https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2004.03968/Collected HN comments and submissions linking this paper.enMon, 02 Nov 2026 11:16:22 GMThttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23543517urn:hackerpapers:submission:2004.03968:23543517Tue, 16 Jun 2020 20:14:50 GMT<p>The Astrobiological Copernican Limits for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life</p><p></p><p>2 points; 1 discussion reply on HN. <a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2004.03968/">Paper and source history</a>. A submission is not an endorsement.</p>astro-ph.EPhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23534516urn:hackerpapers:mention:2004.03968:23534516Tue, 16 Jun 2020 00:04:22 GMT<p>Useful arxiv link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.03968 As always, the critical assumption is f_l, the probability that life of any kind will originate on a &quot;suitable&quot; planet. The authors invoke the &quot;Principle of Mediocrity&quot;, which says something like, &quot;We&#x27;re not special, therefore f_l = 1&quot;. This is exact opposite of the Anthropic Principle, which says: &quot;From the observation that life has originated on Earth, we can deduce nothing at all about f_l.&quot; If f_l is some other number, like 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000001, then the expected number of alien civilisations won&#x27;t be 36, it will…</p><p><a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2004.03968/">Paper and discussion history</a>. A mention is not an endorsement.</p>astro-ph.EP