Internalizing Null Extraterrestrial "Signals": An Astrobiological App for a Technological Society

TL;DR

This paper explores how the absence of extraterrestrial signals can inform humanity's future by emphasizing the importance of solar energy and astrobiological insights within a cosmic evolution framework.

Contribution

It introduces an astrobiological app that interprets null extraterrestrial signals as a guide for sustainable energy use and understanding cosmic civilization development.

Findings

Null signals suggest solar energy as the sustainable future.

Astrobiology clarifies the energetic principles of complex systems.

Adopting stellar energy may determine the survival of civilizations.

Abstract

One of the beneficial outcomes of searching for life in the Universe is that it grants greater awareness of our own problems here on Earth. Lack of contact with alien beings to date might actually comprise a null "signal" pointing humankind toward a viable future. Astrobiology has surprising practical applications to human society; within the larger cosmological context of cosmic evolution, astrobiology clarifies the energetic essence of complex systems throughout the Universe, including technological intelligence that is intimately dependent on energy and likely will be for as long as it endures. The "message" contained within the "signal" with which today's society needs to cope is reasonably this: Only solar energy can power our civilization going forward without soiling the environment with increased heat yet robustly driving the economy with increased per capita energy usage. The null "signals" from extraterrestrials also offer a rational solution to the Fermi paradox as a principle of cosmic selection likely limits galactic civilizations in time as well as in space: Those advanced life-forms anywhere in the Universe that wisely adopt, and quickly too, the energy of their parent star probably survive, and those that don't, don't.