I want to be like my dog, but smarter and with more freedom.
Every day I look at the lazy beast and wonder at the simplicity of its existence. Give me that life and an allowance for supplies to create, eat, socialize, and travel and let me loose.
This is the missing component of the Drake equation.
The probability of any given sentient species eventually developing AI that is sophisticated enough that they cease all outward exploration and turn into a galactic shut-ins. Completely content to while away the millennia playing Candy Crush VR while the automatons take care of their birth/feeding/death cycle...
I don't think they would they care about births. Having more humans would just reduce the technological resources available to provide for their personal happiness.
But if they have superior AI, what stops the AI from expanding outward instead? Such an advanced civilization has nothing to lose by sending a few robot colonists out through the galaxy.
If aliens landed in an American urban area, they would see dogs walking around with people behind them, picking up the poop, and special people who walk around with the dogs in the middle of the day, and the aliens would have to conclude that the dogs are the most important beings on the planet.
That's not too far off. People really love dogs. I've never met a person who would blame a dog for anything, they're treated like angels and any bad behaviour is blamed on the owner, not the dog itself. The dog is without sin and beyond punishment. They're treated kind of like children, really, except even the most cold-hearted scrooge, who would gladly put kids to work shovelling coal for 12 hours a day at a salary of half-penny a month would think twice about kicking a dog.
That's pretty much my life since I retired at 50. My existence isn't so simple as I have two houses, two cars, ten bikes, etc. but eventually it will be simple.
I retired at 35. I find it a blessing and a curse. With no kids or any other major attachments, I had to come to terms with how unimportant I am. Having a high paying job where people depend on you really feeds your ego. When that's gone, you can't avoid this fact and it takes some humility to deal with it.
Every day I look at the lazy beast and wonder at the simplicity of its existence. Give me that life and an allowance for supplies to create, eat, socialize, and travel and let me loose.