The Fermi Paradox: Imprisoned Planets 

Indeed. .. and then there's Tiktok, which I think could be considered as a possible solution/contributing factor to the Fermi Paradox. Imagine alien civilizations seeing what people put online; Hopefully they'd see things like this and realize we're not (yet) a lost cause!? :D

@@TheEyez187 😆 The solution to the Fermi paradox - civilizations go mad from 60 seconds or less videos.

Donald Rumsfeld has a raging chubby reading your comment!

@@PhoticsTV imagine where we could go without TikTok.

The stars are within our potential. Also I think the Prime Directive forbids alien cultures from contacting any species with a TikTok similar app!? Space ain't big enough to let those weirdos in! :D:D

I also like the idea that the Great Filter is behind us as well, and the formation of eukaryotic life seems a very plausible candidate to me.

Not only that; but I could imagine a setting where a recovering civilisation on an O'Neill cylinder is far less technologically advanced, but not needing 9 odd kms^-1 of delta v, would be prolific space travellers with significantly more primitive technology (I.E, taken to the extreme, a pre electrical civilisation on an O'neill cylinder could probably manage short manned spaceflights to other nearby O'Neill cylinders once they figure out the airlock controls, classical physics and some thermodynamics)

@@tophatsurgeon7469 this type of scifi is perfect for educational game where the AI on board has a secret education course in their language to teach them science once they discover the truth.

Not only an RPG setting but a lot of sci-fi stories too. A cylinder that was abandoned but has become a danger, perhaps with some people in board. Or there is something important in it, rockets to stop an asteroid or cameras to observe the planet. Information that is needed to stop a problem. Or it is the danger, heading to planet earth with hostile colonists in board or the disease ridden survivors of an expedition.

I'd play this.

I wonder. How did a primitive civilisation got onto one of these habitat? If it is built by an interstellar empire trying to preserve a primitive culture on a doomed planet, this action will ought to leave some myths and legends behind. Something like, gods descended in massive metallic arks that darkened the sky, carrying the people to a paradise above the mortal world. And despite tales of extraterrestrial activity being common in ancient myths, gamers are likely to take it much more seriously than historians, because they knew the messages are significant to the plot of the game.

That in turn reminds me of a different book. The Pathfinder series by orson Scott card I believe his name is. It involves time travel, time manipulation, paradoxes, quantum mechanics, and a lot more. Also one of the stranger books out there. Highly recommend if you can deal with how confusing it actually gets sometimes.

Sounds trippy

Is that based on the knowledge that beams of light behave differently until observed? Or something like that, I saw a video on that, it was described along the lines of Schrodingers cat hypothesis where the cat in the box is there, not there, dead, and alive in a state of Flux until the box is opened, and 1 reality is set, there was an awesome anime about an experimental machines meltdown created multiple paradoxes, and their effects on organic, and inorganic objects, it blew my mind, the poor marble fell right out of my ear, lol.

@@dianeneedham6703 what was the name of that anime?

@@FutureMan420Blazer eon Flux? Aeon Flux, something like that

as a longtime SFIA listener, I know that's bunk. O'Neill cylinder with fusion, sent at 0.1%c even from 1Mly away, would only take a billion years but the reality is there's enough stars out there that they could reach one in a few centuries and start dysoning

@@cosmictreason2242 Those timescales are not practical from a human scale, and like I said they were deep in the void between galaxies, there were no stars in their near vicinity they could travel to. If ther'es no other stars for hundreds or thousands of LY, the *desire* to develop tech or attempt to go there is gone, because the gulf is too large. You don't dream of going to the stars if the stars are civilisation-lifetimes away at light speed itself

It was also an inherently unstable structure, impossible to ceate in any realistic scenario.

@@MartijnHover That inherent instability, and the extreme engineering to make it work again as it breaks down, is the basis of the plot of the later books in the series.

@@nekomakhea9440 Yes, I know. I have read them. 🙂

What bothered me about that was the author's speculation that "addictive behaviors" could be bread out, that a population could just let all addicts kill themselves. It struck me as Eugenics, and spoiled it for me as someone who has dealt with family and friends with addictions. If I ever met Niven I'd punch him in his face. The jerk!

@@squirlmy Well, there is a genetic component to lots of human behaviour. Or so it would seem. Addictive bahaviour seems to be one of those. If you could cure it with medication that could be created through gene-technology would you feel the same? I had more of a problem with his hypothesis that you could breed human beings for "luck".

I suspect that is one of the biggest factors in the Fermi paradox combined with complex life being generally rare, and civilizations developing industrial revolution levels of technology being relatively rare as well. Most other filters seem to be too weak at least on their own.

Not to mention the generations of stars that have had to come and go to seed enough heavier elements into the cosmos to actually form rocky planets, ice giants, and even gas giants.

galactic civilisation may have peaked 4 to 6 billion years old universe and we are now swimming in the ruins of giants. xenoarcheology may be the closest humans come to meeting others.

We are early to the party. Life was only made on earth and ~6026 years ago. But we might still colonize the whole place, depending on if #datpostmil is correct

@@cosmictreason2242 the evidence doesn't support that particular set of claims.

Such a mine almost saw greenlight in Spain, but the population density in the area was deemed too high.

Australia‽ Impossible! Everyone knows 'Space' is the **one place** uncorrupted by capitalism!

@@cheapshotninja Elon Musk: "Here, hold my GigaBier."

Or more specifically space Brisbane. Go space Broncos!

Dude where's my planet?

@@papabaer6069 “I don’t know bro! I swear we parked it right here over 10,000 years ago!”

I love that series!

A

I love Isaac’s content, so I say this with all due respect, but I think his speech impediment unfortunately hinders his channel’s potential growth. I have no doubt he’d already have 2 million subscribers otherwise.

@@alexcallender if you’ve followed this channel you’ll know he once or twice said he was going to hire a narrator for this channel but everyone here said NOOOO!!!! So, I’m afraid you’re in the minority.

@@Jaggerbush No, I'm aware of that, and I acknowledge there is certainly a vocal component of Isaac's already existing audience which pretty passionately disagrees with me, but I'm talking about his potential growth - new subscribers - and I sincerely believe his speech impediment is also an impediment to wider popular reception of his content. Obviously you don't have to agree with me, and I've accepted nothing is likely to change, but I feel your comment kind of misses the point.

also, don't forget the Spathi who, once you give/sell them the tech, make a shield around their world. (Not to mention my 'favorite' the Ur-Quan Korh-Ah who just xenocide species) they come across

Too bad this gem of a game isn't more widely appreciated. A remaster would be great

@@nothingnobody1454 Like the free game 'The Ur-Quan Masters'?

@@toddkes5890 ty

@@toddkes5890 Yes well updated to todays graphics. The star map was revolutionary I’m pretty sure whoever created the star map for Mass Effect also played Star Control 2. The version on Ur Quan Masters is the 3do version.

It's on my reading queue too, thanks to things I've heard about it here!

@@jerrysstories711 definitely recommend it! I also recommend your book to anyone who likes medieval fantasy!

It was good. The most haunting sci-fi series I’ve ever read.

@@beastvg123 Thanks! Also, wow I'm impressed you recognized my username!

@@jerrysstories711 well, your historical fiction writing skills definitely enthralled me! So I remembered from when Isaac linked your channel!

Those references seem quaint and old fashioned to me. Have you explored PBS Space Time on RU-vid? The science is more advanced than on this channel and generally loses my attention as it's too much. 🤯 After struggling with that, your reference seems a little out-of-touch 🤷

@@squirlmy Do you have a point? Your comment seems a bit irrelevant and out-of-touch. 🤦🤷

...but if your atmosphere is opaque... you wouldn't even know there was a space to get to...

A world of heavy gravity, where the apex species are those able to raise their heads enough to look towards the horizon to see the low to the ground herds. Would a world like that even breed a species capable of looking up and dreaming of what lay beyond the blank sky?

That is a solution itself though. It's called the Great Filter. Isaac has an episode on it :)

I think Matt's point is that there may not be a great filter. Which is very true. Several minor filters could clearly do the same filtering as one or two great filters. The question is mostly about how much of the filtering is previous to _our_ level of development, vs. in _our_ future. On the other hand, the solution, by definition, *_does_* have to be "universal", in the sense that it has to apply universally to actual and hypothetical planets, life, civilizations, etc, -universally. The question isn't why one particular civilization hasn't colonized our Galaxy, but why _all_ of the possibly possible civilizations _have failed to_ colonize our Galaxy.

@@jengleheimerschmitt7941 there are multiple filters, a filter is just Fermi paradox jargon for anything that would prevent a civilization from expanding beyond their home planet.

Maybe older cubs have gone extinct And we are the only civ in our galaxy

Firstborn

That is both sad and scary. We have to set an example to future species, and also we have to be alone. Maybe we can seed the galaxy, and even the universe with species. kinda like that one from that ST:TNG episode where they found out about that one that seeded life throughout the galaxy in the hopes of them all becoming friends.

That would suck.

This is the likely solution

That seems like a poorly-informed author. Asteroids are better than planets for basic resources. And, they are not uncommon.

Thanks Ivan

Exactly, "what's a century in the grand scheme of things". For basically all of recorded history, the bottleneck in technology hasn't been individual intelligence, it has been raw materials, perquisite technologies, economies of scale, etc. Many incredibly disruptive technologies have been incredibly simple. It doesn't take a genius to design a bicycle or a heat engine or even a rocket, it just takes a lot of knowledge from previous experimentation and the specialized materials required.

And a lot of geniuses in history were only considered such after they'd solved a famous problem.

Give me non sociopaths who can problem solve and I'll fix the world.

Yes, but realistically by the time the 100 IQ people figure out how to keep dirt fertile that society would have already died because there wasn't enough farm land. Not saying they die completely, but a good portion of them would. Then they start again, and again before they can figure out how to make farm land tenable through generations; they die off again. Eventually they may and probably would figure it out. But they may never become space faring due to similar situations playing out again and again. If they did however, they would be billions of years past us. The universe is 14 billion years old. Life on Earth started 3.5 billion years ago. It took at least 5 billion years for the universe to stabilize to a point that life giving planets could even start to form. Realistically, we are also lucky because humans evolved near the beginning of energy expansion (do not like the term big bang as it creates a visual that is not accurate in any way). Our luck, will happen infinite times after after. There will be infinite other species to do what we do. We just happen to be one of the earliest species to have this amount of luck. As he mentions, we are maybe 1% into the beginning of the universe falling apart. And even then, the universe will still support life for trillions of years after. We are not the 1%. Earth is the 0.0000001%, in my opinion anyways. And part of that is having people like Einstein. Actually irritated by him saying "What's a century in the grand scheme of things". Not much when you consider the age of the universe. But is a lot, when you consider the life span of humans and the damage they can do to their planet in that time (which he also mentions - but seems to be overlooked). A month ago, I would have said humans are doing fairly well and will probably survive. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and I start to question how this will all end. 3 weeks, being the difference in how things are. Realistically, with things as they are, it might be a day that determines the fate of humans. One day Russia sends a nuke to hit Tacoma. 15 minutes later the US Nukes two Russian cities. 15 minutes later, a few thousand humans are still alive. A century isn't much in universal standards, but 15 minutes can be everything to a society looking to colonize space. And lastly, the Earth has many societies. Likely, a majority (not saying a vast majority, but it does affect the odds) of planets with intelligent life would end up with a single government/ruler. In that case, scientific progress would probably be hindered. Just another hurtle that Earth has avoided, by somehow having close to 200 countries. If we die by nuclear war, I hope your last thought is. Even though we are a very lucky world, We lost to the odds. We made it through 1 in a million chance, twice. But even of those worlds. 2 out of three of them fail afterwards, and we are one of the 2. Out of the very rare planet that makes it to where we are, some of us have to fail. Our luck ran out, and that is the why we do not see aliens. Hope that does not happen, but realistically we are fighting the odds everyday to continue to survive where many aliens have failed.

@@justindadswell8610 I admire your faith

You could also consider the similarity in Colonizing and "Imperialism". They seem to come from the same place.

My issue with this is that this pretends that our galaxy is way too small to hold more than one civilization. Sure, the Milky Way is not the biggest galaxy, but it's still really, really big. There's more than enough room at the table for everyone, so anyone trying to hog the food is just being a jerk. Given that the biology of other alien civilizations may possibly mean that they could colonize planets we can't, there's no good reason that we all just can't share. While we still have only one planet, it might be a problem, but even we only had a territory of about 100 light years, there wouldn't really be any reason to go to war over a lack of resources. The only reason any interstellar civilization might go to war is either a civil war, a clash of ideals, or just because "We don't like sharing, so screw you guys."

@@apollyonnoctis1291 civil wars, differences in ideology, & greed....so the usual reasons for going to war

No particular need to start anywhere specific, just pick a subject of interest, though newer does of course tend to be better done. I'm sure you've noticed that though.

Thanks Darren!

@@isaacarthurSFIA can't really understand some of the words you say

Only a solution for non-technological species since any planetary conditions can just be exactly reproduced on a habitat or the need for them edited out of the genome

That red glow over the planet is definitely some Ur-Quan tech

Nope. People were always that dumb. In fact, it might have very slightly increased the average IQ by preferentially offing those stupid individuals

@@Mr1995Musicman well, I am going to r/wooosh myself here and just drop that it is impossible to change the average IQ by its very definition. It is always centered around 100.

@@pikadragon2783 it's so sad that half of us will always be below average.

@@pikadragon2783 It's not impossible. You would just need everyone to get collectively more intelligent. Not likely, but not impossible.

@@JCavinee That is not the point. Humanity did in fact get collectively smarter since the implementation of the IQ scale, as education improved overall. The scale is however defined to be always centered around 100. IQ 100 is THE mediocre inrelligent person right now. If you have an IQ of 120 you are smarter (at least by the scale) than a specific amount of humans, etc.. You can get smarter, but you can't push the scale. It is comming with you.

So we just ran a stop sign Can we expect a ticket in the post lol

@@seansoraghan3245 could be worse- could be a Vogon fleet!

Feel free to invent your own!

Call it dirt

I figure we would, because we'd still see things moving through the air. Bubbles, seeds, leaves, etc. We'd have to work more from scratch since we'd have fewer biological inspirations.

yes though it would of taken far far longer to do saw without animals to take desgin traits and learn aerodynamics from.

Actually I think it would have happened quicker. Even cavemen saw smoke rising. Early inventors would have focused on that rather then ridiculous flapping machnes.

On this earth, flying is possible for some creatures due to the level of gravity and thickness of the atmosphere. For there to not be any flying creatures, some of these physical characteristics would have to be different.

:) Thanks Akira, sorry its your first reaction form me, I'm sure I've read comments from you before, the UserID seems familiar, I just tend to read most of the comments after the first couple hours in my email inbox

@@isaacarthurSFIA and a reply. You made my year omg 😱 You've helped change my mind about humanity. I used to be doom and gloom, "humans bad". I'm now 100% team "Gardener" and "live to 700 or die trying" by following rule #1, using enough brute force 😂

@@King_Dogspeed The comment definietly brings some extra cheer to my day, thanks Akira :)

with the very best digital space cage that 1987 discount SFX can offer :)

That won’t happen. If humanity makes it that far it’s because we have become enlightened

Any planet missing what's needed to make rockets is very unlikely to have any life at all.

It could be rich with life but missing dry land. Launching a rocket from underwater is not easy. Making fuel or forging metal isnt easy either but could be done with volcanic vents or something... how would a fish alien even discover fire right?

Lol im 23 minutes in and he pretty much just said that.

Computers aren't as necessary as you might think. I mean they really help get some things faster but are not a 'must have'.

math & science is definitely necessary but life support, "a good body", & gen ships definitely aren't. You can colonize with robots, you can self-modify for whatever environment, & you can use sleeper, seed, or data ships to colonize

@@kruk_7279 You're going to eyeball slingshotting around stars? **shivers**

Space-Whales

@@Yezpahr ehh, you know that your smartphone is way more powerfull that all computers humankind have when they sent people to the Moon?!

Well said. SETI is wonderful, but we couldn’t hardly detect a civilization equal to our own, more than a few dozen light years away. Drives me nuts. We have the technological equivalent to a grubby cup against the door, and are acting like it’s a surprise when we don’t hear anything. Frankly the lack of a space based radio telescope array is disturbing to me. I am not convinced that the people in charge are particularly interested in really listening.

he sorta has an ep on this in "God's & Monsters: Space as Lovecraft envisioned it"

Periods, man! Periods!

If there's a WWIII, you won't have to worry about another for a thousand years. To paraphrase Einstein, world war four will be fought with sticks and stones.

Just no. That is basically impossible. While I'm willing to think even a "leftover" population might use ancient AI or computers... Consider that according to known science FTL is impossible, then to propose a civilization would accidentally find it... Might as well have wish granting genies in bottles. Pure fantasy.

@@squirlmy and thats why we all love sci-fi friend 😁

Hey dude it's all okay. All we have to do is figure out how to go faster than light.

@@robbirose7032 Or inmortality

@@rommdan2716 yeah. Simple really.

@@robbirose7032 Right, and Dr. Alcubierre already cracked that one. Why was I worried?

@@slabrankle9588 exactly mate.