Have Super Aliens Already Left Our Visible Universe?
A Closer Look At The Transcension Hypothesis
We have previously discussed the possibility that super
aliens may already live inside supermassive black holes, a theory that was put
forward by Russian cosmologist Vyacheslav I. Dokuchaev.
This brings us to another interesting question dealing with
the likelihood that highly advanced alien civilizations might have left our
Universe into what may be called "inner space", a subject that
scientists refer to as the Transcension Hypothesis proposed by John Smart.
This is an attempt to explain what happens after the
technological singularity as well as a possible solution to the Fermi paradox.
Futurist John Smart, and other scientists have suggested
that evolution and development may work the same way in the universe as a
system. Our Universe could be engaged in a life cycle ("Big Bang"
birth, growth, maturity, replication, senescence, and eventual thermodynamic or
other death).
This brings us to the possibility that our Universe could
have a twin. If universal change is analogous to the evolutionary development
of two genetically identical twins, two parametrically identical universes
(possessing identical fundamental physical parameters at the Big Bang) would
exhibit unpredictably separate and unique internal evolutionary variation over their
lifespan (unpredictable differences in specific types of species, technologies,
and knowledge among civilizations), and at the same time, a broad set of
predictable and irreversible developmental milestones and shared structure and
function between them (broad and deep commonalities in the developmental
processes, body plans, and archetypes of life, culture and technology among all
intelligent civilizations).
 |
This question is thus relevant to astrophysics, astrobiology
and
astrosociology. One potential developmental process that, if validated,
would have great impact on the future of civilizations.
Do highly advanced civilizations live in an invisible
Universe?
The transcension hypothesis should not be confused with the
expansion hypothesis. "The expansion hypothesis (Kardashev 1964, and many
others since) predicts that some fraction of advanced civilizations in our
galaxy and universe must become beacon builders and spacefarers, spreading
their knowledge and culture far and wide.
Expansion is the standard expectation of those engaged in
SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) and METI (messaging to
extraterrestrial intelligence) today.
Expansion scenarios typically assume ETI messaging to be
bounded by the speed of light, and space travel to occur at some significant
fraction of the speed of light.
By contrast, the transcension hypothesis, also known as the
developmental singularity hypothesis (Smart 2000, 2008, 2010) proposes that a
universal process of evolutionary development guides all sufficiently advanced
civilizations increasingly into inner space, the domain of very small scales of
space, time, energy and matter (STEM), and eventually, to a black-hole-like
destination, censored from our observation,"John Smart writes in his
paper, "The Transcension Hypothesis: Sufficiently Advanced Civilizations
May Invariably Leave Our Universe, and Implications for METI and SETI."
Even though, proving the existence and exclusivity of the
transcension hypothesis with today's science may be impossible, we cannot
dismiss the possibility that highly advanced alien civilizations could leave in
the unobservable Universe.
Smart also says: "If all universal intelligence
eventually transcends to black-hole-like environments, after which some form of
merger and selection occurs, and if two-way messaging (a send-receive cycle) is
severely limited by the great distances between neighboring and rapidly
transcending civilizations, then sending one-way METI or probes prior to
transcension becomes the only real communication option.
But one-way messaging or probes may provably reduce the
evolutionary diversity in all civilizations receiving the message, as they
would then arrive at their local transcensions in a much more homogenous
fashion.
If true, an ethical injunction against one-way messaging or
probes might emerge in the morality and sustainability systems of all
sufficiently advanced civilizations, an argument known as the Zoo hypothesis in
Fermi paradox literature, if all higher intelligences are subject to an
evolutionary attractor to maximize their local diversity, and a developmental
attractor to merge and advance universal intelligence.
Is there a prime directive prohitibing one-way messaging?
In any such environment, the evolutionary value of sending
any interstellar message or probe may simply not be worth the cost, if
transcension is an inevitable, accelerative, and testable developmental
process, one that eventually will be discovered and quantitatively described by
future physics.
Smart also suggests there might be a prime directive that
block all one-way messaging by advanced civilizations.
"If the closest receiving civilization for a METI
(message to extraterrestrial intelligence) beacon is on average 100 light years
away, by the time any technology-using civilization can send a message, their
local evolution will be proceeding so fast that the send-receive cycle (200
years) will be far too long to aid in local evolutionary complexity
construction.
In other words, the special self-organization of our universe,
with its speed of light limit and the great gulf between intelligent
civilizations allows only developmental messages over interstellar distances.
Such one-way messages are useful only for control and constraint, not for
innovation or complexity construction. The vast light-distances between
civilizations, their continuous local acceleration via STEM compression, and
the curious time-travel properties of black holes together suggest the great
unlikelihood of any civilization communicating through normal
"slowspace"on their way to their respective transcensions.
For example, assume that we immediately discover evidence of
life on a planet 100 light years distant.
If it takes an average of 600 years for each civilization to
be able to enter a local black hole, we could conduct a maximum of three
two-way information exchanges before one of us transcended. Due to this severe
two-way messaging limit in normal space, such communication would be a very
rare, very local, and short-lived phenomenon.
But interstellar communication may be even rarer than this.
Assume that our future science discovers that we live in an evo devo universe
constrained to transcension, and that all civilizations will be computationally
incomplete and evolutionarily diverse.
We may then be able to prove, using information theory, that
sending one-way METI or probes containing simple information (already known to
the sender) is not worth the cost to send, and sending advanced information or
probes will only reduce the evolutionary diversity in all civilizations
receiving and implementing the message.
Consider the likelihood that any advanced information we
sent to other civilizations would just push them into their black hole
transcension in a more clonal way, and we'd meet significantly less-interesting
and useful "copies of ourselves" in our later merger, a fate we might
seek to avoid by all reasonable means.
A type of "Prime Directive" against one-way
non-local messaging would seem likely to be a moral development emerging in all
sufficiently advanced civilizations, once they recognize that they are on
course to a black hole destiny. A variation of this idea in the Fermi paradox
literature is called the zoo hypothesis (Ball 1973), the idea that advanced
civilizations avoid contact with less advanced civilizations so that they do
not influence their evolutionary development. The transcension hypothesis is
thus a specific variant of the zoo hypothesis."
Our quest for advanced alien civilizations takes us to the
most remarkable places, even the invisible world...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment.