The Fermi Paradox.

[victorhadin]

The Fermi Paradox is, essentially:

"If alien civilisations exist, why haven't we encountered them or seen signs of their existence?"

-Any civilisation of a technological level even on a par with ours would likely blare out radio signals on a constant basis. We have radio telescopes which could detect anything of that order (an entire planetary civilisation's radio chatter) within the galaxy. Why haven't we?

-Any one civilisation which decides to colonise on an interstellar level could have colonised (within the speed of light and moving relatively slowly) the galaxy within a few tens of millions of years of exponential growth. Maybe 100 million at the upmost limit. We still haven't seen them, or any sign of them. Why?





What do you believe about the Fermi Paradox?




EDIT: This includes civilisations a million light years away (who may have died 500'000 years ago from a nasty flu bug for all we know) which we may detect, possibly, in the present day.

 

[Featherbop]

We probably haven't encountered them because they don't exist. I suspect that others have, and will, exist, and be the same as us. There just probably aren't any currently, except earth humans.

 

[SyntaxVorlon]

I said other and will explain from a quote from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."

The other half of this explaination is that life on this planet has only existed in its higher forms for 3-500 million years. This is after another 4 billion years of waiting. If other species are out there, they are probably less advanced, our sun is just more than a 3rd of the age of the universe. And we exist only because it was born out of the dust and gas from a previous sun which had gone novae.
So we've got two strikes against us so far. Space is big and intelligent life is probably as young or younger than we.

Oh and I'll finish with with a quote from the guide, for circularity's sake:
"On no account let a Vogon read poetry to you."

 

[Jack Lewis]

If God can create this universe in 6 days, why would he feel the need to crowd it with two sentient races, when He can just create another universe?

A plausible explination for athiests would be that some galactic civilization may have laws forbidding allowing undeveloped races to know about other civilizations, until they have developed the technology to join the more developed races. We may be isolated while they watch us to see if we screw things up, or actually prosper. Who knows maybe they even have a pool going and are taking bets.

The second answer is fun, but the first is more realistic.

 

[victorhadin]

If God can create this universe in 6 days, why would he feel the need to crowd it with two sentient races, when He can just create another universe?

A plausible explination for athiests would be that some galactic civilization may have laws forbidding allowing undeveloped races to know about other civilizations, until they have developed the technology to join the more developed races. We may be isolated while they watch us to see if we screw things up, or actually prosper. Who knows maybe they even have a pool going and are taking bets.

The second answer is fun, but the first is more realistic.

If you take something that scientifically absurd seriously, yes.

I included the 'other' option just for you, Jack. ;)

 

[Christy]

I believe that there ARE other civilizations "out there" because the mathematical odds of their existence is extraordinary. I also believe that some HAVE visited our earth because of the abundance of believable people who have seen them. I also believe that the governments of the world also know of the existence of other-worldly visitors, but they do not publish what they know for fear that we "couldn't handle it."

If anyone else is interested in this topic, listen to Coast to Coast AM on your AM radio. It is broadcast from 12:00am - 4:00am in the central time zone, so I record the program and listen to it later. I use a versicorder that allows me to tape four hours of programming on just one side of a regular tape. I don't believe everything I hear, but I like to keep current on all of man's thinking! BTW, this program has guests who talk about many more topics than just UFO's and beings from outer space. :D

 

[evanman]

Don't forget the myriad of angels!

 

[victorhadin]

Probably the most scary aspect of the Fermi Paradox is the idea that civilisations are out there but keeping silent deliberately, with forethought. Given the mechanics of possible interstellar colonisation and the attraction that coherent radio signals would pose to a colonising species, this is perhaps not all that far-fetched.