The Fermi Paradox

SETI Institute ^

[EBH]

Is there some evidence suggesting that humans are the Galaxy’s only intelligent species? Enrico Fermi thought so – and he was a pretty smart guy. Could he be right?

In 1950, the famous physicist made a seemingly innocuous lunchtime remark that has caught and held the attention of every SETI researcher since. The utterance came while Fermi was discussing with his mealtime mates the reasonable possibility that many sophisticated societies populate the Galaxy. But somewhere between one sentence and the next, Fermi’s supple brain realized that if this was true, it implied something profound. If there are really a lot of alien societies, then some of them might have spread out.

Fermi grasped that any civilization with a modest amount of rocket technology and an immodest amount of imperial incentive could rapidly colonize the entire Galaxy. Within a few tens of millions of years, every star system could be brought under the wing of empire. Tens of millions of years may sound like a long project, but in fact it’s quite short compared to the age of the Galaxy, which is roughly a thousand times more.

So what Fermi immediately recognized was that the aliens have had more than enough time to pepper the Galaxy with their presence. But looking around, we don’t see any clear indication that they’re out and about. We don’t see any obvious evidence of a galactic empire or a United Federation of Planets.

This prompted Fermi to ask what was (to him) an obvious question: “where is everybody?”

[EBH]

From a Saturday morning radio talk show I was listening to this morning. The host found it terribly disconcerting to think ...earth really is all alone...

[HYPOCRACY]

Aliens would be gross and creepy. Glad we’re alone.

[BipolarBob]

You can’t see them because of their advanced cloaking technology.

[Enterprise]

Earth is a penal colony. We’re here because everyone else doesn’t want their children near us.

[Paladin2]

Even America is half crazed.

QED

[Fai Mao]

That sounds like something Douglas Adams would write

[rbg81]

I always thought that the real explanation is that “intelligence” are far more fragile than we expect and may have a very short shelf life. Eventually something happens to sabotage it. Like maybe nuclear war, pandemics, natural disasters (including asteroids), and out-of-control AI. It could also be something more mundane and ideological....Marxism? Or it could be that the race just becomes so nhilistic that it just degenerates into oblivion (e.g., Mouse Utopia).

[discostu]

Space is big. That’s where everybody is. If our very first radio transmission ever was strong enough to remain detectable in space (which it wasn’t, not even close, we weren’t hitting things that hard until early in the 20th century) less than 1% of the Milky Way galaxy could detect we’re here. And we don’t have the technology to be able to detect ourselves from more than about 20 light years away.

It would be sad if were were alone. It’s a big universe, what a waste of space to only have one marginally intelligent species in it.

[EnderWiggin1970]

From a Judeo-Christian perspective, the "whole of creation" is groaning from the curse brought down by Adam (Romans 8:22). That wouldn't be right to have other sentient species suffering from our misbehavior. And the whole of creation will be restored with the return of Christ. So that would seem to rule out sentient life besides our own (and angels/demons).

On a secular side, one can challenge the Fermi paradox by pointing out that interstellar colonization is not so easy as most people assume. One would have to send a large enough vessel to have self-sustaining, technologically advanced population able to replicate everything technological, maintain genetic health and so on, with the energy to go fast enough to reach other stars without being slowly destroyed by high-speed micro-impacts along the way. So far it is a real stretch of faith to imagine such a thing is possible, with all imagined examples involving some level of fiction.

[HYPOCRACY]

Thanks for the pyramids now don’t come back.

[marktwain]

Perhaps it is God’s plan to have humanity serve as his agent to spread life throughout the cosmos.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Unless aliens reveal themselves to us, we will never know the answer to the question , as to whether there is life in the universe.

With our technology now , there’s no way we could ever travel to other solar systems to explore those planets to see if life is there.

[EBH]

I also find it funny that we can send pictures and data from distant planets...

[Wally_Kalbacken]

“Hello, United Federation of Alien Beings, how can I help you?”

[edwinland]

If aliens choose to hide themselves from us and to reveal themselves only to a select few counties in New Jersey, who are we to judge?

[Stosh]

Well, if they’re all out there how come we have to send Chuck Berry to them and they’re not sending any Chuck Berry to us?

[Chainmail]

Life, it turns out, is not all that easy to create. I seriously doubt that there are other worlds out the "teeming with life" much less sentient life.

Meanwhile, we wasted how many billions on a Mars rover looking for signs of life? Haven't found any have we?

Are scientists really idiots?

[Enterprise]

I am honored!

[Enterprise]

LOL!!!