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February 26, 2005
Our Missing ET Friends
With recent revelations regarding the probability of water on Mars, a nitrogen atmosphere and liquid water on Titan and the proliferation of extra solar planets, the question of extra-terrestrial life seems to be getting more pressing.
Many people are familiar with Drake’s Equation which estimates the number of detectable civilizations in the galaxy. When first proposed, values for all of the variables were fairly speculative, but as data pours in from the scientific community, we are starting to get a sense of how values for these values might be determined. The predictions are startling. My own estimates of the most realistic assumptions would hold that for every year, on average, that a technological society persists, there is such a technological society extant in our Galaxy right now. So, if we assume that technologically advanced society lasts for say 1000 years, there are currently 1000 such societies in the Milky Way alone. This would also be true for galaxies throughout the universe, bringing the universal total of extra-terrestrial intelligent species into the trillions. And this takes into account only extant species, the number grows even greater if we consider species that have come and gone, perhaps by orders of magnitude.
So where is everyone? The issue is discussed in depth in this earlier post. Given the extraordinary discoveries of the past week, I thought it worth revisiting. Fermi’s Paradox, as Paul points out, rests on several assumptions about the exploratory and expansionistic proclivities of technological civilizations. But even if only a fraction of the supposed technologically advanced civilizations in our universe were of an expansionist bent, they should have been here long ago.
There are a number of proposed answers, all speculative. One possibility is that they are already here. Sightings of unidentified objects are commonplace, millions believe that we are being visited constantly, but that evidence (or perhaps merely acceptance of the evidence) is suppressed. Another possibility is that the presence of alien technology is all but undetectable, in the form, for example, of nanotechnologic probes of infinitesimal size.
Another possibility, however, is that advanced intelligences are by their nature ontologically transcendent. To put it in Terence McKenna’s nomenclature, perhaps our extra-terrestrial brethren are not on distant planets, but are waiting for us in hyperspace on the other side of the transcendental object at the end of time. Given the revelations of the past few weeks, the evidence could be read as suggesting that any sufficiently advanced species evolves into a non-physical, or perhaps non-ordinary physical, space.
If so, this transformation probably occurs rapidly. If species typically lingered in an advanced technological state for say a 1000 years or longer, we would expect a lot of them around. If, however, the lifetime of technologically advanced cultures was only around say, 50 to 100 years, we would expect just a handful in the entire Galaxy. The latter appears to be the case.
This hypothesis also rests on a mass of anecdotal evidence that thousands of human beings have contacted highly advanced entities in non-physical realms:
I saw angels, extraterrestrials, then I called them guides and finally I called them ECCO and it's totally impersonal. It's way beyond what people can understand except in a ketamine or LSD state. Then they tell you, well we're at a low level, there are influences above us. It would be nice to meet these entities that experience these various states. They won't take human form, though; it's a waste of their time.
John Lilly, From Here to Alternity and Beyond
The elves and gnomes are there to remind us that, in the matter of understanding the self, we have yet to leave the playpen in the nursery of ontology.
Terence McKenna, Trialogues at the Edge of the West
So consider: first, mounting evidence suggests that the universe teems with perhaps billions of intelligent species strewn across space-time; second, against overwhelming odds we don’t seem to see them anywhere around us; and third, human beings around the world are in contact with advanced discarnate intelligences in non-ordinary states.
These discarnate entities, are, perhaps, the missing E.T.’s, existing in some non-ordinary space: in a dream-like state, or the astral plane, or the bardo, pick your metaphor, but some essentially non-physical space. If so, we may be headed there ourselves, and in a hurry. Recent discoveries of water elsewhere in or solar system, extrasolar planets and the almost inevitable discovery of life elsewhere in our solar system, all seem to support the proposition that the physical universe we currently inhabit is merely a part of an embryonic stage and that a dramatic shift in our ontological status is looming. And if so, we may find that space populated with billions upon billions of galactic sisters and brothers that have gone before us.
Or perhaps they will have already moved on . . .
Related Posts:
Life, Universe and Everything
Exotic Civilizations: Beyond Kardaschev
this quote seems appropriate.
thanx to Pinchbeck for having mentionned Michaux in his great breaking open the head book, and allowing me to discover a poet i did not know about.
All knowledge creates new ignorance.
All consciousness, a new consciousness.
Every new contribution creates new nothingness.
- Plume - Afterword.
Henri Michaux (1899 - 1984) Poet, Painter.
Something I have always believed since I first started doing deep inner space explorations is that the difference between inner and out space is an illusion. That the dreamworld/dreamtime, bardo, higher states of consciousness are the more 'real' reality than this base and flat one we inhabit in our so-called 'waking state'. Nearly every sage who has ever lived has called the 'conensus real world' an illusion/samsara of sleeping people.
There is no outer or inner space, only hyper-space. No objective or subjective - but transjective. There is no objective linear time, only momentary hypetime - our linear timeline being one amoing an infintite number of them.
Physics, pscyhology, and technology are all part of this tranformation into fully self-realized, awakened godbeings inhabiting infinite godspace.
I just wanted to point out that the size of the universe is much, much bigger than we can see through our telescropes. They know for example, that the diameter is at least 156 billion lightyears, but is probably much larger, maybe even infinite in size, as I pointed out in Life, Universe and Everything.
Posted by: Paul at February 26, 2005 10:20 AMthere are tons of tiny-minded science biased types demanding that thier newest theory,the correct one this time,establishes the limits of everything and gets some money to do more thinking(measuring).my children are taught by painfully ignorant people spouting the party line.science brings us things like "the big bang" and "dark matter" to gobsmack us into thinking that we are getting our money`s worth.any mention of trancendant ontologies draws raised eyebrows and whispers of lunacy.the vatican condemned galileo for allowing cardinals to look at craters on the moon through his new telescope.lesser men were burned at the stake for less.the new heresy is pointing out the inability of science to continue the quanum journey to the next smaller order of magnitude,to where conciousness becomes imperically measurable(my opinion).science has to tread carefully on this new ground for fear of it falling away beneath thier feet.
the descriptions of this sub-quantum space are metapysical and essentially meta-conscious.certainly a materialistic cartesian culture begins to disintegrate in the face of the realisation that all is not what they hope it seems.
Alistair - I completely agree with you. Every time one of these scientists talks about a 'final theory' I see nothing but either arrogance, ignorance or both. Being that they work so hard with their work, I prefer to see them as ignorant and forgive them for their over-extended enthusiasm.
Posted by: Paul Hughes at February 27, 2005 08:57 PMbut surely that`s like going to starbucks and expecting an americano and getting a latte with a smile.you have a good heart,paul and tolerance is the greatest virtue but we are being misled.there are technologies repressed in medicine and energy and other fields that science defends with it`s peer reviews and shouting down of alternate views.with the advent of the internet we get a wider perspective of things but our"less educated" opinion is laughed at when we bring it to bear.
there are obvious and glaring errors in the darwinian theory of evolution(a visit to www.lloydpye.com is a good place to begin)yet it remains the lynch pin of biology in the classroom.newtonian math failed nasa as rockets travelled into space and corrected formulas had to be found.einstien and his mates insisted that the speed of light was the infinite boundary yet particles are found that refute that.
jim mccanney is an astrophyicist that holds that all of what nasa and the hubble reports is false and that space is alive with electromagnetic effects on an enormous scale.his position that comets are planetary bodies and that jupiter is an unignited star are considered lunacy,but tend to shed light on some of the major puzzles occuring on earth,like global warming and the potential for a pole shift.the dogmatic approach of hundred year old theories to predict and attempt to control our environment are dangerous to our very survival.
calm,quiet answers from men in tweed jackets are soothing to the sleeping sheep but difficult questions that promote work toward solutions are what we need.
science`s answer to the e.t. question is that they don`t exist and don`t bother looking anymore because we have a giant radio telescope keeping an eye on things just in case the little green guys decide to call us a cb radio to say hello.
well done boys.how much more money do you need?
science`s answer to the e.t. question is that they don`t exist and don`t bother looking anymore because we have a giant radio telescope keeping an eye on things just in case the little green guys decide to call us a cb radio to say hello.
I am reminded of Terence McKenna's comment to the effect that the way we currently study UFO Phenomena is like trying to study electricity by standing on top of tall mountains and waiting to get hit by lightning.
For myself, I view scientific beliefs like all belief, with varying degrees of skeptism. I don't consider broad acceptance as probabtive evidence of truth, nor do I give special credence to contraversial or cutting edge theories. The main problem with science appears to me to be hubris, not truth. Becasuse science is not belief but methodology, its major sin is not veracity but bias.
Posted by: MrNeutron at March 1, 2005 11:11 AMthe way science tends to be done is by following the grant cheque.i don`t offer a solution to to the process other than to say that maybe the technologists who have profited recently from the great explosion of industrialised data storage and retreval should be encouraged to get involved."sir" bill gates certainly has the cash to sway scientific inquiry.he may not be that curious,though.i know if i had a few billion to spare i`d want to know what the real colour of he sky on mars is.
but then again that creates a new bias.