Posted by James on 7/31/2007, 8:40 am, in reply to "Re: Fermi's Paradox, Cosmology, and, Are We Alone?" Yes, atoms are everywhere, but they do not make up useless junk. For the vast majority, they are needed for some purpose. The only usable atoms are those that are either useless or form harmful substances, and even those may be of limited use because we do not know the ramifications of removing something we deem harmful to ourselves that may be useful to some other living being. This cuts severely into the pool of useful atoms for transmuting. And that coupled with an exponentially expanding society and limited space would force a civilization that advanced into colonization. This fact is inescapable, unless a civilization evolves beyond the constraints of physical existence, which I find extremely unlikely. "That disregards the tendency toward eugenics, which we see in some forms here on earth. Population control efforts could quite plausibly prevent overpopulation in a highly advanced techno- society, especially if political power had become centralized, as we see that happening here on earth. One might even envision genetic engineering of a sterile worker class, or of life forms that could only reproduce when "enabled," or even in vitro. The possible solutions to overpopulation are virtually endless." Of course there are means for population control, however, as we see here on earth, we are loathe to use them due to the ethical ramifications. Assuming a society reaches that level, we can then assume two differing paths: one in which population controls are stringent, and one in which population controls are similar to ours at this time. Granting this, we have to assume that at least some societies will opt for the second and be forced into colonization. "Right now, the paradox is this: We can reasonably posit that life exists elsewhere, and that it has had time to populate the galaxy. But this reasonable hypothesis is apparently contradicted by a complete lack of evidence. That lack of evidence has a hierarchy of possible explanations, each of which should be considered and ranked among the others. We have not been able to rule out the possibility that we are the only technologically advanced life form in the galaxy, however counter-intuitive that possibility seems. Nor can we rule out the possibility that the lack of evidence has an explanation, and the possible explanations are many." And the largest problem I see with this is that most people tend to commit the logical fallacy that lack of evidence is equal to evidence of lack. The easiest way to deal with Fermi's paradox, and the one most often used, is to look at the vast size of the universe and distances between star systems, coupled with our current technological capabilities to conclude that even if there are life forms capable of interstellar travel in the universe that they simply have not had time to advance to the degree that we would be able to observe them, nor they us.
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"I am utterly mystified by your stance on this. Atoms are everywhere. They are for all practical purposes in limitless supply. With sufficient technology, they can be transmuted into almost any other form, removing the need for finding any material resource, since they can all be fabricated. Perhaps I am just misunderstanding you here."
