The Fermi Paradox - if life is common in the Universe, wouldn’t some be way ahead of us, and have contacted us by now?
A few possibilities:
- We are too dim-witted to be worth talking to. We are not much interested in negotiating with most other species less intelligent than us.
- the speed of light may be a fundamental physical barrier. The vast distances may fundamentally isolate us.
- We may be on the leading edge of the development of intelligence - perhaps the first to awaken. The book that I referenced in an earlier post, “the Life of Super-Earths”, laid out an interesting analysis of the timeline since the Big Bang. The great bulk of the time is required for matter to coalesce into stars, and for the heavier elements to form, allowing complex chemistry that could form complex organisms.
The estimates of the times required, indicates that we are indeed on the theoretical leading edge of the development of life, on a Universal scale. It doesn’t rule out another civilization being ten million years ahead of us, but it does indicate that we could well be on the leading edge.
The odds that we are the leading edge are tantamount to saying we are alone in the universe. I would argue that the odds are astronomical (pun) that we are the leading edge. Much more likely that we are indeed alone. Speed of light is a barrier? How? The fact that we see quasars billions of light years away proves that the light got HERE. The nearest solar system is 4 or 5 light years away. AI doesn’t care about time, it improves with time. When AI arrives it signals back: NO LIFE FOUND, and moves on. More likely that future ships will catch and pass the first ships, arriving and waiting for their slower cousins.
Actually, considering the typical astro/evo scenario, advanced life should easily be 10 million years ahead of us is some areas of the universe. Possibly even a hundred million years. Our evolutionary process had many bumps and starts. Imagine a system that had a linear path to today... We are these pikers?