This is where taking the Singularity as a common stepping stone leads to re-imagining or abandoning the Kardashev Scale as a measurement of advancement. The discontinuity in advancement where all possible knowledge of the Universe is achieved within a few years would avoid the messy evolution of civilizations that demand ever greater amounts of energy that could be detected by our sensors today.

While I consider this an appealing explanation for the Fermi Paradox as a consequence of the technological singularity, one must keep in mind that it is an hypothesis based on a hypothesis. This possible explanation is a double conundrum. However, if you, like many today, consider the Singularity an inevitability, then its only a question of what lies after the Singularity.

Smart also proposes that post-singularity, the civilizations in their desire for efficiency would redesign their solar systems. This is unnecessary conjecture in Smart’s post-singularity scenario. So much straddles speculation already. One could also imagine that the sudden rise in knowledge and know-how could lead such beings to do nothing — live and let live — and just marvel or participate in the Universe in ways beyond our comprehension.

However, if correct, there should be a discontinuity in the spectrum of detectable technologies across the Universe. This could explain the Fermi Paradox.

The “Transcenion Hypothesis” has the same end as the hypotheses that advanced civilizations disappear by either self-destruction or eventual natural disasters common across the time and space. In all these scenarios, intelligent life effectively disappears. However, in those other scenarios, there is likely to remain a continuum of technologies that would be detectable.

The pre-singularity civilizations such as our own would still be few and far between and their physical signatures very weak and hard to detect by the likes of their equals, that is, us. A few hundred years may be all any civilization has to show their presence. Such a time period is so brief in the time scale of the Universe that combined with the vast distances, finding those like us is an extreme challenge that our feeble technology may only now be making feasible.

In fact, this post-singularity scenario should be underlined as just one of many possible ones. Nevertheless, it is not unreasonable that a large subset of possible outcomes could involve extreme efficiency of resources and consequently, while extremely powerful in their presence, super civilizations would not be exposed as loud, noisy sore thumbs in the Universe.