Maybe the Aliens Are Addicted To Computer Games 496
Hugh Pickens writes "Geoffrey Miller has an interesting hypothesis in Seed Magazine that explains Fermi's Paradox — why 40 years of intensive searching for extraterrestrial intelligence have yielded nothing: no radio signals, no credible spacecraft sightings, no close encounters of any kind. All the aliens are busy playing computer games. The aliens 'forget to send radio signals or colonize space because they're too busy with runaway consumerism and virtual-reality narcissism,' writes Miller. He says the fundamental problem is that an evolved mind must pay attention to indirect cues of biological fitness, rather than tracking fitness itself, and that although evolution favors brains that tend to maximize fitness (as measured by numbers of great-grandkids), no brain has capacity enough to do so under every possible circumstance. 'The result is that we don't seek reproductive success directly; we seek tasty foods that have tended to promote survival, and luscious mates who have tended to produce bright, healthy babies. The modern result? Fast food and pornography,' writes Miller. 'Once they turn inwards to chase their shiny pennies of pleasure, they lose the cosmic plot.' Miller adds that most bright alien species probably go extinct gradually, allocating more time and resources to their pleasures, and less to their children, until they eventually die out."
Who here doesn't think a TNG-style Holodeck would lead to the downfall of our civilization?
Yea (Score:5, Funny)
From the (Score:3, Funny)
This-one-just-sucks-alot. Give-it-up-you-morons-please....
From the TFA (Score:3, Funny)
Geoffrey Miller is an assistant professor in the department of psychology at University of New Mexico.
I'm sure the guy is looking for a government grant, to study this intriguing possibility. Great job, if you can get it: spend government money to study if aliens are busy playing videogames
Re:Let's not project human attributes onto aliens. (Score:3, Funny)
What would you do after all the research you find that the answer to the greatest mystery in life is... 42?
You go like... "Is this it?!"
-"Damn... for the love of telepathy, what do we do now?"
"Fsck it, let's fire up Quake 25!"
Call me bizarre but theory sounds backwards (Score:5, Funny)
I am a highly evolved alien living among the humans. While I will admit to a mild addiction to Slashdot and Drudgereport (some days these are very similar), I don't play computer games or watch television. I literally have no time for either as I am so busy watching the humans and pondering all the different recipes that would make them tasty. Not to mention that as an alien, I haven't figured out how to make much money and can't afford cable or satellite TV. I tried "bunny ears" for a while, but they quit working last Spring and I haven't missed the TV much. When I did watch it, I just kept seeing fellow aliens (Nadya Suleman, Marilyn Manson, Lady Gaga, Sheyla Hershey, et al.) entertaining the humans.
This theory that aliens are highly evolved and addicted to electronic entertainment is backwards because we know better than to end up sitting in Plato's Cave staring at flickering images when there is a marvelous world waiting to be viewed and humans, fattened in caves while watching flickering images, waiting to be devoured.
Re:Let's not project human attributes onto aliens. (Score:3, Funny)
Why do we believe that aliens will be preoccupied with themselves and ignore the cosmic plot, just like we humans do? perhaps aliens evolved from a kind of ants, for example, where the 'we' is above the 'I'.
Instead of "I'm going to play Half Life" the ants would be saying "let's play Half Life." Same end state.
Re:From the TFA (Score:5, Funny)
Great job, if you can get it: spend government money to study if aliens are busy playing videogames
Massive fail if you lose the opportunity of spending government money on the study of junk food and porn.
Re:From the TFA (Score:5, Funny)
Geoffrey Miller is an assistant professor in the department of psychology at University of New Mexico.
Lucky bastard, obviously the peyote still grows wild and free in abundance down there. Although, given the hypothesis as put forth in the article, I sense there's a pipeline for good B.C. bud running down there too.
Re:Simple: (Score:2, Funny)
That's exactly what they want you to think. Hang on, BRB, mysterious glow in the sk.kz'&^u ] @.
n o c a r r i e r
Re:Or maybe on the contrary, let's (Score:5, Funny)
What kind of conversation could you have, EVEN if you already spoke the same language?
I know you will be surprised to hear from me, as we have never met. I have recently come into possession of 25 billion galactic zorns which belonged to the late Supreme Ruler Zardoz ...
Re:Yea (Score:3, Funny)
Starcraft players still live in caves.
Re:Simple: (Score:4, Funny)
why 40 years of intensive searching for extraterrestrial intelligence have yielded nothing: no radio signals, no credible spacecraft sightings, no close encounters of any kind
Self-replicating planet-destroying machine army released in a war 3 billion years ago are exterminating any sign of intelligent life as soon as they see the first radio waves. The closest were 41 light years from us.
Re:Or maybe on the contrary, let's (Score:4, Funny)
Even interstellar *communication* is wildly impractical. I mean, come on, latency measured in *years*? What kind of conversation could you have, EVEN if you already spoke the same language? And if you don't, how are you going to learn it? Cultural immersion is NOT possible. Back-and-forth dialog isn't even really possible. With no pre-existing linguistic information to help you bridge the gap, *and* no interaction, how would you characterize an alien language? You could spend centuries analyzing a single hour's worth of message and get nowhere.
But something as a big as a recognisable alien communication would be enough in itself to prove the existence of aliens (or a deity with a sick sense of humour). People would happily devote centuries to studying such a message. If we even just swapped Wikipedias that would give enough data to be getting on with for at least a few centuries.
Re:Or maybe on the contrary, let's (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yea (Score:2, Funny)
Well, at least we've sussed who's been benefiting from the gambling scandal...
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/14/south-korea-rocked-by-starcraft-gambling-scandal/ [joystiq.com]
Re:Or maybe on the contrary, let's (Score:3, Funny)
Do humans get so busy with computer games that the whole species, all 6 billions of us, forget to even mine the resources we need or trade or plough the fields?
Resources? Do you mean... vespene gas?
Re:Yea (Score:4, Funny)
We don't have copyright laws on K-PAX.
Re:Yea (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Or maybe on the contrary, let's (Score:3, Funny)
My preferred version:
299,792.5 km/s - it's not just a good idea, it's the law!
Re:Or maybe on the contrary, let's (Score:5, Funny)
/* Note: I picked a pretty big number for the speed here. It ought to be fast enough, but test it during QA - we can always increase it later if it isn't. */
Unfortunately, the seventh day was the one reserved for QA, and after creating cannabis on the third day, things started to go a bit wrong...