Our species will have a longevity between 205,100 and 8 million years and we will not colonize the galaxy. These were some of the many conclusions that J. Richard Gott III drew in his article ” Implications of the Copernicus principle for our future .”
Although they may seem strange, these estimates are not at all extraordinary if we look at them through the eyes of the Copernicus principle, which teaches us that it is a mistake to assume that we occupy a privileged position in the Universe.
Our little planet, orbiting a fairly ordinary star in a normal galaxy, is little special. A proper use of this notion allows to estimate easily and with great precision the duration of different events, in particular of our own species.