Richard Ferguson
asked
Colin Alexander:
Is the universe deterministic or probabalistic? Seems to be a hot topic these days among physicists and others. Also, as a sci fi writer, what are your thoughts on the Fermi paradox? Sorry for asking 2 questions.
Colin Alexander
Hi, and thank you for the questions. They are good ones.
I actually do not find the Fermi paradox so much a paradox as an expression of two other key features of the universe. It has taken life a couple of billion years on Earth to evolve to the point of a technological civilization that could be detected by an outside observer. That level of technology has existed for less than 100 years out of those couple of billion. So, many other civilizations could evolve in the universe, but if their rate of evolution is just slightly different than ours, we will never detect each other. This is also connected to the scale of the universe and the distance over which a civilization could be detected. Right now, we are limited (most likely) to our immediate galactic neighborhood, which (as above) makes it unlikely we will detect someone. The other possibility in my mind I explored in the 4th Leif the Lucky book and had Leif refer to it in the 5th book. That is: intelligence could be an adverse indicator for the survival of a species. I'll stop there so as to avoid a spoiler.
In terms of deterministic or probabalistic, I'll go with probabalistic, at least at a quantum level. I always did like Schrodinger's cat.
I actually do not find the Fermi paradox so much a paradox as an expression of two other key features of the universe. It has taken life a couple of billion years on Earth to evolve to the point of a technological civilization that could be detected by an outside observer. That level of technology has existed for less than 100 years out of those couple of billion. So, many other civilizations could evolve in the universe, but if their rate of evolution is just slightly different than ours, we will never detect each other. This is also connected to the scale of the universe and the distance over which a civilization could be detected. Right now, we are limited (most likely) to our immediate galactic neighborhood, which (as above) makes it unlikely we will detect someone. The other possibility in my mind I explored in the 4th Leif the Lucky book and had Leif refer to it in the 5th book. That is: intelligence could be an adverse indicator for the survival of a species. I'll stop there so as to avoid a spoiler.
In terms of deterministic or probabalistic, I'll go with probabalistic, at least at a quantum level. I always did like Schrodinger's cat.
More Answered Questions
Emoto
asked
Colin Alexander:
Hi Colin, I have just finished book 5 of 5 in the Starman's Saga series. I really enjoyed the series, the twists and turns that relativity brought to the story arc, as well as character development, etc. Great stuff. As a die hard science fiction fan, which of your books/series should I grab next? I generally do not like "fantasy" books with fairies and magic, etc. Thanks!
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