It's hard to be succinct about universe - sized matters, particularly when you're innumerate, but as I understand it, this
argument (made seriously by some
serious scientists, I note) says one explanation for the absence of contact is that there's a
flaw in the process that would otherwise lead to truly complex life forms and truly complex societies, such that intelligent life fails at some point short of its ability to manage interstellar travel or communication.
Author Malcolm Gladwell argued
in a recent piece for New Yorker magazine that the influence of Twitter and other social - media tools on social activism has been over-stated, but as Twitter co-founder Biz Stone notes
in an essay of his own, this
argument has some
serious flaws.