NancyLebovitz comments on Open thread, Oct. 12 - Oct. 18, 2015 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: MrMind 12 October 2015 06:57AM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 14 October 2015 06:02:54PM 0 points [-]

The general lack of space-going aliens suggests that getting into space is harder than it sounds.

Comment author: Vaniver 15 October 2015 02:56:37AM *  1 point [-]

The general lack of space-going aliens suggests that getting into space is harder than it sounds.

Sure, but we already knew there was a general lack of space-going aliens. Presuming this is aliens, this moves us from "are we the first? Really?" to "are we only shortly after the first? Really?"

Comment author: [deleted] 15 October 2015 03:55:33AM 2 points [-]

The general lack of space-going aliens suggests that getting into space is harder than it sounds.

That's one explanation, the other being "intelligent life is harder than it sounds" and another being "any life is harder than it sounds".

Comment author: Vaniver 15 October 2015 01:24:34PM *  1 point [-]

Both of those fall under "are we the first? Really?", or the related hypothesis that we're shortly after the first. Or did you mean to respond to NancyLebovitz?

Comment author: [deleted] 15 October 2015 03:38:52PM 1 point [-]

Sorry, that was meant to be a response to Nancy Lebovitz.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 14 October 2015 06:31:09PM *  0 points [-]

Or there are fewer civilizations than we expect, or something is wiping out civilizations once they go to space, or most species for whatever reason decide not to go to space, or we are living in an ancestor simulation which only does a detailed simulation of our solar system. (I agree that all of these are essentially wanting, your interpretation makes the most sense, these examples are listed more for completeness than anything else.)