Besides, if you think the aliens can all agree to stop expanding to hide from theoretical simulators then I don’t see why some other meme couldn’t do the trick too.
I can’t think of anything else that would affect every single alien civ out of trillions; in fact, even this explanation seems unlikely to account for no expansion from every single one of trillions of civs.
I think wireheading,
Perhaps we should regard the fermi problem as evidence in favor of wireheading?
religious seclusion
I think that the “religious seclusion” idea is not a good bet. Remember, it has to work with really rather high fidelity.
or some other memetic effect could keep them from expanding
If the simulators are looking for intelligent life, then they may be removing it when they find it, to allow the rest of the universe to continue on producing other original life forms. Then, there would be intelligent life in hiding, and other intelligent life would be selected against.
I can’t think of anything else that would affect every single alien civ out of trillions; in fact, even this explanation seems unlikely to account for no expansion from every single one of trillions of civs.
Perhaps we should regard the fermi problem as evidence in favor of wireheading?
I think that the “religious seclusion” idea is not a good bet. Remember, it has to work with really rather high fidelity.
Some other mimetic effect seems more promising.
If the simulators are looking for intelligent life, then they may be removing it when they find it, to allow the rest of the universe to continue on producing other original life forms. Then, there would be intelligent life in hiding, and other intelligent life would be selected against.