Editing Mediocrity principle (section)

{{Short description|Philosophical concept}}
{{one source|date=December 2012}}

The '''mediocrity principle''' is the [[philosophical]] notion that "if an item is drawn at random from one of several sets or categories, it's more likely to come from the most numerous category than from any one of the less numerous categories".<ref name="Kukla2009">{{cite book |first=A. |last=Kukla |year=2009 |title=Extraterrestrials: A Philosophical Perspective |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=9780739142455 |lccn=2009032272 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZkdqTFVNwmgC&pg=PA20 |page=20}}</ref> The principle has been taken to suggest that there is nothing very unusual about the [[Formation and evolution of the Solar System|evolution of the Solar System]], [[Earth's history]], the [[evolution of biological complexity]], [[human evolution]], or any one [[nation]]. It is a [[heuristic]] in the vein of the [[Copernican principle]], and is sometimes used as a philosophical statement about the place of humanity. The idea is to assume mediocrity, rather than starting with the assumption that a phenomenon is special, privileged, exceptional, or even [[supremacism|superior]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/science/principle-of-mediocrity|title=astrobiology: principle of mediocrity |website=Britannica}}</ref><ref name=MediocrePZ>{{cite web|url=http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_12.html#myerspz|title=THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2011 — Page 12|access-date=2011-04-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617103245/https://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_12.html#myerspz|archive-date=2017-06-17|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[David Bates (physicist)|David Bates]] ascribed the mediocrity principle to [[Sebastian von Hoerner]],<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Bates |first=D. R. |date=1972 |title=Communication with galactic civilizations |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9112/23/1/013 |magazine=Physics Bulletin |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=26–29 |doi=10.1088/0031-9112/23/1/013 |issn=0031-9112}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=von Hoerner |first=Sebastian |title=Interstellar Communication: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life; A Collection of Reprints and Original Contributions |publisher=Benjamin |year=1963 |editor-last=Cameron |editor-first=A. G. W. |location=New York |pages=272}}</ref> who as early as 1961 wrote the following:<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Von Hoerner |first=Sebastian |date=1961 |title=The Search for Signals from Other Civilizations |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1707703 |magazine=Science |volume=134 |issue=3493 |pages=1839–1843 |jstor=1707703 |issn=0036-8075}}</ref><ref group=notes>In a footnote, von Hoerner thanked [[Frank Donald Drake|F. D. Drake]] for his input on the subject.</ref>
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Because we have no knowledge whatsoever about other civilizations, we have to rely completely on assumptions. The one basic assumption we want to make can be formulated in a general way:

::: Anything seemingly unique and peculiar to us is actually one out of many and is probably average.
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