If this is the case, where are the other lifeforms? There are many proposed solutions to the paradox. Some suggest that while the ingredients for life are common, actually getting them together to produce complex forms is extremely rare or even unique to Earth. Similarly, others suggest that what is rare is the "intelligent" bit of the mystery, rather than the complex part.
It's also possible that intelligent beings lack ways to communicate with us or they do so in a manner that we can't detect.
Or perhaps we are in the early days of intelligent life's evolution in the cosmos. This argument breaks down a little under the idea that if there are a large number of extraterrestrial civilisations all it would take is one to break the rules and make themselves known.
The probability increases with the number of civilisations, one naughty schoolchild in the class who lets a tadpole escape the tank. This is the idea that if a civilisation is advanced enough to master interstellar travel they are likely to be advanced enough to be here on Earth and conceal themselves successfully. Or perhaps they are just unacknowledged, there have been many claimed UFO sightings over the years, just go ahead and google UFO at your own risk of getting fixated and then suddenly realising 5 hours have passed.
Now I love a good government conspiracy theory as much as the next person but I have an inkling that the reason transcends the personal interests of the human race. They have mastered artificial intelligence and technology to the point that they no longer live in their previous physical form, or the physical reality as we know it.
So the idea of the physical reality and sending physical signals that we can detect is well… rather beneath them. Perhaps we think too highly of ourselves. Are we rare, special, naive, stupid, isolated… who knows.
Pingback: Where is everyone? I think that most of the reasons are plausible! Maybe one day we will actually find out if there is anyone out there, who knows? Really interesting post! Like Liked by 1 person. Yes, SETI focuses on electromagnetic signals and perhaps this is a very big assumption on our part which is holding us back! Like Like. To believe that there is no other life out there out of the billions and billions of stars and galaxies in the universe is a bit ludicrous. Which one? But there is compelling evidence in our ancient history, that we have been visited by other beings on numerous occasions and even interacted with those beings.
Always a fun topic to discuss! Like Liked by 2 people. I find it peculiar that somehow the existence of life gives a reason for the universe as if, somehow, the reason for the discovery of fire was to warm our houses in wintertime. Fire, and the universe with all its dynamics simply is and reason plays no part in its existence. If we assume the universe has a purpose then I really like your first point, I actually had not thought of it like that before! According to astronomical observation there are a lot of organic chemicals floating around so I suspect life might be quite common.
Considering the huge stupidity of our current political leaders involving global warming and eagerness to start nuclear conflicts the automatic suicide of civilizations that reach our stage of development looks like a real possibility.
It has been indicated by recent reports that Venus which is a current hell of temperature and corrosive chemicals was once quite welcoming to life with water and other favorable factors, Perhaps if we can fabricate a Venus lander that would last more than a few minutes on the surface we could discover indications of a civilization that, like us, pretty much ignored the danger of a CO2 buildup and destroyed their planet, much as we are doing today to ours.
Thanks Jiisand — may well be, depressing as the second is! Before species can advance to an interplanetary level all they have to work with is the resources on their host rock and there are many selfish actions as you mention with humans being as the example at least that can get in the way of using these resources efficiently — leading inevitably to our own destruction and ceasing advancement.
Again, so well written. For me, I am more of the idea that other intelligent life in the universe has evolved beyond where we are, perhaps able to flow between different dimensions.
Wishing you a great week ahead. Thank you very much indeed! Yes the ant and the highway metaphor resounds quite strongly with me on this point of view, as smart as we think we are we may well just be completely oblivious to the workings of what else is out there. Which big filter type do you prefer by the way? The biological filter or the idea of periodic extinction events?
Have a great week too! I think several of your suggestions are possible, but if I had to pick one which is difficult I would currently choose that we are just not looking at the right place at the right time.
So, I think it is arguable that it is mostly due to. I do not think that an advanced civilisation would only transmit its presence using e. If we ever developed such a technology, I doubt that we would assume all other civilisations also had that technology; we would continue to announce our presence with EM radiation.
Excellent points, thanks very much RhEvans and for the share. I definitely need to get myself a copy of Contact and have some more of Carl Sagan in my life. Yes you raise a very good point at the end there as well, if a civilisation wanted to achieve contact you would think that they would use the least advanced form of signalling to maximise probability of communication which does, logically weaken that point significantly.
I would recommend the book, but watch the movie first and then the book will impress you even more, as it is more complex than the movie could be. How coincidental! Ok I need to get a copy of this and I have Contact up next on my film watch list — thank you Rhodri! I downloaded the Kindle version after reading the review. I look forward to hearing your reaction to watching Contact. Yes they both have the excellent mind of Kip Thorne behind the physics and Matthew McConaughey as the lead character funnily enough!
I think Jodie Foster may not agree with you about Contact. A great article, you pretty much summed up every theory out there. The argument you gave about how if one of them slips, their cover is blown will only be valid if we are under observation from many different civilizations. Considering that the chance of having many intelligent forms given all the things that need to come together for that to happen is low, I doubt we are under observation by more than life forms.
Conspiracy theories really are very enticing. True true, though I wonder why it is that the life forms if that were the case chose us to be the observation target and mutually keep the secret. That leaves the possibility for hundreds, if not thousands of developed civilizations nearby. If one were particularly ambitious and had some decent sort of ability to travel between star systems, they could easily colonize the entire galaxy within a million years or so.
However, there is a profound lack of scientific evidence for extraterrestrial life, even within our solar system. So that begs the question: Where is everyone? That is the essence of the Fermi Paradox. Named for the physicist Enrico Fermi, who asked just that back in , it presents a unique and provocative way of pondering the universe around us.
There has been quite a lot of thought put into possible solutions, and not surprisingly, they are a rich source of inspiration for sci-fi, including Star Trek.
Take, for example, the Kardashev Scale that helps group civilizations into three distinct categories based on how much energy they use. This is an indicator as to how advanced they are, and how likely they are to be out exploring the universe. A Type I civilization has succeeded in harnessing all the energy of their host planet. While it might seem that such a feat is a long way off for the burgeoning human civilization at this point, generous estimates assume that we are perhaps three-quarters of the way there.
No doubt humanity has come a long way in its short existence, but it still has a long way to go before reaching this admirable goal, and I do believe the Vulcans, should they be out there, would agree. The act of building and harnessing enough power to create and implement a warp engine with an antimatter-matter power source would place our futuristic friends in the Star Trek universe firmly in this category. The next stage, Type II civilization, would be one where it has managed to harness all the energy of its local star.
An example of a fully realized Type II civilization would be the creators of the Dyson Sphere as encountered by the crew of the Enterprise D in the episode Relics. While Freeman Dyson, the originator of the idea, never took it all that seriously, he did find the depiction in the episode delightful.
This may be the first time life has been allowed to evolve, uninterrupted by cosmic threats and astrological disasters, into an advanced civilization. On the face of it, this possibility may be terrifying; we could allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by an intergalactic loneliness. On the other hand, this insight could contribute to a positive transformation of how we perceive and treat one another as living beings. It can motivate us to treat our planet and all life that lives on it with the recognition that we will not find such prosperity elsewhere in the cosmos.
In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. All Rights Reserved. Singularity University is not a degree granting institution.
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