X-Message-Number: 14436 Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 07:21:24 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: if so, where are they? Hi everyone! I note George Smith's comment on current theories of cosmology. While the universe is unlikely to follow current theories, there is one problem with the notion that the universe is endless in the past: right now, there's a serious problem about the existence of other intelligences. If they existed, they could easily have colonized our solar system millions of years before human beings evolved. So where are they? An infinite past makes such other intelligences (millions of years in advance of us) seem even more likely. Even if we suppose that most intelligent species destroy themselves early in their history, such destruction would have to be unbelievably common if the past of the universe is infinite. Not only that, but the DISTANCE such intelligences migth come to get to our galaxy becomes far larger ... even if they take a relatively slow trip, trips between galaxies become just as easy as those between stars. Moreover, theories which propose the existence of other intelligences which (for some reason) don't arrive here seem even less plausible. Even if we suppose that many civilizations decide not to interfere with Earth, it only takes one willing to interfere for everything to change. Not only that, but that interference could easily have happened, again, millions of years before human beings had even evolved... even the primitive forms with which we began, and which seem to have been wiped out by the arrival of Homo sapiens. Yes, if we stretch our imaginations enough we can come up with ideas for how there might be other civilizations but NONE decide to come here. I do not know of any PLAUSIBLE theory for that. At the same time, with an infinite past, the problem of "Where are they?" becomes even more pressing. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14436