New Mars Forums

Here's an idea:

The more people there are, the less freedom the individual is capable of having. Imagine a galaxy filled with humans; say, forty quadrillion of us. How much freedom can any one citizen have in a society that vast? Too much movement, and the state (ie, the overriding government) is rendered incapable of tracking everyone - so movement would have to be restricted. And what about communication? Fourty billion people bleating across the galaxy at each other about this or that - that /couldn't/ be allowed to continue, because the society would crumble under the sheer weight of ideas passing back and forth - both good and bad, of course. But look at the effect of the internet; teenage pregnancy has risen since 1992 in every internet-mad nation on the planet. Not to mention a significant rise in terrorism, which no doubt is at least in part due to the ability of virtually anyone to contact virtually anyone else in the world relativley securely.

Which means that potentially, any species which expands to a huge population (several planets, orbital colonies, and so on, or more) is going to be /less/ civilized than say, an equally advanced interstellar-capable one planet civilization which stays at home. The very weight of their own society will drive them to survive no matter the cost; Hitler rationalized the need for war because of an over-populated under-industrialized Germany: "We need breathing room", he said.

Which means that the ones we want to contact probably don't want to contact anyone else - its just too dangerous, if they're smart enough to realize it.

And the ones that /are/ communicating on an (relativley) easily detectable scale might just be the very ones that we /really/ do not want to know.

Just a thought.  :;):