Is it all about black holes? Scientist's theory explains why mankind still can not find aliens

Humanity has been trying to find signs of extraterrestrial life for decades, but despite the use of more powerful technologies, the theory that we are the only intelligent species seems more and more plausible. Nevertheless, we may simply be critically mistaken about how aliens will evolve and where to look for them.

In an article for Acta Astronautica, futurist John M. Smart proposed a transcendence hypothesis that could set the record straight.

Humanity is looking for alien life based on its own experience. If life was able to originate on Earth, where there is liquid water and oxygen, then we need an exoplanet with similar conditions, and which is located in the so-called Goldilocks zone, a habitable zone at a distance from the star where it is not too hot but not too cold.

However, these are only the initial conditions that can favor the emergence of life. When we find a planet that is suitable in terms of biological parameters, we start looking for technological signs of life. In this case, we look for traces of technological development in the planet's atmosphere, radio signals, digital signals, and so on, hoping to find a civilization that is at the same level of development as humanity or even more advanced. However, there has been no success in this search so far, despite rumors that NASA knows something but is silent.

Thus, Smart proposed the theory of transcendence, which suggests that we are simply looking in the wrong place.

His hypothesis suggests that the evolutionary development of alien life is universal and ultimately guides "all sufficiently advanced civilizations into what might be called 'inner space,' a computationally optimal region of increasingly dense, productive, miniaturized, and efficient scales of space, time, energy, and matter, and ultimately to a black hole-like destination."

In his theory, which was published in 2012, Smart considers civilizations that have existed for millions of years and his idea is that they would find it wise to approach a black hole to use it as a powerful source of energy.

For modern humanity, this may seem like a self-defeating idea, as we know about the super-powerful gravity of a black hole, as well as its ability to tear apart entire planets, but scientists have also voiced the idea that black holes could be alien supercomputers.

Smart believes that black holes can be not only a source of energy but also a kind of meeting place for advanced civilizations, which, thanks to the black hole, will create a new super-powerful civilization.

"Black holes may be the destiny of development and the standard attractor for all higher intelligence as they seem to be ideal devices for computing, learning, time travel, energy harvesting, merging civilizations, natural selection, and replication of the universe," Smart suggested.

According to IFLScience, if this theory is correct, it could explain the Fermi paradox or why we have not yet seen any signs of alien life. Advanced species may not communicate their location for a very long time before moving to a new level of existence.

Eventually, all their signals or signs of existence on the exoplanet should cease completely as "the civilization will enter its technological singularity" when its intelligence and life form move to the post-biological level.

In order to find such civilizations that have moved to a new level, Smart suggests analyzing the galactic habitable region, and if we see a zone where, despite the statistical probability, there are no exoplanets, it means that it was here that a civilization that has moved to a new level could exist.

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