DP0N@CMU-CS-A.ARPA (08/03/85)
From: Don.Provan@CMU-CS-A Remember the classic SF short that theorized that detecting which stars had habitable planets was such a trick that one extremely advanced civilization never found it and finally just died out since there was no point wandering over those vast distances just to find a habitable world. I believe they actually sent out a few scouts but gave up when none of them found anything. The plot involves a less advanced race that had stumbled on the secret trying to figure out what happened to this dead race by reviving individuals from their remains and quizzing them. This seems so likely (except it probably isn't possibile to detect which systems are worth visiting, not merely hard) that I don't find it the least bit surprising that we haven't been visited.
franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) (08/05/85)
In article <3065@topaz.ARPA> DP0N@CMU-CS-A.ARPA writes: >From: Don.Provan@CMU-CS-A > >Remember the classic SF short that theorized that detecting which >stars had habitable planets was such a trick that one extremely >advanced civilization never found it and finally just died out > [...] > >This seems so likely (except it probably isn't possibile to detect >which systems are worth visiting, not merely hard) that I don't >find it the least bit surprising that we haven't been visited. This seems superficially plausible, but it doesn't stand up to closer examination. You don't need habitable planets! You don't even need planets at all. All you need is materials to make habitats out of, and a power source (= a star). It seems likely that most if not all stars have matter orbiting them; we know that several nearby ones do (Vega, for example).
Purtill.StudentNS@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (08/08/85)
From: Mark Purtill <Purtill@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>
<Fnord>
The story was by Isaac Asimov, I think, although I don't remember the
name. However, you haven't got it quite right. The "advanced race" was
humanity, and we didn't die out from boredom, but due to a giant space
walrus (-:)) (or something) which we couldn't stop and couldn't escape
due to not knowing any other star systems (actually, I think we'd found
one, but the space walrus was going to eat it, too.) One human is
reserected, and he conquers the entire less advanced race (or at least
makes a good start.) I'll try and see if I can find the name of the
story.
Mark
^.-.^ Purtill at MIT-MULTICS.ARPA **Insert favorite disclaimer here**
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