What about aliens?

​Aliens are having a moment: UAP hearings, renewed SETI funding, interstellar objects in the news. Much less discussed is the question underneath all of it. Ff the galaxy should be full of civilizations, why does it look empty, and what does each possible answer imply for what we do next?

​The candidate solutions point in very different directions. If expansion is self-limiting, the "sustainability solution," then civilizations may be common, quiet, and no threat to us. If the dark forest hypothesis holds, broadcasting our location is one of the worst ideas in history. If the Great Filter lies ahead of us rather than behind us, then every lifeless exoplanet is good news and every microbe on Mars is potential bad news. If we're simply early, the "grabby aliens" scenario, then decisions humanity makes about space expansion and governance in the next century or two could be among the most consequential ever made, which is why groups like Forethought are already treating space governance as an AGI-preparedness problem.

​Join us at Mox for a salon-style discussion of the leading Fermi solutions, how we might tell them apart, and what each would mean for existential risk, SETI/METI policy, and space governance. No astronomy background required — just a willingness to reason carefully about very weird questions.