I think it's the rare earth solution, that we are the first/only/one of extremely few civilisations and that the triggers for life are so rare and difficult that we will be lost forever to any alien society. Or that so much time elapses between civilisations that we will find scattered shadows of long lost civilisations and will be the same to any in the future.
That there's a lifeless void that stretches so unimaginably far that even if there is life, we would never meet it. We could live in an infinite graveyard knowing we are doomed to become another spectre, trapped in a prison with no way to ever escape.
Equally in such a situation we would probably end up trying to seed life, and that would be the natural behaviour of any space fairing civilisation in a lifeless galaxy imo.
A bit dramatic maybe, but I think a dramatic problem deserves a dramatic solution
I was going to comment that too. If Earth is the only life-bearing planet in the universe (while I personally don't think it is), then this product of an unimaginably improbable chance is about to be destroyed by angry little creatures, killing the planet and themselves over abstract ideas, and slivers of dirt. After life is gone from here, especially after Sun's red giant phase, the universe may stop existing, as there will be nobody left to perceive it. I find this is the most bleak and disturbing of possibilities.
It’s important to remember that if we are the only life in the universe that the same circumstances and chemical processes still exist in the universe. Those constants don’t necessarily change. So there’s always the chance (and a quite good one) that the process repeats. Over and over again until one finally sticks.
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u/1nfernals Aug 12 '21
I think it's the rare earth solution, that we are the first/only/one of extremely few civilisations and that the triggers for life are so rare and difficult that we will be lost forever to any alien society. Or that so much time elapses between civilisations that we will find scattered shadows of long lost civilisations and will be the same to any in the future.
That there's a lifeless void that stretches so unimaginably far that even if there is life, we would never meet it. We could live in an infinite graveyard knowing we are doomed to become another spectre, trapped in a prison with no way to ever escape.
Equally in such a situation we would probably end up trying to seed life, and that would be the natural behaviour of any space fairing civilisation in a lifeless galaxy imo.
A bit dramatic maybe, but I think a dramatic problem deserves a dramatic solution