It really doesn't, though. "Heartbeat-like" is used to describe a plehtora of vibrational patterns that have the iconic "heartbeat" pattern.

Just checked the 1 month graph. Jesus christ you got super unlucky.

Oh, for sure. I just don't m know what this self-limiting natural force would be. If you keep exploring new planets and stars, thus garnering unimaginable resources and energy, it's hard to imagine that the ecosystem would work against you in some mysterious way. The limiting factor, in my opinion, will be cosmic forces, i.e., the redshift. We will eventually be confined to a small sliver of the universe as the universe expands and the distances between galaxies become too far to for intergalactic travel. My point is, the limitation does not have to be catastrophic. It can merely be an endpoint in exploration when we realize that expansion would no longer be possible due to distance constraints.

There is a really good video by Kurzegast that describes the general principles of the idea you are talking about. I tend not to put too much stock in the idea, though. If this self-limiter existed, shouldn't we see traces of this civilization? Surely they didn't advance too far, or we would have detected something by now. We have analyzed the atmospheres of thousands of candidate planets and yet nothing.

We are simply too naiive, and we definitely need to further our understanding of physics before we can narrow down the various hypotheses that have emerged. Ockhams razor and lack of tangible evidence suggests that we are and always were alone, but it seems so unlikely that 13 billion years went by without another civilization emerging and potentially collapsing.

Our existence in this universe as a species is a drop in the ocean. The scale might be our way to try to conceptualize how much a civilization could theoretically advance. That doesn't necessitate the existence of a civilization that exceeds two on the scale for example. The other thing to consider is the possibility that we may be the only intelligent life in the universe that has ever existed. As cynical as it may sound, the conditions for life to form are extremely rare. The right things had to happen at the right time in the right way and survive long enough to replicate. It then took billions of years for homo sapiens to arise.

You may be right. The problem is we have nobody to compare ourselves to. What is considered a great/powerful civilization? If we consider the kardashev scale, we are just above 0.5. What would this hypothetical limit be? The solar system? The galaxy? The local group? I can see us occupying a very small slice of the galaxy with a handful of planets jn the goldilocks zone with multiple stars that can be harvested using dyson spheres. In the far future, we will be confined to out local galactic group anyway, granting us a "limit". As we continue to redshift, perhaps the universe is creating our boundaries for us. Of course all of this is theoretical, but it something people have been thinking about for decades now.

Yes, we are, though. Inquisition is innate to the human species. The desire to understand and explore the unknown is rooting in evolutionary biology. A curious mind isn't the only reason to explore beyond the earth (although I would say it is justification enough). Resources, population sustenance, energy, and, although it may sound like sci-fi now, there is a possibility of finding life that has evolved drastically differently from ours. I am not talking about aliens, as even alien microbes could lend us with a wealth of knowledge. We have arctic explorers from multiple government agencies and laboratories exploring the poles as we speak, hoping to discover microorganisms and ancient rivers and lakes under the ice. The Gobi and Sahara desert are sparsely populated because there is very little there in terms of resources, and the climate isn't kind to humans. We have already identified dozens of exoplanets in the goldilocks zone that are very similar to Earth. The hard part is getting there, but humans have always figured out a way. That is why we spend billions on space agencies. It isn't all for naught.

Not sure scientists have much of a say on the matter. Politicians will take over if we ever make contact.