Are We an Early Intelligent Species in the Universe?

[Chronos]

Yesterday was interesting for SETI enthusiasts. On the menu was; http://arxiv.org/abs/1508.02406 and http://arxiv.org/abs/1508.02624 another slightly older entree is http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.05969

 

[jedishrfu]

But they could be on the way to a theatre near you.

 

[Chronos]

An interesting feature of these papers is they severely constrain the probability of any type III civilizations in the local universe, which raises [at least in my mind] four reasonable explanations that are not hopelessly anthropocentric - 1] they have not been around long enough to be detectable 2]none have survived long enough to become detectable 3] we are not looking for the right things 4] space travel is even more enormously difficult than we think.

 

[BWV]

The work referred to here
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/gamma-ray-bursts-grb-and-distribution-of-life.769979/

Mentions (at least in the popular summary I read) a higher frequency of gamma ray bursts until about 5 billion years ago, which would perhaps make us an early intelligent species.

I also wonder when the critical point in time was in our galaxy where the number of supernovae has been sufficient to create and distribute the heavier elements necessary for life to emerge