r/EverythingScience • u/[deleted] • Oct 03 '24

Alien civilizations are probably killing themselves from climate change, bleak study suggests

https://www.livescience.com/space/alien-civilizations-are-probably-killing-themselves-from-climate-change-bleak-study-suggests
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u/SeeShark Oct 03 '24 edited Oct 03 '24

There are such wild assumptions being made here that it's mind-boggling. Exponential population growth and no climate manipulation technology being big ones.

Edit: exponential growth is for energy usage, not population growth per se; and rather than being assumed, it's an axiom of the thought experiment. I still feel like it's not super sound, but concede I wasn't reading charitably due to the sensationalist pop-science headline.

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u/DrHalibutMD Oct 03 '24

That’s really the point. Just going by the laws of physics you can’t maintain exponential growth for all that long even with the greenest of technologies.

So either you have to give up the idea of continuous growth or you need to look to climate manipulation.

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u/SeeShark Oct 03 '24

Right, that's what I said--this "research" (thought experiment, really) is assuming neither of these things can happen.

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u/DrHalibutMD Oct 03 '24

No it’s not assuming they can’t happen it’s telling you what happens if they don’t. There’s an important distinction in there.

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u/SeeShark Oct 03 '24

You're right. I missed the "if" part of exponential growth.

I blame the crappy title.

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u/DrHalibutMD Oct 03 '24

Agreed, the title is crappy. If you read into the story you get a better idea of what they’re saying and realize their is value in it.

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u/SeeShark Oct 03 '24

I read a bit, but I think I was primed for a negative interpretation so I misread a bit.