Re:Beyond “Fermi’s Paradox”: The Percolation Theory Hypothesis
by credit_guy on Saturday December 26, 2020 @08:57AM
(#25543467)
> Invent a better cow catcher
Whatever protection system one comes with, it would better be good 100% of the time. Because a 99.999999% success rate will be a death sentence.
> It's a lot harder to hit something smaller and more mobile
People are very inventive when it comes to new weapons. By the time we have the technology to reach 0.01c, we'll have invented 10 more generations of weapons. We might miraculously avoid interplanetary wars before we reach for other stars, but I would not bet my money on that.
1.b. Space faring civilizations probably don't live on planets the same way we no longer live in caves and mud huts, they build modern houses and cities out in space near to their preferred energy sources and transportation networks. It's a lot harder to hit something smaller and more mobile than a planet and even if you do it doesn't have the same consequences that it would on the ground. i.e. more likely to just punch a big hole rather than convert all its energy to heat, no pressure wave, your neighbours are further away, etc.
2. This is probably why we don't hear anyone, either they are smart about their use of EM communication and everything high powered is directional or they are even smarter than us and have figured out some form of FTL communication.