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Health & Science4h 26m ago
Professor David Kipping of Columbia University and its Cool Worlds Lab has proposed a new model, the "Cosmological Hart-Tipler Conjecture," that suggests very tight constraints on the possible existence of technological civilizations in the universe.
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Columbia University
Who
David Kipping, Michael Hart, Frank Tipler, Carl Sagan, William Newman, Enrico Fermi, David Brin
What
Professor David Kipping of Columbia University and its Cool Worlds Lab has proposed a new model, the "Cosmological Hart-Tipler Conjecture," that suggests very tight constraints on the possible existence of technological civilizations in the universe.
When
Sat, 13 Jun 2026 23:30:02 GMT · 4h 26m ago
Where
Columbia University ·
Why
Kipping's model builds on the Hart-Tipler Conjecture (Fermi's Paradox) by considering cosmic expansion and hypothesizes that widespread "artificial infections" would nullify local habitability if alien civilizations were common.
The Frontline Impact
How this affects you
The findings suggest that if technological civilizations are common, humanity faces the disturbing possibility of being alone in an uninfected universe. This model implies that the emergence rate of such civilizations must be staggeringly low, on the order of one in a million galaxies over cosmic history, or that nearly the entire cosmos would already be 'infected' if an infection wave propagated at 10% the speed of light.
Story chain
6 events in this thread- Health & Science4h 26m agoProfessor David Kipping of Columbia University offers a new model, the "Cosmological Hart-Tipler Conjecture" (CH-TC), which suggests that the spontaneous emergence of intelligent life must be staggeringly rare to account for the absence of galactic "infections."Open article
- Health & Science4h 26m agoProfessor David Kipping of Columbia University and the head of its Cool Worlds Lab offers a new take on this hypothesis known as the "Cosmological Hart-Tipler Conjecture" (CH-TC).Open article
- Currently Reading4h 26m agoProfessor David Kipping of Columbia University and its Cool Worlds Lab has proposed a new model, the "Cosmological Hart-Tipler Conjecture," that suggests very tight constraints on the possible existence of technological civilizations in the universe.
- Health & Science4h 26m agoProfessor David Kipping of Columbia University and head of its Cool Worlds Lab has proposed a new model, the "Cosmological Hart-Tipler Conjecture," which suggests that the spontaneous rate of intelligent life emerging must be extremely low, on the order of one in a million galaxies over cosmic history, to be consistent with the observation that the universe is not largely "infected" by advanced civilizations.Open article
- Health & Science4h 26m agoProfessor David Kipping of Columbia University and the head of its Cool Worlds Lab offers a new take on the Hart-Tipler Conjecture, known as the "Cosmological Hart-Tipler Conjecture."Open article
- Health & Science4h 26m agoProfessor David Kipping of Columbia University's Cool Worlds Lab has proposed a new model, the "Cosmological Hart-Tipler Conjecture" (CH-TC), which suggests that if "artificial infections" (like Von Neumann probes) spawn more frequently than 1 in 100,000 galaxies, then 99.9% of the universe would be infected for a 0.1c infection wave speed, leading to a "staggeringly tight observational constraint on alien behavior."Open article