A study published this week in an astronomical journal suggests our universe could be 26.7 billion years old, or about twice as old as we thought.
If it’s true this would affect the Drake Equation quite a lot I would think, making it even more puzzling why there are no aliens yet. Unless most of this new time at the start of the universe was uninhabitable.
oh come on… drake equation is just pseudoscience written on a piece of napkin. it is not going to be affected at all. it will remain what it is - conjecture unverifiable one way or the other for the next few thousand years (unless vulcans decided to land here tomorrow).
A factor of 2 is not a big deal for the Drake equation
Galaxy colonization simulations I’ve seen suggest colonization speed is exponential, so even a billion years added to the age of the universe should dramatically change things.
I think, if I recall, there was a study done recently that suggested we shouldn’t be too surprised if we have not seen aliens yet but probably soon, in the next 1000 years. But I can’t find the study - had 3D graphic of bubbles expanding outward and meeting.
Sounds like Robin Hansons “Grabby Aliens” theory?
That’s exactly it, thx.
There’s still plenty of possible answers to why we don’t see intelligent life. We’ve only been looking for an instant and at a tiny fraction of the universe.
Where is everybody? by Stephen Webb is a great read on the topic. It explains 50 solutions, some serious and others not so, to the Fermi paradox. My favourite is that the aliens are already here, and we just call them Hungarians.
See this comment on another thread about this for some more details.
USA Today is better than most, but I’ll still wait for Dr Becky to take her swing at this one before I put any trust in it.
