Hey, it’s Saturday night. And the Transcension Hypothesis is a sciencey theory. Here is the latest in our series on science fiction hypotheses as to why we don’t see the extraterrestrials:
On this view, after a Singularity the ETs become virtual intelligences, exploring inner space at an undetectably small scale …
Concepts from several well-known cosmologists contribute to the idea. For example, recent Nobelist Roger Penrose advances the idea of black holes as an energy source; in fact, he believes that they are energy left over from a previous universe. The late John D. Barrow (1952–2020) proposed a scale of advances via miniaturization (a Kardashev scale in reverse).
Recall that shrinking or growing can both be seen as forms of travel. While the Transcension hypothesis has the extraterrestrials traveling away from us by shrinking, it is also possible to travel away by growing rapidly. Some religious writers, like C.S. Lewis, picture Hell as a very tiny place. Those who escape it simply grow far beyond its scale.
Perhaps the most academic moment for the Transcension hypothesis has been a 2012 Paper. by its best-known exponent, futurist John M. Smart, in Acta Astronautica…
News, “The aliens exist—but evolved into virtual reality at a nanoscale” at Mind Matters News