What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
Werner Heisenberg
What we observe
This content has been archived. It may no longer be accurate or relevant.
Last week, I stumbled across a variation of the phrase Arthur C. Clarke used(1):
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature.
— Karl Schroeder
I pulled out “Contact” by Carl Sagan and read it the other day. He basically said the same thing.
– He shows that on the last page when Pi is resolved so far that a circle appears embed in Pi as the “Artist’s Signature”.
“Strata” by Terry Pratchett says the same thing.
– Consider “Nature” itself as a “construct”.
That is such a terrifying concept that can be used in so many stories. I’m still trying to unravel all of the implications.
Thanks…
(1) Stapledon’s Hawk
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2022/11/08/stapledons-hawk/
Follow the links in the article to find more.
This is another paper that directly addresses Schroeder’s concept.
Qualitative classification of extraterrestrial civilizations
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.13221.pdf
Well, two options arise from the two extremes of cosmological thought.
From the mystical, Intelligent Design and from its antithesis, the Universe as a simulation:
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/are-we-living-simulated-universe-here-s-what-scientists-say-ncna1026916
That would make most folks NPCs.
Not me, though; I’m the player character. 😀
Just finished reading The Listeners by James E. Gunn, have not read that for decades.
It’s clear that Sagan riffed off of The Listeners when he wrote Contact, just as Gunn built on Sagan’s work about SETI.
We could be surrounded by vast civilizations and not see them because their technology is indistinguishable from nature. That explains so many books, and the TV series Lost.
They built a Copy Earth, and had the Island be the command and control center for a nursery to grow and harvest humans. Any advanced civilization would have to grow humans rather than raise children.
Look at the classic Star Trek episode, The Squire of Gothos. Trelane is a child with vast power. No advance civilization could afford that danger.
Then there is the TV series Alias, where Arvin Sloane became a God and sent an Avatar of himself back in time to become Rambaldi, to lay out the groundwork for Sloane’s ascension.
Then there are the Tomb Raider movies with Angelina Jolie. That explains how the installations could have been built in the past.
This opens up so much Story, and puts into context so much of what I’ve already seen.