From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Fri Jul 25 2003 - 15:14:51 MDT
Some people think that the explanation of the Fermi paradox
is that there are predators out there that swoop down an destroy
any civilization that visibly starts to colonize. For that,
I have a parable:
Imagine a field full of slow plump rabbits, munching on grass.
Imagine a fox sitting in a tall clump of grass eating the
rabbits that happen to wander into that clump. This fox is
thinks that he shouldn't leave his clump, because there are
meta-foxes out there, who only eat foxes. He thinks the
reason that there are so many uneaten rabbits out there is that
any time a fox comes out to eat a rabbit, a meta-fox sees it
and runs in and eats the fox. And his reason for not seeing
any meta-foxes out there eating foxes is that this is a very
rare event, due to the fact that meta-foxes are very efficient
and foxes are rare.
My key problem with this scenario is: why don't the meta-foxes
eat the rabbits? Why focus on a few hard to catch foxes?
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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