Re:Grabby Aliens: A Resolution to the Fermi Paradox
by tsimionescu on Monday October 31, 2022 @02:51PM
(#33410764)
> Is that accurate?
It is - we would have to be so wrong about how the universe works for that to be possible that it would be absolutely miraculous that we can even make a fire, not to mention a particle accelerator.
People tend to significantly underestimate how little room there is for us to be significantly wrong about such things and still have all the observations we've made. There are still major gaps in our understanding of the universe, to be sure, but they are nowhere near the level of allowing for beings which strip quarks from a nucleus.
Is that accurate? Clarke's third law and all that. Any discussion on what alien beings, or for that matter, some sort of hyper-advanced AI intelligence, ends up unbounded by the limitations of current human knowledge. People ascribe omnipotence and omniscience to such hypothetical entities all of the time, but also anthropocentric motivations.
See Roko's Basilisk which presupposes a future superintelligent A.I. is able to project back into history with perfect clarity, create simulations of sentient beings, and is petty enough to exact vengeance upon them. So you end up arguing about secular deities.
These discussions are fun yet wrapped up in non-falsifiability and woo.