The crux of this, for me, is whether it’s physically possible to do the stuff you want to do in the colonized universe (dyson swarms, etc) without a zoo civilization of our level of development being able to see it in our telescopes.
I imagine the construction of a firmament screen, a cosmic-scale device surrounding us with a false image of an uncolonized universe, we might be able to argue that the firmament screen is physically impossible (or absurdly difficult to justify the cost of) even with superintelligence. If an astrophysicist could make that argument, that would rule out the zoo hypothesis for me.
I guess they wouldn’t need a firmament if they were doing a thing where.. they just let life-supporting planets see them until intelligent life emerges, because unintelligent life would be indifferent to them, and then once intelligent life starts to build telescopes they descend and scan everyone and move it into a simulation. This would get them a completely accurate biological history. The simulation, from then on, might not be completely accurate, but if so, I am not sensitive to what would be missing from it.
The crux of this, for me, is whether it’s physically possible to do the stuff you want to do in the colonized universe (dyson swarms, etc) without a zoo civilization of our level of development being able to see it in our telescopes.
I imagine the construction of a firmament screen, a cosmic-scale device surrounding us with a false image of an uncolonized universe, we might be able to argue that the firmament screen is physically impossible (or absurdly difficult to justify the cost of) even with superintelligence. If an astrophysicist could make that argument, that would rule out the zoo hypothesis for me.
I guess they wouldn’t need a firmament if they were doing a thing where.. they just let life-supporting planets see them until intelligent life emerges, because unintelligent life would be indifferent to them, and then once intelligent life starts to build telescopes they descend and scan everyone and move it into a simulation. This would get them a completely accurate biological history. The simulation, from then on, might not be completely accurate, but if so, I am not sensitive to what would be missing from it.