Alone

D S P I N K N E Y

A MISTERP.INK PUBLICATION

Copyright ©2015 MisterP.ink

No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

I L L U S T R A T I O N S A N D W O R D S B Y D S P I N K N E Y

Alone

For young, inquisitive, and eager minds.

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In fact the majority of stars in our universe are main sequence stars.

Our Sun is a typical ‘main sequence’ star

90%

10%

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And there are billions of stars in our galaxy that are are billions of years

older than our Sun.

Plus billions of galaxies in the

universe too!

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There’s a high chance that many of these stars have

Earth like planets with the potential to

develop and sustain life.

Wow, another planet just like Earth!

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Some might even develop interstellar

(or intergalactic!) travel...

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Even at the slow pace of currently envisioned

interstellar travel, our Milky Way galaxy could be crossed

in a million years.

Milky Way galaxy

Sagittarius arm

100,000 light years

Our solar system

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‘So Where is Everyone?’~ Enrico Fermi(The Fermi Paradox)

Is there anybody there?

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It could be extremely rare for life to make it to our level of intelligence. There may have been an occurrence in our past that would normally have been a barrier to the development of intelligent life (a Great Filter). And somehow we are the only one (or one of the very few) in our galaxy to have surpassed this.

Perhaps we’re rare?Eukaryotic CellProkaryotic Cell

Membrane bound organelles

DNA in nucleus

DNA dispersed throughout

cell

No organelles

The Great Filter? 1.6 to 2.1 billion

years ago

The most likely candidate for a Great Filter that lies behind us, is the transition from

prokaryotic to eukaryotic cells. It is generally thought that this happened just once in our 4 billion year history... and it subsequently gave

rise to all multicellular life on Earth - including plants, animals and us.

Bacteria Multicellular life

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However, if we were to find evidence of multicellular life on Mars or Europa (one of the moons of Jupiter) then it wouldn’t be good news, since it would suggest that it is relatively easy for life to evolve in the Cosmos... And that would imply that

the Great Filter lies ahead of us.

Oh heck!

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1Perhaps we’re one of the first?We and many other species may be on the verge of super-intelligence, but it just hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps only now has our universe settled down enough to allow intelligent life to develop.

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Perhaps we’re doomed?It could be that life regularly evolves to where we are now

but something prevents it from progressing to a super-intelligent or interstellar race. In which case the outlook would be bleak as the Great Filter lies ahead of us.

Why can’t we get through?!

:(

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Or perhaps our ‘reality’ is completely different to what we think it is?

This chocolate tastes deeeelicious!

The ‘Matrix’

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A threshold, which could lie behind us (in our past) or ahead of us (in our future), which is a barrier to the evolution of intelligent life.

If the Great Filter lies ahead of us:

Chances of us reaching super-intelligence are virtually nil.

The outlook is bleak.

The Great Filter:

If the Great Filter lies behind us:

We are probably alone and the most intelligent life in the Cosmos. The outlook is

unknown... but positive.

We made it!

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The Kardashev Scale

Harness all the power of their host planet

Type I Civilization

Type II Civilization

Type III CivilizationHarness all the power of their host star

Harness all the power of their host galaxy

The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization’s level of technological advancement, based on the amount of energy they are able to utilise.

The official scale has three categories listed as Type I, II, and III.

0.73 (us)

We are currently 0.73 on the scale

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Dyson SphereA hypothetical megastructure built by a Type II civilization that completely encompasses a star and captures most (if not all) of its power output

There is a possibility that Type II and Type III civilizations are already out there but we just can’t see them... perhaps they don’t want to be found or their technology is such that we are unable to observe them.

Energy and light is retained by a Type II civilization so we wouldn’t be able to see them (although there may well be some other

means to detect them)

Shhhhh! ;)

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And a Type V civilization would be comparable to a deity. They would be beings that exist outside space-time and could control and manipulate the universe and the (theoretical) multiverse.

Let there be light!

A Type IV civilization could harness the energy content of the entire

universe!

Taking it a step further...

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‘Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not.

Both are equally terrifying.’ - Arthur C. Clarke.

In the end, if we are alone, we have a solemn duty to look after each other, our world, and explore the universe...

‘Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.’

- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Why are the night skies quiet? Might we be alone in the Cosmos? ‘Alone’ helps to shed some light on the mystery of the

Great Silence by exploring such topics as Fermi’s Paradox, the Great Filter and the Kardashev scale. Ultimately it shows why it may be our duty to both explore the universe

and take care of each other.

Copyright ©2015 MisterP.ink (www.misterp.ink)

No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.