More aliens who intend to remain absolutely silent and secret and have all the tech they want to keep it that way...
My personal theory on the Fermi paradox is this. Long before gaining the ability to do interstellar travel, intelligent life gains the ability to accurately simulate what may be out there. Since it's so much easier to do that rather than travel, they just don't bother. They just procedurally simulate the universe - and guess what - in an infinitely large universe, whatever you simulate is out there somewhere anyway. No need to travel.
The human race will do the same. Rather than build a starship and send cryo-frozen astronauts on a 100,000 year journey, we're just going to upload our brains to a sim and have the experience of it a million times without the fuss. As your brain experiences the joy of conquering Vega, you won't even hear the call of the muezzin next to the warehouse where you're stacked.
My personal theory on the Fermi paradox is this. Long before gaining the ability to do interstellar travel, intelligent life gains the ability to accurately simulate what may be out there. Since it's so much easier to do that rather than travel, they just don't bother. They just procedurally simulate the universe - and guess what - in an infinitely large universe, whatever you simulate is out there somewhere anyway. No need to travel.
The human race will do the same. Rather than build a starship and send cryo-frozen astronauts on a 100,000 year journey, we're just going to upload our brains to a sim and have the experience of it a million times without the fuss. As your brain experiences the joy of conquering Vega, you won't even hear the call of the muezzin next to the warehouse where you're stacked.
Dr Johnson rumbles with the RawGod. And lives to regret it.