Re: Extra Terrestrials

From: <GSLevy.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 00:05:23 EDT

In a message dated 08/01/2000 10:18:53 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
R.Standish.domain.name.hidden writes:

> I've just finished reading "Extraterrestrials: Where are they?" by
> Zuckerman and Hart. It really scotches the idea that SETI might
> actually be successful, even though the Fermi paradox is a bit
> overdone "Any ET civilisation of substantial duration would have
> colonised the Galaxy by now. So where are they?"
>
> However, Gott raises an interesting point. Anthropic reasoning eg
> Doomsday argument really rules out galactic colonisation - at least
> for our reference class. It would appear that the Doomsday argument is
> in direct contradiction with the Fermi paradox. I am rather
> uncomfortable about this, and my preference would be to accept the
> Fermi paradox argument over the anthropic reasoning.
>
> Any comments?
>

It is with great hesitation that I place this post...

The following is an idea which I have had for a while and which I have never
seen expressed. My hesitation stems from the possible nefarious consequences
of talking about it. Yet, an idea cannot remain bottled up for long. So here
it is. The idea is simply this:

ET is not here because he understand the MWI and possibly did QS.

Let me elaborate. When a civilization in the universe reaches the point where
its members understand the MWI, they are basically faced with a choice. Their
decision depends on what kind of "people" they are. I can imagine several
possibilities:

1) They consider life a "game" to be played according to the rules of the
universe where they are. If they win, great! If they lose, no problem! they
know that life continues on a different branch. They play the "game" to the
fullest, but always retain a sportmanlike attitude toward the lesser
civilizations which have not reached their level of knowledge. Their attitude
ranges from a passive non-interference with these lesser civilizations, to
being guardians to and actively protecting them against any kind of
interference by other civilizations. They remain hidden "guardian angels."
HENCE NO ET OF THIS KIND CAME TO EARTH.

2) They look at the MW and adopt a fatalistic attitude. Why bother since
everything happens anyway? Their civilization decays, and they become
insignificant or disappear entirely from the universe. HENCE NO ET OF THIS
KIND CAME TO EARTH.

3) They are neither protective of others nor fatalistic. Since they
understand the full possibilities of QS, this is precisely what they do. By
defining the specifications of the world he desires and then performing QS
(unless these specifications are satisfied) ET restricts himself to that
world. Doing so, he becomes the God of that world, but cease existing in our
own. HENCE NO ET OF THIS KIND CAME TO EARTH.

In summary, the only ETs we can hope eventually to contact are the ones still
in existence in our universe - the guardian angels - In fact, they may be
waiting for us to start reaching out to, and interfering with, other worlds,
to make their presence known.

It is my hope that we shall follow the first of these three possibilities:
become guardian angels ourselves. A more likely scenario is that we shall
follow the three of them. Some of us will become guardian angels, some will
die out because of fatalism, and some will do QS - die to become Gods.

Of course all this (especially the second and third possibilities) hinges on
the relativistic notion that measure does not decrease with death, and I know
how sensitive this issue is in this group.


George Levy
Received on Thu Aug 03 2000 - 21:10:44 PDT