Okay, filters that would produce results consistent with observation.
1: Politics: Aka: “The Berzerker’s Garden”
The first enduring civilization in our galaxy rose many millions of years before the second, and happened to be both highly preservationist and highly expansionist. They have outposts buried in the deep crust of every planet in the galaxy, including earth. Whenever a civilization arises that is both inclined and able to turn the galaxy entire into fast food joints/smily faces/ect, arises said civilization very suddenly disappears. The berzerkers cannot be fought, and cannot be fooled, because they have been watching the entirety of history, and their contingency plans for us predate the discovery of fire. If we are really lucky, they will issue a warning before annihilating us.
2: Physics is booby trapped: One of the experiments every technological civilization inevitably conducts while exploring the laws of the universe has an unforeseeable, and planet-wrecking result. We are screwed.
3: Economics: The minimal mass of a technological “ecology” capable of sustaining itself outside of a compatible biosphere is just too large to fit into a star ship. The interlocking chains of expertise, material extraction and recycling, energy production and so on, and so forth, flat out cannot be compacted down enough to be moved. No such thing as a von-neuman probe or a colony ship can be built. Civilizations expand to the limit of how far spare parts and help can can be sent, and then halt.
4: Diversion: Advancing tech opens “frontiers” much, much more attractive than star flight before starflight becomes possible. Alternate timeline gates, uploads into the underlying computational substrate of the universe, ect, ect.
5: Anthropic engineering. Advanced civilizations have proof of the manyworlds and anthropic principles—And use them. Which from outside any given circle of coordination looks like collective suicide. So the universe is full of empty planets, and every civilization has all of it to themselves.
Hmm.
Okay, filters that would produce results consistent with observation.
1: Politics: Aka: “The Berzerker’s Garden” The first enduring civilization in our galaxy rose many millions of years before the second, and happened to be both highly preservationist and highly expansionist. They have outposts buried in the deep crust of every planet in the galaxy, including earth. Whenever a civilization arises that is both inclined and able to turn the galaxy entire into fast food joints/smily faces/ect, arises said civilization very suddenly disappears. The berzerkers cannot be fought, and cannot be fooled, because they have been watching the entirety of history, and their contingency plans for us predate the discovery of fire. If we are really lucky, they will issue a warning before annihilating us.
2: Physics is booby trapped: One of the experiments every technological civilization inevitably conducts while exploring the laws of the universe has an unforeseeable, and planet-wrecking result. We are screwed.
3: Economics: The minimal mass of a technological “ecology” capable of sustaining itself outside of a compatible biosphere is just too large to fit into a star ship. The interlocking chains of expertise, material extraction and recycling, energy production and so on, and so forth, flat out cannot be compacted down enough to be moved. No such thing as a von-neuman probe or a colony ship can be built. Civilizations expand to the limit of how far spare parts and help can can be sent, and then halt.
4: Diversion: Advancing tech opens “frontiers” much, much more attractive than star flight before starflight becomes possible. Alternate timeline gates, uploads into the underlying computational substrate of the universe, ect, ect.
5: Anthropic engineering. Advanced civilizations have proof of the manyworlds and anthropic principles—And use them. Which from outside any given circle of coordination looks like collective suicide. So the universe is full of empty planets, and every civilization has all of it to themselves.
I’m from the future & i just want to thank you for these unusual solutions.