At some point we’ve all looked up into the inky black night and considered the possibility that the universe is teeming with life. But have you ever thought about whether or not space is actually littered with death?
Probably not. I mean, that’s not the chirpiest outlook to consider when wrestling with life, the universe, and everything. But then again, it’s also an incredibly likely possibility. At least, that’s according to a new study that posits alien civilisations ended up destroying themselves through progress. Kind of like how life on our planet got considerably worse following the invention of social media, but on a grander scale.
As reported by the New York Post, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology researchers have outlined a new theory. They believe that the galaxy is, or rather was, home to ancient aliens that ultimately met their “complete destruction and biological degeneration," through technological advancement.
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In other words, any intelligent life that did exist in the Milky Way killed itself a long time ago. If you’re wondering how any civilization could manage that, you might want to look out of the window.
"If intelligent life is likely to destroy themselves, it is not surprising that there is little or no intelligent life elsewhere," the researchers state in their paper on the theory. As far as explaining why we’ve yet to bump into aliens, this definitely makes sense. I just wish it wasn’t such a bummer.
I’m gonna go right ahead and choose to believe that our predecessors just built some sick af spaceships and yeeted themselves right out of the galaxy to somewhere better. As far as you can get from Earth is a good place to be these days.
Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros/EATopics: Mass Effect