Humanity is doomed to extinction for 500 years - such an unexpected and sad conclusion was made by the American mathematician and astrobiologist, professor at the University of Arkansas, Daniel Whitmere. The scientist's research was published this week in the scientific journal International Journal of Astrobiology.
The basis of the scientist's reflections was the so-called principle of mediocrity (or the principle of mediocrity, Copernicus' principle) - one of the basic principles of the philosophy of science, according to which neither the Earth nor the solar system are unique objects in the Universe without clear evidence to the contrary. In other words, the Earth and man, as a species, are accepted as objects typical of the Universe, as long as there are no indisputable facts of their uniqueness. Thus, in the Universe there should be other races of living beings who have reached the same level of technological development as humans.
The principle of mediocrity has been criticized more than once. For example, physicist Enrico Fermi formulated the famous paradox, the meaning of which is as follows: if there are so many advanced alien civilizations, why have we not yet found their traces?
Scientists have tried differently to answer the Fermi paradox. Someone is of the opinion that extraterrestrial civilizations are deliberately hiding from humanity. There is also a hypothesis that technologically advanced civilizations are dying out too quickly.
Based on complex calculations, mathematician Daniel Whitmir concluded that civilizations that have reached the technological level of humanity are inevitably doomed to extinction within 500 years. Moreover, the extinction of these civilizations leads to the disappearance of the planet's biosphere, that is, the death of all living things on it. Whitmere believes that such a fate awaits any species, the first to reach a high technological level on any planet. Thus, the scientist predicted a sad future for humanity.
The opposite of the principle of mediocrity is the hypothesis of a unique Earth, developed in the second half of the 20th century by astronomer Donald Brownlee and paleontologist Peter Ward. According to the theory of Brownlee and Ward, highly developed life on Earth arose due to a combination of very rare conditions for the universe and characteristics of the planet.