re: Astronomers may have found giant alien 'megastructures' orbiting star

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But still, with 400 billion stars, and even more planets and moons, if we were a statistical anomaly, it would be the greatest statistical anomaly of all time. You'd be more likely to win the Powerball 100 times over than for us to be the only intelligent civilization in the galaxy...

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No. Powerball odds are well-defined and easily calculated. In contrast, the probability of extraterrestrial life is incalculable. It amounts to extrapolating from a sample size of 1. The best, most precise thing anyone has ever said on the subject is Sagan's, "If it was just us, then it would be an awful waste of space."

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But still, with 400 billion stars, and even more planets and moons, if we were a statistical anomaly, it would be the greatest statistical anomaly of all time. You'd be more likely to win the Powerball 100 times over than for us to be the only intelligent civilization in the galaxy... and then adding in other galaxies, it just seems impossible that there's not something else out there.

I can't disprove the Fermi Paradox, but I see no real evidence for it either.

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Oh yeah I'm not trying to defend it, just saying that it's literally the only viable way to look at the entire landscape from a purely logical perspective. The amount of factors involved in an actual statistical calculation for

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with 400 billion stars, and even more planets and moons, if we were a statistical anomaly, it would be the greatest statistical anomaly of all time.

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is impossible. We can't account for the magnitude of factors involved.

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We're a mere ant hill in the middle of the woods. Just because we haven't been visited by extraterrestrials or we don't know how to contact them doesn't mean they don't exist.

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But simply running down the mathematical probability doesn't give you any proof that they do. Especially if we

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We just can't fathom

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I mean honestly, religion, by definition, includes something that we "can't fathom." So what's the difference?

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You don't go hang with ants do you? Then why should aliens be all that interested in us?

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I don't hang with ants, but some people do. Ant Farming is a popular hobby. I mean, if there Aliens, and if the math is correct, a multitude of them, wouldn't at least one species be interested in human farming? Or human observation?

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I mean honestly, religion, by definition, includes something that we "can't fathom." So what's the difference?

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This I entirely agree with. Religion in my opinion is simply a belief in a higher power than oneself. I'd venture to say everyone is religious in at least some form, including atheists. Religion I don't think will die but evolve. You and I are both familiar with Singularity, and I'd be shocked if/when it happens that there won't be some sort of religion around it. It's a very delicate issue, and I don't know what lies ahead of us in this regard.

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I don't hang with ants, but some people do. Ant Farming is a popular hobby. I mean, if there Aliens, and if the math is correct, a multitude of them, wouldn't at least one species be interested in human farming? Or human observation?

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Not all ant colonies have been visited though. With 400 billion stars in our galaxy alone, how could any species possibly have the time to visit us all? Only beings that have transcended dimensions would have this capability, and I can say almost with certainty that we wouldn't be able to comprehend them as a species.

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it would be pretty incredible if we discovered a type II civilization though. and terrifying.

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Especially considering what we see as a Type II civilization in 2015 is actually 1481 years more advanced at this point.

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Not if it was done for God's glory. The universe ain't about you and me. It's about God's glory and we are lucky to be part of it.

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Go away.

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This I entirely agree with. Religion in my opinion is simply a belief in a higher power than oneself. I'd venture to say everyone is religious in at least some form, including atheists. Religion I don't think will die but evolve. You and I are both familiar with Singularity, and I'd be shocked if/when it happens that there won't be some sort of religion around it. It's a very delicate issue, and I don't know what lies ahead of us in this regard.

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Word.

And again, count me all in against the Singularity and that religion That stuff is probably 1 million times scarier than intelligent life. (And if the Technological Singularity is an inevitability, maybe that's a great filter?)

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Especially considering what we see as a Type II civilization in 2015 is actually 1481 years more advanced at this point.

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If they're Type II, 1500 years is probably nothing. What's really intriguing/scary is that they may be active at the same time as us.

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Maybe the galaxy is full of intelligent life and we just happen to be stuck in the backwater part of space and nobody has ever bothered coming by yet.

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So we're like the Tensas Parish of the Milky Way? I can dig it.

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(And if the Technological Singularity is an inevitability, maybe that's a great filter?)

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Something I have not considered, but this is the first I've actually found the Great Filter plausible. Surely every advanced civilization will create this, and maybe that's why we haven't found it. It's pretty humbling actually.

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And when we say "this," we mean "A singularity," in that it's a consolidation of the entirety of collected consciousness of a civilization into one immortal existence.

That's the singularity. If you take that as the inevitable, well, this conversation becomes a whole lot more interesting.

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Seriously, how narcisstic is that point of view of God?

"Hey, I cured AIDS, but I'm keeping it for myself."
"Hey, I drew the most beautiful painting in history, but frick everyone else, I'm keeping it for myself."
"I made the most beautiful thing in the universe, but I'm going to keep it just for myself."

That's a level of narcissism that is simply unbelievable.

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You marvel at it, yet you say he is keeping it for himself.