dclayh comments on An empirical test of anthropic principle / great filter reasoning - Less Wrong

8 Post author: James_Miller 24 March 2010 06:44PM

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Comment author: dclayh 24 March 2010 10:02:46PM 4 points [-]

We do have intuition about tribes exploring and colonizing islands. ... We do have intuition about the likelihood of natural disasters wiping out island tribes.

I don't. I have no idea what the success rates of prehistoric humans settling large islands was.

Comment author: Jordan 24 March 2010 10:42:53PM 1 point [-]

I don't have specifics either, but I do have some intuition. I know about volcanic islands. I know about volcanic eruptions in recent history. I know about past cities destroyed by volcanoes. I have some idea about how far into the ocean tribal-level technology can take you. I have some idea as to how fast people tend to spread out and explore in general.