Stephen Webb Believes We Are Most Likely Alone in the Universe

Click here for the full episode!
www.jimruttsho...
Jim talks with Stephen Webb about his book If the Universe Is Teeming With Aliens... Where Is Everybody?: Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life. They discuss Jim's obsession with the Fermi paradox, the meaning of the Fermi paradox, the Drake equation, discounting claims about UFOs, a question that everyone can contribute to, Perplexity AI's estimates, optimistic scenarios, anthropic principles, Kardashev civilizations, the principle of mediocrity, getting to the bottom of the UAP phenomenon, problems with the zoo scenario & the interdict hypothesis, the simulation hypothesis, Oumuamua, solar chauvinists, Stapledonian thinking, the signaling problem, 3 types of communications, the dark forest scenario, Dyson swarms, types of planets that would make space exploration hard, what might be special about Earth, the idea that Earth was deliberately seeded by aliens, the Great Filter idea & potential causes of extinction, the Carrington Event, previous filters, the co-evolution of tools & intelligence, where Stephen would place his bets, humanity's huge moral responsibility, and much more.

[@stevekaufmann8109]

The fermi paradox is the dumbest thing I have ever heard, it's up there with flat earth theory. "Why have we not seen anything." Because the universe is unimaginably massive and light travels our nearest galaxy is 2.5 million lightyears away, the light we see from it is 2.5 million years old, Jesus it's sad this needs to be explained.

[@marcussord5290]

We are alone. In the same way as the Truman Show - they watch, but have no interest in us other than as an origin film: AGI. Wouldn’t make a bad film, I suspect.

[@cjs8332]

If we are, in fact, alone, then the only explanation, for me, is that this is simply a simulation or lab experiment. If we are a natural process of this universe, then there should be others.