Richard Dawkins

Well, there is a suggestion that one of the reasons why we don't detect extraterrestrial civilizations is that when a civilization reaches the point where it's capable of broadcasting radio waves that we could pick up, there's only a brief window before it blows itself up.

That there's a brief window between discovering the advanced technology to communicate by radio, which we could then pick up, and producing the horrific technology, which then gets out of control.

Right.

So it may be that all over the universe, there are little civilizations winking into action.

briefly flashing into action for a few centuries and then killing themselves.

Not at all.

The point is that it takes many billions of years for evolution to reach the point where technology takes off.

Right.

But once technology takes off, it's then an eye blink...

by the standards of geological time.

I see.

Before, according to this rather pessimistic speculation, I'm not forwarding it myself.

It's a possibility, and I can't deny it.

What do they do?

I'm more optimistic than that.

About science?

I suppose you could say that poetry is something extravagant and overdone.

And if I think about the nearest approach to poetry in Wild Creatures, it might be something like a peacock's tail, where it's far from utilitarian.

The idea is that the male is attempting to seduce a female.

And there's massive overkill there.