Internalizing Null Extraterrestrial 'Signals': An Astrobiological App for a Technological Society

摘要

One of the beneficial outcomes of searching for life in the Universe is thatit grants greater awareness of our own problems here on Earth. Lack of contactwith alien beings to date might actually comprise a null "signal" pointinghumankind toward a viable future. Astrobiology has surprising practicalapplications to human society; within the larger cosmological context of cosmicevolution, astrobiology clarifies the energetic essence of complex systemsthroughout the Universe, including technological intelligence that isintimately dependent on energy and likely will be for as long as it endures.The "message" contained within the "signal" with which today's society needs tocope is reasonably this: Only solar energy can power our civilization goingforward without soiling the environment with increased heat yet robustlydriving the economy with increased per capita energy usage. The null "signals"from extraterrestrials also offer a rational solution to the Fermi paradox as aprinciple of cosmic selection likely limits galactic civilizations in time aswell as in space: Those advanced life-forms anywhere in the Universe thatwisely adopt, and quickly too, the energy of their parent star probablysurvive, and those that don't, don't.