Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2008-03-27:

"Fermi's paradox became, for a while, a cautionary tale about cold war geopolitics.

"I suggest a different, even darker solution to Fermi's paradox. Basically I think aliens don't blow themselves up; they just get addicted to computer games. They forget to send radio signals or colonize space because they're too busy with runaway consumerism and virtual-reality narcissism. They don't need Sentinels to enslave them in a Matrix; they do it to themselves, just as we are doing today."

-- Geoffrey Miller, from "Runaway Consumerism Explains the Fermi Paradox", included in the book What is Your Dangerous Idea?, edited by John Brockman.

(submitted to the mailing list by Jeffrey L. Copeland)