"Technological Civilizations Should Go Extinct After 200 Years" --An Astrophysicist Answers the Fermi Paradox (Today's 'Galaxy' Stream)

August 11, 2017

The Daily Galaxy via University of Arkansas by Daniel P. Whitmire

Our universe is incomprehensibly vast, with billions of other planets circling billions of other stars. The potential for intelligent life to exist somewhere out there should be enormous. According one astrophysicist at the University of Arkansas, we became "technological" after the industrial revolution and the invention of radio, or roughly 100 years ago. According to the principle of mediocrity, a bell curve of the ages of all extant technological civilizations in the universe would put humans in the middle 95 percent. In other words, technological civilizations that last millions of years, or longer, would be highly atypical.
Since we are first, other typical technological civilizations should also be first. The principle of mediocrity allows no second acts. The implication is that once species become technological, they flame out and take their biosphere with them.

That's the Fermi paradox in a nutshell. Daniel Whitmire, a retired astrophysicist who teaches mathematics at the University of Arkansas, once thought the cosmic silence indicated we as a species lagged far behind...

There's always the possibility that we are atypical and our species' lifespan will fall somewhere in the outlying 5 percent of the bell curve. If that's the case, we're back to the nugget of wisdom Whitmire taught his astronomy students for more than three decades.

"If we're not typical then my initial observation would be correct," he said. "We would be the dumbest guys in the galaxy by the numbers."

I recommend viewing the excellent accompanying video that explains the Fermi Paradox.

Read the entire article and view the accompanying video that explains the Fermi Paradox "Fermi Paradox Great Filters: Space and Time " here...

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2017/08/-technological-civilizations-should-go-extinct-after-200-years-an-astrophysicist-answers-the-fermi-p.html

Thank you!