Why Von Neumann interstellar probes could not exist: nonoptical reflections on modern analytic philosophy, bad arguments, and unutilised data.

Clive Goodall

doi:10.1117/12.150126

6 August 1993 Why Von Neumann interstellar probes could not exist: nonoptical reflections on modern analytic philosophy, bad arguments, and unutilised data.

Clive Goodall

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Proceedings Volume 1867, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in the Optical Spectrum; (1993) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.150126
Event: OE/LASE'93: Optics, Electro-Optics, and Laser Applications in Scienceand Engineering, 1993, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

A decisive and lethal response to a naive radical skepticism concerning the prospects for the existence of Extraterrestrial Intelligence is derivable from core areas of Modern Analytic Philosophy. The naive skeptical view is fundamentally flawed in the way it oversimplifies certain complex issues, failing as it does, to recognize a special class of conceptual problems for what they really are and mistakenly treating them instead as empirical issues. Specifically, this skepticism is based upon an untenable oversimplifying mode of the 'mind-brain' relation. Moreover, independent logical considerations concerning the mind-brain relation provide evidential grounds for why we should in fact expect a priori that an Alien Intelligence will face constraints upon, and immense difficulties in, making its existence known by non- electromagnetic means.

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Clive Goodall "Why Von Neumann interstellar probes could not exist: nonoptical reflections on modern analytic philosophy, bad arguments, and unutilised data.", Proc. SPIE 1867, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in the Optical Spectrum, (6 August 1993); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.150126

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