In 1983, astrophysicist Brandon Carter proposed the "Doomsday argument" that supposes we are "likely" living near the end of humankind just before the species dies out. He reasoned that since most species tend to die out suddenly after a period of exponential increase, therefore if humans will also follow this pattern, then if you randomly select a single human lifespan from the pool of all human lives, it is most likely to occur during the final peak before the doomsday.
Cirkovic and Milosevic-Zdjelar pointed out in 2003 that Carter's argument did not seem to consider it likely for human beings to colonize other worlds successfully. Indeed, as any Elon Musk would say, we... (read 383 more words →)