Solar system, plus the complete past light-cone leading up to the solar system, has a total of 1 intelligence developed; and since if there wasn’t that one which was developed, we wouldn’t be around to have this discussion in the first place, there are good reasons for not including that one in our count.
I’m not sure that your latter statement is correct, either; do you have any references to evidence regarding the infiniteness, or lack thereof, of the universe?
Solar system, plus the complete past light-cone leading up to the solar system has a total of 1 intelligence developed
Oh really? How can you tell that, say, none of the galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field developed intelligence? Hell, how can you tell there are no intelligent beings floating inside Jupiter right now?
Infinite universe: Thought that this was pretty settled science? Or at least that it’s much bigger than hubble limit?
Why must entire lightcone leading to Solar System have only one intelligence? Are you assuming that all intelligences will singularity faster than geological time, and then intrusively colonize space at speed of light, thus preventing future intelligences from rising? What about intelligences that are really, really far away? I think you are making really unjustifyable assumptions. I think this kind of anthropic stuff is… risky.
Would we be able to see a bronze-age civilization 500 ly away? Possible that such things could be more stable than ours? And a bronze age civilization is pretty different from nothing, more like ours than nothing.
Solar system, plus the complete past light-cone leading up to the solar system, has a total of 1 intelligence developed
I know it’s usual to equate “intelligent” with “human”, just because we’re the smartest ones around, but there are some pretty smart nonhuman animals around; presumably the present isn’t unique in having them, either.
Solar system, plus the complete past light-cone leading up to the solar system, has a total of 1 intelligence developed; and since if there wasn’t that one which was developed, we wouldn’t be around to have this discussion in the first place, there are good reasons for not including that one in our count.
I’m not sure that your latter statement is correct, either; do you have any references to evidence regarding the infiniteness, or lack thereof, of the universe?
Oh really? How can you tell that, say, none of the galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field developed intelligence? Hell, how can you tell there are no intelligent beings floating inside Jupiter right now?
Infinite universe: Thought that this was pretty settled science? Or at least that it’s much bigger than hubble limit? Why must entire lightcone leading to Solar System have only one intelligence? Are you assuming that all intelligences will singularity faster than geological time, and then intrusively colonize space at speed of light, thus preventing future intelligences from rising? What about intelligences that are really, really far away? I think you are making really unjustifyable assumptions. I think this kind of anthropic stuff is… risky.
Would we be able to see a bronze-age civilization 500 ly away? Possible that such things could be more stable than ours? And a bronze age civilization is pretty different from nothing, more like ours than nothing.
Big, yes. Infinite? No. And even the biggest finite universe is infinitely smaller than an infinite one, of course.
I know it’s usual to equate “intelligent” with “human”, just because we’re the smartest ones around, but there are some pretty smart nonhuman animals around; presumably the present isn’t unique in having them, either.