What do you think of this idea?
http://www.unknowncountry.com/mindframe/opinion/
17-Sep-2003
Is Planet Earth Embedded in a Large Galactic Civilization? By Beatriz
Gato-Rivera, particle physicist and member of the Spanish Scientific
Research Council (CSIC)
The cosmologist Ken D. Olum, from Tufts University, after doing some
computations, concludes, "We should find ourselves in a large
civilization (of galactic size)…but in fact we do not." I want to
explore the intriguing possibility of whether we could be immersed in
a large civilization without being aware of it. Due to the fact that
there are billions of stars much older than the Sun in all typical
galaxies, we could be not typical among the intelligent observers of
the universe. Typical civilizations of typical galaxies would be
hundreds of thousands, or millions, of years more evolved than ours
and, consequently, typical intelligent observers would be orders of
magnitude more intelligent than us.
Do mountain gorillas know that their "civilization" is embedded in a
larger "civilization" corresponding to a much more evolved and
intelligent species than themselves? Do they know that they are a
protected species inhabiting a natural reserve in a country inside the
African continent of the planet Earth? The answer to these questions
is certainly "no," they do not know anything about our social
structure, our countries, borders, religions, politics, nor even about
our villages and cities, except perhaps for individuals living in a
zoo, or adopted as pets.
In the same way, the human civilization of planet Earth could be
immersed in a much larger civilization unknowingly, by a much more
evolved and intelligent species than ourselves. After all, the Sun is
only a young star among thousands of millions of much older stars in
our galaxy and the possible existence of such advanced civilizations
is only a question of biological evolution doing its job, slowly but
relentlessly through the millennia. If this happens to be the case, it
is quite sensible to assume that these individuals regard our planet
as a natural reserve, full of animal and vegetable species, the Solar
System being nothing but a small "province" inside their vast
territory.
In this situation, the answer to the usual remark, "If there are
advanced extraterrestrials around, why don't they contact us openly
and officially and teach us their science and technology" seems
obvious. Would any country on this planet send an official delegation
to the mountain gorilla territory to introduce themselves "openly and
officially" to the gorilla authorities? Would they shake hands, make
agreements and exchange signatures with the dominant males? About
teaching us their science and technology, who would volunteer to teach
physics, mathematics and engineering to a bunch of gorillas? In
addition, one has to take into account the limits of the brain
capabilities, independently of the culture of education. For example,
let us ask ourselves how many bananas would be necessary for the most
intelligent gorillas to understand the equations of electromagnetism
(even if they watch TV or listen to the radio).
In the same way, we may wonder how many sandwiches, potato chips or
cigarettes would be necessary for the most intelligent among our
scientists to understand the key scientific results of a much more
advanced civilization. Our intellectual faculties and abilities are
limited by our brain capabilities that are by no means infinite.
Therefore, it is most natural and sensible to assume that there may
exist important key scientific concepts and results whose
understanding is completely beyond the brain capabilities of our
species, but are within reach of the much more evolved and
sophisticated brains of more advanced civilizations.
Ken D. Olum has written a paper about the idea that in the observable
Universe, because of the existence of thousands of billions of stars
older than the Sun, there must be huge civilizations much older than
ours which could have spread widely through the Universe. In his
computations, he considers a cosmological mechanism called "inflation"
and he also uses the anthropic premise that, "we should find ourselves
among the typical intelligent observers of the Universe." He predicts
there's a high probability that we are part of a larger civilization.
Olum writes, "Nevertheless, we do not belong to such a civilization.
Thus something should be amiss…but then what other mistakes are we
making?"
The answer to this conundrum is that we could well be part of large
civilizations spanning our galaxy (or a large region of it) without
being aware of it. Therefore, one obviously natural solution is that
we do belong to a large, very advanced civilization, but we are not
"citizens" of it because of our primitive, low status. Olum makes the
mistake of thinking that, first, we are typical intelligent observers
and second, that to belong to a civilization implies to be a citizen
of it.
Olum's claims that the cosmological inflation should increase the
probability that we live in a large civilization are not very
convincing. However, this would be the case if there exist thousands
or millions of parallel universes separated from ours through
extra-dimensions, as in some "brane world" scenarios considered in
Particle Physics (every brane being a universe). In this case it would
be natural to expect that some proportion of these universes would
have the same laws of physics as ours (presumably half of these would
be made up of matter and the other half of antimatter), and many of
the corresponding advanced civilizations would master the techniques
of travel or "jumping" through (at least some of) the extra
dimensions. It could even be that the expansion to other parallel
universes could be easier, with lower cost, than the expansion inside
one's own galaxy. As a result, we could also expect colonizers coming
from other universes, building multidimensional "empires."
In many other universes, however, the laws of physics would be
different. This does not mean, however, that these Shadow Universes
would be necessarily empty of intelligent beings. If some of them had
advanced civilizations, some of their individuals could even "jump" to
our universe, but we could neither see, nor talk to, the Shadow
Visitors (and the other way around). They wouldn't be able to colonize
us either.
Let us discuss in detail the possibility that our small terrestrial
civilization is embedded in a large civilization unknowingly. In our
galaxy there are thousands of millions of stars much older than the
Sun. Therefore, it seems most natural to expect that in a reasonable
number of solar systems, technological civilizations should have
appeared, and a fraction of them should have survived long enough to
spread to large regions of the galaxy. It is then very remarkable that
the Solar System has never encountered, or been colonized by, any
advanced civilization…or has it?
Olum assumes that, in the process of expansion and colonization, the
more advanced civilizations will push the less advanced ones to their
own level in order to integrate them, or else they will exploit,
damage or annihilate them in order to conquer the planet, in the case
of aggressive colonizers. However, to integrate a primitive
civilization in an advanced one could be a very unrealistic
possibility. Among other reasons, the differences between their brain
capacities and those of the primitive individuals could be pathetic.
With this insight, it is now much easier to accept the possibility
that the Solar System could have been encountered or colonized many
thousands, or even millions, of years ago by at least, one
non-aggressive advanced civilization, who treated and still treat our
planet as a protected natural reserve. Perhaps the Solar System has
been visited by aggressive colonizers, as well as non- aggressive
ones, resulting in battles or negotiations. Perhaps the aggressive
losers will come back in the future to try again.
This view about ourselves, as a small primitive civilization immersed
in a large, advanced civilization, leads to the realization that we
could find ourselves not among the typical intelligent observers of
our galaxy, but among a small proportion of primitive intelligent
observers instead, completely ignorant of their low status.
It could be that all typical galaxies of the Universe are already
colonized (or large regions of them) by advanced civilizations.
Whether the primitive subcivilizations know or ignore their low status
will depend on the ethical standards of the advanced civilization in
which they are immersed. If the standards are low, the individuals of
the primitive subcivilizations will be abused in many ways, in the
same way that in our civilization, large groups of human beings abuse
other human beings in weaker positions, as well as animals in general.
In this case, the primitive individuals will be painfully aware of
their low status. If the ethical standards of the advanced individuals
are high instead, then they will respect the natural evolution
(biological, social, cultural) of the primitive subcivilizations,
treating them as some kind of protected species. In this case, the
primitive individuals would be completely unaware of the existence of
the large advanced civilization in which they are immersed.
If the Solar System is part of the territory of an advanced
civilization, why don't we detect any signal of civilization in any of
the planets or satellites in it? This would be natural if they had
built bases all along the Solar System, including underground and
submarine bases on Earth, and some colonies on or below the surface of
some solid planets and large satellites (which is what we plan to do
in the future ourselves). The simplest answer would be that they do
not find the Solar System attractive enough to live in themselves and
would therefore have only a few small bases difficult to detect.
However, an alternative explanation would be that, being aware of the
existence of aggressive advanced civilizations, they would have
developed very sophisticated camouflage systems, so that no signals of
civilization can be detected by external observers or their space
probes. Probably, in many cases, they even manipulate and distort the
global data of their planets to fool external observers.
Thus we cannot be sure whether our civilization is the unique
civilization inhabiting the Solar System. We should not assume that
the data we receive, with no signals of the existence of intelligent
life, proves that there is no one out there. The right claim would be
that there is no signal of primitive civilizations, like ours, who
would allow themselves to be detected by external observers, but
nothing can be said about the possibility of advanced civilizations,
capable of fooling telescopes, detectors and space probes, who would
not allow themselves to be detected.
In the past, people thought the Earth was the center of the Universe,
but now we know better. In spite of this, for many human beings the
Earth is still the center of the Universe, the chosen planet inhabited
by the most perfect and intelligent beings in the Universe: the Crown
of the Creation (There are even some regular scientists and
"intellectuals" who wonder whether the whole Universe was created just
for us, terrestrial human beings, to exist!)
Are we unknowingly embedded in another, more advanced civilization,
much as gorillas are embedded in ours? Why wouldn't the advanced
civilization openly show themselves to us? The reason would be that we
do not qualify as full members, neither as associates, although we
perhaps qualify as pets or "little friends." Why can't we tell they're
here? The reason would be that, generically, all advanced
civilizations are undetectable for security reasons, due to the
existence of aggressive advanced civilizations. In any case, why would
advanced civilizations allow alien civilizations to watch their
cities, laboratories, military installations, etc. when they could
fool them very easily instead?
If we are one of the "ecologically protected species" of an advanced
civilization, one reason for an individual of this civilization to
establish contact with us, primitive individuals, could be scientific
research, but also simply to have fun and relax—the kinds of feelings
which cause us to interact and play with cats and dogs and many other
animal species. In addition, if on our planet there are millions of
cat lovers and dog lovers, and there are even snake, pig and gorilla
lovers, it is natural to expect that there may exist some terrestrial
human lovers among advanced aliens. This and similar situations would
especially be true among advanced individuals who had to spend long
periods of time working on primitive planets, living underground or on
boring submarine bases, which would exist if our planet is embedded in
another civilization.
The criminals of the advanced civilization could be interested in the
primitive individuals as well. We can imagine dozens of different
purposes for which primitive individuals could be kidnapped, tortured
and even killed, including "high gastronomy" and sadist games. One
only has to think of the treatment that some cruel human beings give
to their victims, whether they are other human beings (often children)
or animals. The ethical level of an individual, or a civilization,
does not necessarily grow in parallel with their technological and
scientific achievements, or with their level of material well-being.
SETI could really be SETPI: the search for extraterrestrial primitive
intelligence, because only primitive civilizations would allow
themselves to be detected by external observers. In addition, the
primitive civilizations should have reached the appropriate
technological level to be able to produce electromagnetic emissions
that would allow them to be detected by distant civilizations. As a
result, the period of detectability of an average civilization could
last less than 500 years (until they learn to camouflage themselves),
which makes it very unlikely that one primitive civilization could
detect another one. For these reasons, this scenario predicts a rather
low probability of success for the SETI project.
I have essentially no opinion about the many strange reports of alien
abduction and contact, because I have never done any investigation of
these matters. However, I believe that the claims of civilizations
much more advanced than us must necessarily sound like ridiculous,
hilarious, crazy science fiction ideas. But the same thing would have
happened if we had described our TV sets, planes, microwave ovens,
computers, etc. to people only 100 years ago. Many people, including
many scientists, have a very deep rooted reluctance and aversion to
accepting the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial species
much more advanced and intelligent than us, who could even visit our
planet. I call this prejudice the "Crown of the Creation Syndrome"
(CCS). Curiously, while many religious people are not CCS sufferers,
many atheists are. This could be because, while both religions and
humanism often overestimate the greatness and uniqueness of the human
species, the religions also teach humility.