I am having to skip through this book because I do not understand the mathematics. I will try, but fail, to understand the Final Anthropic Principle.
The penultimate chapter asks why von Neumann probes have not already reached the Solar System. The simplest answer is that there is no one to send any but Poul Anderson offers alternative answers in The Boat of a Million Years and Starfarers. The truth, I think, is that we just do not know enough yet. New data falsifies current theories and there is currently a surplus of new data. Our main hope has to be that our scientific/technological/data-gathering civilization will live long enough to learn more.
"...the epitaph for Man: We did not have the time to learn everything that we wanted to know."
-James Blish, The Triumph of Time IN Blish, Cities in Flight (London, 1981), pp. 467-596 AT p. 596.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
The Barrow/Tipler book does seem interesting, even if it's way above my mental pay grade!
And I believe one of the best ways for a high tech civilization to survive would be for mankind finally getting decisively off this rock! E.g., by founding outposts and colonies on the Moon, Mars, the asteroid belt, O'Neill habitats, etc.
At the very least we would no longer be stupidly keeping all our eggs in only one basket!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment