effects of intelligence on the universe

[Sephus]

lol i used 300,000 m/s obv.

[m_the0ry]

As exciting as the prospect of humanity spreading across the universe is, it raises a few questions mostly highlighted by Fermi's paradox. If it is possible to surmount the technological boundaries of lightyear scale spacetravel, how come we haven't encountered aliens? Wouldn't some other species be out there also seeking universal domination? It's impossible to ignore this when considering the massive number of (visible) stars that could host life.

[Borodog]

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As exciting as the prospect of humanity spreading across the universe is, it raises a few questions mostly highlighted by Fermi's paradox. If it is possible to surmount the technological boundaries of lightyear scale spacetravel, how come we haven't encountered aliens? Wouldn't some other species be out there also seeking universal domination? It's impossible to ignore this when considering the massive number of (visible) stars that could host life.

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Somebody's got to be first.

I think most people drastically over-estimate the probability of extraterrestrial intelligence, precisely because of this effect.

[Metric]

In any case we should be expected to be in the very early stages of this kind of process, but I agree that this kind of idea should be able to make some predictions. The discovery of some very distant galaxies emitting almost entirely at very low wavelengths would be a smoking gun. How low the wavelengths should be, I don't know -- it depends on how efficient the superintelligence is at converting solar energy to something useful. The ultimate lower bound on the frequency of emitted light would be set by the temperature of the cosmic background radiation -- emitting at lower wavelengths would be thermodynamically impossible. One could probably come up with much more realistic bounds as well, with some additional assumptions that haven't been posited yet...

[Borodog]

Metric,

Wouldn't very distant galaxies be too early in the lifetime of the universe to make this likely? At that epoch those galaxies should be too metal poor for the evolution of high technology civilizations.

[Metric]

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Metric,

Wouldn't very distant galaxies be too early in the lifetime of the universe to make this likely? At that epoch those galaxies should be too metal poor for the evolution of high technology civilizations.

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Very good point... I bet it would be easy to draw an effective distance limit for this -- no need to look out any farther than you could see a majority of late-generation stars that have themselves been burning for several billion years.

[malorum]

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So assuming your correct about the Dysen Sphere thingy (big assumption)

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http://www.2012.com.au/Hollow_Earth.jpg