Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, P.O. Box 72303, Oakland, CA 94612, United States;2. Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, 1200 Westlake Ave N Suite 1006, Seattle, WA 98109, United States;1. Center for Space Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 3925 W. Braker Lane, Austin, TX 78759, USA;2. Department of Religious Studies and Program in Human Dimensions of Organizations, The University of Texas at Austin, 2505 University Ave, Stop A3700, Austin, TX 78712, USA;1. Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom;2. Department of Philosophy, Virginia Tech, United States;3. Department of Engineering, University of Oxford, United Kingdom;1. Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, Italy;2. Chair of Space Propulsion, Technical University of Munich, Germany;3. Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is), United Kingdom;1. Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics; Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center; Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, 525 Davey Laboratory, Penn State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA;2. Department of Philosophy, Spring Hill College, 4000 Dauphin St., Mobile, AL, 36608, USA;3. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Washington, DC, USA;4. Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA 02138 |
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| Abstract: | The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the strong likelihood of alien intelligent life emerging (under a wide variety of assumptions) and the absence of any visible evidence for such emergence. In this paper, we extend the Fermi paradox to not only life in this galaxy, but to other galaxies as well. We do this by demonstrating that travelling between galaxies – indeed even launching a colonisation project for the entire reachable universe – is a relatively simple task for a star-spanning civilisation, requiring modest amounts of energy and resources. We start by demonstrating that humanity itself could likely accomplish such a colonisation project in the foreseeable future, should we want to. Given certain technological assumptions, such as improved automation, the task of constructing Dyson spheres, designing replicating probes, and launching them at distant galaxies, become quite feasible. We extensively analyse the dynamics of such a project, including issues of deceleration and collision with particles in space. Using similar methods, there are millions of galaxies that could have reached us by now. This results in a considerable sharpening of the Fermi paradox. |
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| Keywords: | Fermi paradox Interstellar travel Intergalactic travel Dyson shell SETI Exploratory engineering |
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