Max Tegmark on "The Future of Life: a Cosmic Perspective" at Singularity Summit 2011

[nox707]

This must be the dumbest presentation I've ever seen.

[Lucianferre]

Saying that there is no intelligent life in the universe because there is no proof is foolish in my opinion. it may or may not be true - is the only logical answer. it is also foolish to say it is impossible for life to travel here because of distance. We might find in 100 years that our understanding of physics was wrong. There could be intelligences many millions of times greater than ours, that look to us as we do ants... I don't stop at an anthill and ask them to take me to their leader...

[Zurround100]

is this guy on crack? He really thinks we are alone in the entire universe? That is like the inhabitants of Easter Island thinking they are the only people in the world. I actually believe that intelligent life or even complex life are rare but the universe is HUGE no way in hell are we the ONLY world with life.

[MDEMONIC689]

@Zurround100

He is being an optimist, by assuming lintelligent life exists out there the fact they have never come here or destroyed us, the fact we have no evidence is indicitive that there is a roadblock, such as: they couldn't develop the speed of light or warp drive travel, they blew themselves up, if none of the intelligent life out there overcame the issues we have then clearly we will not either.

I personally am a pessimist and i just think living organisms have limits.

[MDEMONIC689]

@MDEMONIC689

His optimism is a sort of arrogance, not a bad type of arrogance but he is suggesting that somehow no other intelligent life exists because they didnt develop warp drive speed.

His reasoning is circular: iv'e seen no aliens=theres no warp drive/light speed=therefore aliens do not exist.

That is a logical failure right there, it's clear his reasoning is more emotional than logical unfortunatly.

[doctororlox]

every day is roadblock

[telephas1c]

Tegmark here seems to make a bit of a deft mathematical feint to explain his opinion that there is no intelligence in the observable Universe beyond ourselves. The bottom line is we simply do not know the variables, and to be honest I'd tend to lean somewhat towards the principle of mediocrity - i.e. that there needn't be anything special about our place in the Universe. The implication from Tegmark is that we pretty much are in the single most special part of the Universe. Not compelling.

[DerivedEnergy]

@telephas1c ''and to be honest I'd tend to lean somewhat towards the principle of mediocrity - i.e. that there needn't be anything special about our place in the Universe.''

Observer selection bias.

[epitron]

That software he was using to explore the universe was really cool! What's the name of it?

[frenchdelight]

If an advanced civilization populates enough galaxies to have statistically secured their existence for x number of universal durations, while at the same time sending out waves of von neumann probes to colonize other galaxies and using virtual realities to engage with those beyond the ones they've populated, there is no reason for such a civilization to undergo the effort of physically travelling here.

[Redial694]

There's a lot of philosophy embedded in Dr. Tegmark's assumptions - and it seems most reasonable to us presently that one group of hostile aliens could spoil peaceful galactic civilization. I guess it's just a hunch - but perhaps the act of actually surviving to be able to leave one's own planet serves to maintain a natural balance between dark and light. After all, current civilization was created as an alternative to "Hobbsian" existance. This theme repeats in every sci-fi and anime we make.

[qadweeb]

There were technical problems with the video. The presenter showed several videos, but they did not display properly in the video. The talk was rather dull. I did not learn much new and the presentation was disjointed.

[atfman]

good

[viewingiseasy]

Thanks

[silversobe]

“In more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.”

― Carl Sagan

[RestInPieces777]

@silversobe I wonder what Carl Sagan would have had to say about the Singularity.

[silversobe]

“Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” - Carl Sagan

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” -Carl Sagan