Yes, today is that very special day, but only right here in this imaginary, electron-supported environment known as the blogoblob, because it’s the 15th anniversary of the first post on Walkabout. Imagine that! And this is the 2,750th post therein, which is why this past month or so has been overtaken by dross. I regret nothing (well, except that one post – you know which one,) because at the very least it provided some content in what would otherwise have been a very quiet month. I can hear you blathering your ill-informed opinion in the background and I am pointedly ignoring you…
It would be nice to say that I had something special and captivating to put up here, but that’s a lie – instead, we have a podcast, I believe the first in exactly a year, which was for the 2,500th post. This one is about a more scientific, critical-thinking topic however, sparked by several posts over on Universe Today, but most specifically, “Why Don’t We See Robotic Civilizations Rapidly Expanding Across the Universe?” by Matt Williams. It’s not a short one, so get comfy before hitting ‘Play’ – you’ll be too captivated to even pause it for a bathroom break.
Walkabout podcast – Alien Artificial Intelligence
[By the way, I tried a new ‘noise gate’ setting to cut out the intakes of breath and so on, which did a fine job and eliminated a lot of work, but was perhaps too aggressive and truncated the ends of some sentences as well, especially ‘S’ sounds, so I apologize – next time (a year from now?) should be better.]
Once again, I urge you to check out the originating post, because they referenced several publications where a lot of this has been addressed; mostly, I was responding to the artificial intelligence aspect, but also the robotic explorer idea. I will openly admit that this all is 95% speculation, and not only on my part, because we really cannot judge what any extra-terrestrial species might be like, what motivates them, and so on. Feel free to point out the flaws that I missed, however – I’m game.
Other posts that examine artificial intelligence:
The road’s longer than it looks
Other select posts regarding extra-terrestrial intelligence:
I feel I should let you know, by the way, that 15 years is a Blog Mitzvah, and while I know most of you can’t be here in person to celebrate, there’s that Tip Jar over there on the sidebar to show your appreciation for all this astounding content and insightful prose. It’s so much easier than sending a card.
Cheers!