Extraterrestrial intelligence and doomsday: A critical assessment of the no-outsider requirement
The so-called Doomsday Argument has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. One of the suggested ways to make this argument ineffective is the so-called No-Outsider requirement, indicating that the presence of other intelligent observers (’aliens’) beside humans invalidates the reasoning leadi...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Astronomical Observatory, Department of Astronomy, Belgrade
2003-01-01
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| Series: | Serbian Astronomical Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-698X/2003/1450-698X0366001C.pdf |
| Summary: | The so-called Doomsday Argument has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. One of the suggested ways to make this argument ineffective is the so-called No-Outsider requirement, indicating that the presence of other intelligent observers (’aliens’) beside humans invalidates the reasoning leading to the apocalyptic conclusion. Obviously, this argumentation bears relevance not only to the effectiveness of the Doomsday Argument, but also to the issues like the relativization of the reference class in anthropic reasoning, transhumanism and the SETI theory. Hereby we critically investigate the No-Outsider Requirement and conclude that it is either fallacious or irrelevant. |
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| ISSN: | 1450-698X 1820-9289 |