Excerpt from Zygors Don't:
Paul said, “What do you mean by undiversified Groupism?”
Daniel said, “I mean an over riding identity with a singular group. One group. One group where the identity is so strong that its adherents might die for it. They might even commit suicide in the name of the group, their own individuality subverted, destroyed. That’s what you’re talking about. Undiversified Groupism.”
Paul said, “That’s what I see as a weakness.”
“It is. If weakness means the destruction of an intelligent species by its own defect, then yes, Undiversified Groupism is a weakness.”
“So when you say society has to evolve, you’re talking about this issue.”
Daniel nodded.
“Why not just eliminate the weakness?”
“You’ll never do that. You might not need a group identity yourself Paul, but I guarantee, most humans do.”
“But it isn’t as bad as it was in earlier points of history. At least it’s improving. Going in the right direction.”
“You aren’t going to eliminate organized religion, national boundaries, ethnicity, traditions or most other group identities.”
“Then what’s the solution?”
“Go with it. More of them. Not less.”
Paul said, “Diversification.”
“Yes. Instead of one overriding group identity, people will form many, diversifying the risk, spreading it out. The danger neutralized. A natural process.”
“Natural?”
“It’s not something that has to be forced. Maybe helped along, but not forced. It’s already happening. It’s the basis for the American system. Spreading to other systems all over the planet. It’s a natural process and it’ll happen in time. It’ll happen worldwide.”
“That’s the key, isn’t it?” Paul said, “Time. If deadly technology is available before Diversified Groupism has had time to evolve, a society will destroy itself. That’s what you’re saying. That’s the balance.”
“Societal evolution is a natural filter for the entire galaxy. Those that develop Diversifism in time will become space-faring civilizations. Those that do not will annihilate themselves.”
Commentary:
Scientists have tried to estimate the number of earth like civilizations in our galaxy. One of the fundamental equations most scientists take into account when calculating this estimate is called the Drake equation. One of the parameters of this equation is the expected lifetime one could expect for a technological civilization. Many scientists speculate that in fact the determining factor in the Drake equation is this factor. That is, how likely is it for a technological civilization to kill itself off before it can become space faring?
So far humans only know of one technological civilization. Their own. This is more of an oddity than most people realize. Human civilization can be measured in the thousands of years. The solar system is estimated to be over four billion years old. Estimates of the age of the galaxy are on the order of fourteen billion years and current estimates of the age of the universe are over fifteen billion years and some go as high as twenty billion years. All this give or take a few billion.
Whether these estimates are right or wrong is immaterial. One thing is for certain – reality has been around a lot longer than humans have. There has been a great deal of time for other civilizations to develop in the Milky Way galaxy. Estimates of the galactic diameter are around 150,000 light years. It takes light about 150,000 years to traverse the galaxy over its farthest reaches. It would also take that long for radio waves. Since 150,000 years is a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of years of galactic existence and it is likely that extraterrestrial civilizations developed at least millions of years before ours, we should pick up something. Yet we hear nothing.
There is an interesting article on this called “The ‘Great Silence’: the Controversy Concerning Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life” by Glen David Brin – California Space Institute, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.
It is actually a stranger fact that humans appear to be alone than it would be to find there were many other intelligent civilizations. Brin speculates as to why this might be the case. The article is worth reading for anyone interested in the strange fact of the ‘Great Silence’.
Could it be that civilizations which have reached a technological age eventually reach a point where they have the ability to destroy themselves and that is exactly what they do? Is that where the path of human history is leading?