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417 points fuidani | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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southernplaces7 ◴[] No.43721197[source]
It would be somewhat worrisome to actually find signs of primitive extraterrestrial life because of the Fermi Paradox. Given the age of the universe, and how long it took both complex life to develop on earth and for a creature such as us to emerge from that, finding life elsewhere would beg a return to Fermi's question of "Where is everyone?" implying that something comes along and causes evolving civilizations to be exterminated before they ever show signs to their presence to the wider galaxy.

If life, even of a very primitive sort, were found, it would stand to reason that it had done so in the past and that other civilizations, possibly even many of them, had formed in our huge galaxy long ago, giving them time to develop enough to be detectable even to us, so then, where are they?

Then again of course, there are probably many, many known unknowns and unknown unknowns lurking amidst all of the above supposition.

replies(1): >>43721819 #
1. rossant ◴[] No.43721819[source]
Maybe sufficiently advanced civilizations just stay under the radar to avoid being exterminated by others.