‘Be humble, Earthlings.’⌗

I know about filters already, thank you. I did not need to read this again that yes we are either doomed and leaving behind an astro-archaeolgist’s wet dream, or we are not doomed and a statistical anomaly. I did not need this heavy emotional response to the mistakes of the last century (to say the least), and the wrench of gut from Mr. Obvious that our multiverse cousins who sat down and spent some $18^12 on interstellar exploration instead of a world war are in a better place right now. I did not need that. Well, I guess it’s time for a paradigm shift! As an optimist I try to come up with alternate hypotheses, many of which I am certain the author has thought of, but will not publish for obvious reasons. My personal favourite, (forgoing the predatory civilisations who really did nuke themselves into oblivion, or the free-thinking and lawless scientists who sucked themselves into a blackhole, and especially not the benevolent AI overlord whose ultimate decision was autohomogenocide so that the mother, Earth, could replenish) though by no means an original idea, is that the paradoxical emptiness of our observable neighbourhood is the work of the great leap.

Copernicus, who is mentioned throughout the text, laid the framework not only for astronomy, but for the scientific method as a whole. His discovery that the earth revolved around the sun, and not the other way around, humbled us by revealing that we are not the centre of the universe. And brought into effect the values of scientific evidence, observation and discovery. This was the turn of the sixteenth century, and arguably one of the seminal events leading to the world as it is today. In the history of human growth, this rennaissance of invention and innovation only makes up one, possibly two percent of our timeline. In the meantime, everything that we know today was brought into existence. Disciplines were codified, and all sorts of useful inventions have brought a literal illumination to our lives. The turn of the 20th century saw not only trains, but planes and automobiles. And the turn of this century the iPhone, and serious work being accomplished to send people to mars. It could turn out to be ~150 years from the invention of the lightbulb, to being interplanetary. Now, while all this is undeniably fast paced and already alien to our medieval cousins, that is not the great leap. As Copernicus broke the ground for the seeds of scientific theory, which grew up together with industrialisation to form our already futuristic society, so this society of mass communication, precision instruments and computation can develop its own paradigm shifting technology. Let’s say there are two ways about it, one is to develop true AI and sit back and watch the numbers crunch. We can hope at least for something better than ‘42’, or worse, targeted ads. The second, which is formidably espoused in Avi Loeb’s EXTRATERRESTRIAL, is to engage in the scientific persuit of, amongst other things, astro-archeology, in a brazen attempt to discover evidence of intelligent life, and, potentially, assimilate their knowledge. Now we leap.

You may notice a catch-22 in the option of reverse engineering alien technology, so we shall stick to our guns and say that this century, on our current trajectory, computation will reach such a level as to allow a super intelligence to take hold of the reins and guide us deep into the stars. Okay? Good. Now, in my aliens hypothesis, I want to talk about what can be accomplished that we can understand. These advanced conscious bodies hold onto such common sentient values such as love and the beauty of nature (why else look to the stars, and share what you see?). So they get the home planet ship shape, and clean up the historical debris of their progression. This gives any nosy civilisation with a telescope approximately 500years to spot them. Good luck with that. Now we have a global non-capitalist, non-invasive economy and modest space programme. Heaven on earth, techno-utopia, etc. The majority of us flesh based sentient and civilised beings can enjoy ourselves whilst the computer innovates and explores. Great! That is the best outcome I can think of. I can also not make any realistic guesses as to what the computer will be innovating and exploring, but if you could see it, it would blow your mind. Will it reinvent the spaceship? Maybe, or maybe it has better ways to travel space. For example, consciousness riding strings across galaxies, tapping into the very framework of the universe. Um…? Seriously? What about teleportation? That’s relatable and still magical, right? If you’re so sure that you want to take your flesh body with you everywhere you go there maybe options for you, for me I’m already ready to enter the matrix. I heard it’s good for the environment.