Posted by Bob on 7/31/2007, 9:00 am, in reply to "Re: Fermi's Paradox, Cosmology, and, Are We Alone?" I agree that some ET civilizations would opt for colonization, even if there were no need for resources. Fermi (and others) considered the vast distances involved, made precise calculations, and concluded that even at currently attainable speeds, the galaxy could have been traversed several times and in all directions, by expansionist ET civilizations. Nor did Fermi commit the logical fallacy. He did not say that lack of evidence was any sort of evidence at all. He simply pointed out that there is a lack of evidence, and that we should explain it. One of the possible explanations is that there are no other civilizations, and another is that there are, but we have not detected them. The "not detected" explanation poses further questions, at which point the discussion branches into a hierarchy of plausibility.
72.243.26.154
I remain mystified. There simply is no shortage of matter, surplus matter. Even if there were, a space-faring society could use meteors, asteroids, a nearby planet--- no, I give up on this one.
