it's us . . . .

You're aware that looking at distant systems is a window into our own dynosaur age?

Light tavels 300.000 kilometers per second. There's nothing to speed that up when looking through a telescope.

[AFTT47]

I think it is far more likely that for some reason - which we may not be able to comprehend yet - it won't appeal to anyone. The chances of us being in the running for most advanced race in the galaxy seems very remote. It's possible if intelligent life is extremely rare but in light of recent discoveries of extra-solar planets everywhere, that seems remote.

I also wonder what you expect to see if there is some race out there with a presence all over the galaxy. We know they haven't turned all the stellar systems into Dyson Spheres because we couldn't miss that but aside from that, what do you expect to see with our present detection abilities?