We have yet to find any traces of extraterrestrial intelligence, a vexing problem known as the Fermi Paradox. A new solution to the “where are all the aliens?” conundrum suggests that advanced aliens do exist—but they’re in a self-imposed state of hibernation, waiting for a future era of the cosmos in which they can flourish to the greatest extent possible. How very convenient.
The Universe as we observe it today is not as it was billions of years ago, nor does it appear as it will billions of years from now. New research accepted for publication in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society suggests that conditions in our current Universe are far too warm for a digital, computer-based civilization, and that it makes sense for such beings to enter into a state of aestivation—hibernation, but in response to excess heat—until the cosmos is much colder in the far, far future. At that stage, with stellar objects dispersed across an enlarged Universe, information processing can occur with far greater speed and efficiency, enabling an advanced civilization to achieve more than what’s possible under current cosmological conditions.
To read more, click here.