Originally Posted by
mal4mac
But this act of observation is the very first act, so how would there be "a choice" - that requires some mental activity before the first act, by definition impossible.
Perhaps purpose could begin in the very first moment, but I don't see how you could get round observation preceding purpose.
Surely an advanced civilisation could create reasonable radiation shields? We can already, just about, detect earth like planets already, so why haven't they detected us and sent us a signal? It's 13.7 billion year since the big bang, why aren't there thousands of civilisations millions of years older than ours moving around, or sending out signals, to say "hello" to us younger civilisation.
Where are they?!