We are not alone in the universe! Radio astronomers have detected faint signals of intelligence from a star system 3000 light years away. This civilization was emitting radio signals at least 3000 years ago. Our signals will not reach them for another 2900 years.
Ok, what now? Has anything changed? Well, yes - we went from thinking there was a probability to being told by experts that it is a certainty.
Unfortunately, this is a fiction - as far as I know, we haven't detected any signals of intelligent origin, and we probably won't. Why not? Because the universe it very old, we haven't heard anything yet, there is no reason intelligence on other planets should develop anywhere close to our timeline, and there is no reason for intelligence to develop.
Why is there no reason for intelligence to develop? Because it is about as accidentally meaningless as peacock feathers. Intelligence is little more than a fitness display that got caught up in a process of runaway sexual selection. Oops, boom, brains develop to the point that birth is dangerous, metabolism is heavily taxed, and the kludge design is constantly breaking down.
All of this, I am just parroting from others. My question, in the end, boils down to why so many secular people seem to believe intelligence is an end-goal of the evolution of the universe. It seems a bit self-aggrandizing to me, but then again, what is reality without consciousness? And what is consciousness without intelligence? The idea behind these questions has been around for a while: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
But the end-goal question...
Ok, what now? Has anything changed? Well, yes - we went from thinking there was a probability to being told by experts that it is a certainty.
Unfortunately, this is a fiction - as far as I know, we haven't detected any signals of intelligent origin, and we probably won't. Why not? Because the universe it very old, we haven't heard anything yet, there is no reason intelligence on other planets should develop anywhere close to our timeline, and there is no reason for intelligence to develop.
Why is there no reason for intelligence to develop? Because it is about as accidentally meaningless as peacock feathers. Intelligence is little more than a fitness display that got caught up in a process of runaway sexual selection. Oops, boom, brains develop to the point that birth is dangerous, metabolism is heavily taxed, and the kludge design is constantly breaking down.
All of this, I am just parroting from others. My question, in the end, boils down to why so many secular people seem to believe intelligence is an end-goal of the evolution of the universe. It seems a bit self-aggrandizing to me, but then again, what is reality without consciousness? And what is consciousness without intelligence? The idea behind these questions has been around for a while: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
But the end-goal question...
No comments:
Post a Comment