I'm from Mars does that count?
This would necessitate that technological societies tend not to be relatively enduring, then, meaning that they aren't around to send signals over a long period.
ebola
So how do people here reckon with the Fermi paradox (that the probability of extra-terrestrial intelligences is likely very high, but we have not yet been contacted by any)?
Most ancient Eastern spiritual systems assert that there are limitless numbers of other beings in the universe, but our capacity to witness and interact with them has to do with the specific plane we inhabit. There may be other physical life out there like us, but due to the limitations of our plane it's hard to get to them. On the other hand, there are beings inhabiting the planes "above" and "below" us, and with spiritual advancement we can interact with them in non-corporeal form. You don't need FTL technology to get there, just an advanced form of spirituality.
The Fermi paradox can be reconciled by understanding that there is a great cosmic highway all around us, but most humans lack the openness of spirit to witness it. It's not about them revealing themselves to us, but us evolving to the point where we can join them. It makes sense to me that there should be a test for any sentient civilization to join the rest of the universal community. If you can't be open enough to get there then you're probably not worth dealing with.
^i like those ideas dearly, but there is not one shred of evidence for it.![]()
It follows that the brain could easily produce entities with which one makes contact while intoxicated, even if these entities appear to lie outside the scope of one's imagination.
Foreigner said:It could. But surely you admit that this too is an assumption?
Right, but we need to take a look at what kind of explanations are more parsimonious, given the absence of definitive evidence. We'd need some firmer account of why it would be that psychedelics aid our ability to contact them and/or why such entities would favor contacting humans while they're on a psychedelic drug. I will concede that it seems pretty likely that intelligences exist outside of our ability to easily perceive them.
ebola