Comments on: Fermi’s Paradox and the Great Filter http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2008/fermis-paradox-and-the-great-filter/ Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:38:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: gordsellar http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2008/fermis-paradox-and-the-great-filter/#comment-14713 gordsellar Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:23:49 +0000 http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2008/fermis-paradox-and-the-great-filter/#comment-14713 Jer, For some reason the followup comments ended up being filtered so I didn't see them. I'm in Firefox 3.0 in Linux, but the problem isn't there. Maybe it was a gacked load? Sometimes my own site gets gacked when I load it, no idea why. Mike, God I hated that movie. Hated, hated, hated. What the Bleep do we know? Well, a hell of a lot more than when we were relying on bleeping high priests to bleeping tell us the bleeping truth about bleep. Jer,

For some reason the followup comments ended up being filtered so I didn’t see them.

I’m in Firefox 3.0 in Linux, but the problem isn’t there. Maybe it was a gacked load? Sometimes my own site gets gacked when I load it, no idea why.

Mike,

God I hated that movie. Hated, hated, hated. What the Bleep do we know? Well, a hell of a lot more than when we were relying on bleeping high priests to bleeping tell us the bleeping truth about bleep.

]]> By: Mike Brotherton http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2008/fermis-paradox-and-the-great-filter/#comment-33 Mike Brotherton Thu, 01 May 2008 04:39:08 +0000 http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2008/fermis-paradox-and-the-great-filter/#comment-33 Yeah, Egan's QUARANTINE is worth a read. It's a common misconcpetion though that there needs to be a conscious observer. There just has to be a measurement, some interaction, in effect, that forces stuff to be there and behave. The new age crap movie WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW? takes advantage of people's poor understanding of quantum mechanics to promote a lot of silliness. Yeah, Egan’s QUARANTINE is worth a read.

It’s a common misconcpetion though that there needs to be a conscious observer. There just has to be a measurement, some interaction, in effect, that forces stuff to be there and behave. The new age crap movie WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW? takes advantage of people’s poor understanding of quantum mechanics to promote a lot of silliness.

]]> By: Jeremiah Tolbert http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2008/fermis-paradox-and-the-great-filter/#comment-31 Jeremiah Tolbert Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:17:58 +0000 http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2008/fermis-paradox-and-the-great-filter/#comment-31 That's odd. What version of Firefox on what platform (Mac, PC?)? The comments are beneath the related posts by design, but the text box on my firefox in about 30 px wider than the comments themselves, and shouldn't run into the previous photos at all. It doesn't for me, but if you give me the info above, I can probably track down that problem. I should clarify that I'm not actually writing anything about Fermi's Paradox, or quantum mechanics, actually. Greg Egan is a good example of why (and you're the second person today to recommend that one to me in relation to this post. Pretty good book?). I find that any idea I think of has been done better by someone else. I just really find the subject fascinating and read up on it when I can. I have read several of Baxter's Manifold books, and I think they were actually what exposed me to the idea of the Paradox in SF for the first time. I'm not terribly well-read these days, especially when it comes to novels. That’s odd. What version of Firefox on what platform (Mac, PC?)? The comments are beneath the related posts by design, but the text box on my firefox in about 30 px wider than the comments themselves, and shouldn’t run into the previous photos at all. It doesn’t for me, but if you give me the info above, I can probably track down that problem.

I should clarify that I’m not actually writing anything about Fermi’s Paradox, or quantum mechanics, actually. Greg Egan is a good example of why (and you’re the second person today to recommend that one to me in relation to this post. Pretty good book?). I find that any idea I think of has been done better by someone else. I just really find the subject fascinating and read up on it when I can. I have read several of Baxter’s Manifold books, and I think they were actually what exposed me to the idea of the Paradox in SF for the first time. I’m not terribly well-read these days, especially when it comes to novels.

]]> By: gordsellar http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2008/fermis-paradox-and-the-great-filter/#comment-30 gordsellar Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:04:52 +0000 http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2008/fermis-paradox-and-the-great-filter/#comment-30 Jeremy, In Firefox, the comment box is below the "best posts" and stuff. I had to hunt for it in this page. Also, the text box goes into the pictures -- my setting, but maybe you can control it somehow? Anyway, GO RIGHT NOW AND BUY GREG EGAN'S NOVEL <i>QUARANTINE</i>. Save yourself months of pain. I started writing a novel off this idea in 1998 or 1999 and then it was pointed out to me Egan had done it, and better than I ever would have done. (Best to read the whole trilogy it's part of -- all funny speculative QM stories. I think I actually started rewriting Egan's <i>Distress</i> first, actually. And yeah, that's the basis of the story of mine that I think you read long ago. You might also like Stephen Baxter's Manifold books, each of which is set in a parallel universe with a different "solution" to the Fermi paradox, setting the filter at different points in the past and future and, er, meta-past. And of course, Stross's <i>Accelerando</i> has some funny observations about bandwidth as a filter that doesn't eliminate life, but filters out lots of so-called intelligence just the same... :) Jeremy,

In Firefox, the comment box is below the “best posts” and stuff. I had to hunt for it in this page. Also, the text box goes into the pictures — my setting, but maybe you can control it somehow?

Anyway, GO RIGHT NOW AND BUY GREG EGAN’S NOVEL QUARANTINE. Save yourself months of pain. I started writing a novel off this idea in 1998 or 1999 and then it was pointed out to me Egan had done it, and better than I ever would have done. (Best to read the whole trilogy it’s part of — all funny speculative QM stories. I think I actually started rewriting Egan’s Distress first, actually. And yeah, that’s the basis of the story of mine that I think you read long ago.

You might also like Stephen Baxter’s Manifold books, each of which is set in a parallel universe with a different “solution” to the Fermi paradox, setting the filter at different points in the past and future and, er, meta-past.

And of course, Stross’s Accelerando has some funny observations about bandwidth as a filter that doesn’t eliminate life, but filters out lots of so-called intelligence just the same… :)

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