Posts Tagged ‘aliens’

We have met the enemy

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

What you’re looking at there is an attempt to visualize the results (so far) of a workshop run last year in Stockholm that attempted to define the boundaries of a “safe operating space” in which the ecosystem of the planet can operate without veering towards catastrophe.
The 28 scientists worked out nine categories that they were [...]

Posted in General, Science and Technology | 1 Comment »

Yes, that explains it.

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

You may recall that we’ve discussed the Drake Equation here before, and also Nick Bostrom’s efforts to amend it with what I called a Doom Constant.
Well it turns out that a very plausible answer to the Fermi Paradox that doesn’t involve either post has been suggested by a cartoon over at Abstruse Goose. I don’t [...]

Posted in One-and-done | No Comments »

“Long Weekend” Bag of Links

Sunday, May 18th, 2008

I put it in scare quotes because I am a member of the global information economy, and apparently what that means is that I have to take some meetings on those holidays that are merely national in scope. Yes, I am a grumpy about this. Well, honestly I’m mostly grumpy about having to be up [...]

Posted in Linkapalooza | No Comments »

Yes, I just made up the term “Doom Constant”

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Remember Nick Bostrom? And remember the Drake Equation?
Well, the two have met, as illustrated in MIT’s Technology Review this month, in Bostrom’s article, Where Are They.
Bostrom suggests, although he doesn’t put it in these terms, that the reason we haven’t met the aliens yet is that Drake’s equation is missing a Doom Constant that models [...]

Posted in Science and Technology | 3 Comments »