Out of the Bubble. ====================== According to "The Planetarium Hypothesis: A Resolution of the Fermi Paradox" (Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, vol 54 May/June 2001) we might live inside a "bubble". How could we really prove that the stars and galaxies, we see on the night sky, aren't simulated on a great shell that surrounds the entire solar system? A shell that simulates not only photons, but also such exotica as cosmis rays and neutrinos etc. ??? And beyond the shell lies the REAL universe. A universe that we know absolutely nothing of. According to this "planetarium hypothesis". The "controllers" might have created our little "zoo" for the sanity of the human mind? Or they might be fastforwarding humanity inside some exclusion zone, to see how it turns out? Perhaps the universe we know is some elaborate illusion that protects us from a more fearful reality? In acclaimed SF author Stephen Baxters book "Phase Space" it all comes back to Fermi paradox: If the universe is filled with life, why aren't the aliens here? Why don't we see them? His heroes poke at the bubble and see if the walls come crumbling down. If so they would rejoice. Finally, humans would see the truth. The "controllers" from the outside finally forced to reveal themselfes!!! There might be many kinds of bubbles though. There could be a bubble of consciousness, where everything except consciousness itself is fake. For all we know, even our bodies might be simulated, so that the boundary of reality is drawn around our very consciousness. Imagine "the controllers" turning that illusion off: Our own body slowly becoming transparent, breaking into pixels and then disappearing.... So, what should humanity do from now on in this age of the pax americana - where all the old illogical ethnic and religious differences are finally dissolved - except poke at the boundaries of the mind and of space ? Surely, old Gaia might be displeased with us and do a "biosphere reboot" on Earth - killing off humans and starting all over from scratch with bacteria and alike once again. Or Earth might be hit by a killer asteroid. But as long as this doesn't happens - then we actually have a shot at the stars. Us and these huge, shadowy qubit AIs, far beyond any kind of democratic control, that will populate the Earth in the near future. Finally, We should be able to go out and meet the consciousness of the far future, the conflux. Some born out of the random flexings of (black hole) singularities, others with human origins. And some, perhaps, with origins in the "controller" society. As always, Stephen Baxter is good! Simon Laub silanian.tripod.com