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Everyone has debated the existence of aliens with their friends at one point or another. Inevitably, during these arguments, someone brings up the fact that the universe is so vast that it’s a near-certainty that intelligent life must exist somewhere out there other than Earth.
This argument has some validity as some of the world’s leading scientists agree with it. However, if this is true, then why haven’t we been able to make contact with aliens yet? Why haven’t we been visited by an alien spaceship — or at least received an alien transmission? Is the fact that we haven’t gotten in touch with extraterrestrials proof that intelligent life doesn’t exist out there? Or are the aliens aware of our existence and giving us the cold shoulder?
This apparent contradiction between the high probability of the existence of intelligent life somewhere else in the universe and the fact that human beings haven’t found any solid evidence to support their existence has been named the “Fermi Paradox.” In other words, if it’s so likely that aliens are out there, why haven’t we found them yet? Why haven’t they found us?
There are many hypothetical explanations for the existence of this paradox, many of them seemingly valid. However, as of now, there’s no way to know whether there aren’t any big-headed green people out there or if they’re there and just not contacting us.
Examining the Fermi paradox brings up some interesting questions about humanity’s place in the universe, human nature itself, and what life on other planets might look like. Let’s take a journey through the universe and see if these damn aliens are nonexistent or if they just don’t f*ck with us humans.
The Drake Equation
At the foundation of the paradox is the Drake equation. It was developed by Frank Drake in 1961 as a systematic way of trying to evaluate the probability of extraterrestrial life using a number of factors.
Without going too deep into the exact parameters of the equation, you should know that it took into account the rate of formation of stars; the percentage of those stars with planetary systems; the percentage of those planets with environments suitable for organic life; the percentage of those suitable planets where organic life actually exists; the fraction of those planets with organic life where intelligent life exists; the percentage of those intelligent populations that reach a point of technological advancement where they can dispatch receivable signals; and the length of time that those signals are dispatched.
In some estimates, the results of the Drake equation seem very optimistic that there is intelligent life out there sending signals. However, in other estimates, the occurrence of such civilizations seems incredibly unlikely.
It’s hard to say who’s right. The fact that humanity has yet to make contact with any alien civilization seems to support the more pessimistic results. However, the Fermi paradox seems to take the stance that the existence of extraterrestrial life is highly probable. Let’s take a look at the conditions that give rise to this apparent paradox.
The Fermi Paradox
The Fermi paradox relies heavily on the truthfulness of a series of facts and some hypotheses. The first is that there are billions of stars similar to the Sun present in the Milky Way. We can say with a high degree of probability that some of these stars have Earth-like planets orbiting them. Some of these stars are far older than the Sun, meaning that some of the Earth-like planets in their orbits may have developed life long ago.
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Some of these civilizations that existed on other planets may have developed interstellar travel, a technology that we humans are looking into now. Even though interstellar travel is slow, the Milky Way galaxy could be traversed in a few million years. And, since many of the stars in the Milky Way are billions of years older than the Sun, Earth should have already been visited by extraterrestrial life or, at least, by their probes. However, there is no evidence that this has ever happened.
So, what’s going on? Why haven’t we been visited by aliens? Or have we been visited and we just don’t know? Let’s look at some of the possible explanations for the Fermi paradox.
Intelligent Life Is Rare
Many people believe that the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life is nearly impossible due to the fact that the conditions necessary for the creation of life, and the subsequent transition from single-cellular life to multicellular life, are extremely rare. This proposed explanation is known as the “rare Earth hypothesis” and it maintains that complex multicellular is very uncommon and possibly even entirely unique throughout the universe.
There’s also the consideration that while other intelligent life is probably out there, they haven’t been able to develop the necessary technology for interstellar communication yet. Developing big brains and the appendages that are needed to create complex tools is not a necessary outcome of evolution. For instance, dolphins have been around for about 20 million years and, as intelligent as they are, you don’t see them swimming around with cell phones.
Intelligent Life Emerged and Was Destroyed
There is another theory that intelligent life has arisen, but that it was destroyed before the species could reach a stage in which they were able to achieve communication with other intelligent species. One such reason for this might be the periodic occurrence of catastrophic natural events. For example, the wiping out of the dinosaurs on Earth (whether it was by a meteoric impact, a spike in volcanic activity, or gamma-ray bursts) is such an event. Maybe the dinosaurs would have figured out how to contact aliens by now if they hadn’t all been destroyed.
There is also the theory that intelligent species have a tendency to destroy themselves before they can achieve communication with other intelligent life. The possible reasons for self-annihilation include climate change, war, resource depletion, environmental contamination, or poorly designed artificial intelligence (think Ex Machina). The idea is that one of these destructive events will occur before the civilization is able to bridge the gap of interplanetary communication.
Aliens Don’t Want to Talk
There’s another possibility that aliens simply aren’t interested in talking. We human beings have a natural tendency to want to expand our horizons, colonize, and know whether or not we are alone in the universe.
However, we can’t say with any degree of certainty that this is a shared trait across all intelligent life. Imagine a civilization of hyper-intelligent beings descended from hermit crabs. They might have the intellectual power to easily communicate with species all across the universe — but just prefer their privacy.
Then there’s the possibility that other civilizations out there are currently communicating, but are leaving humanity out of the conversation. These aliens are giving us the cold shoulder. To be honest, we humans haven’t exactly been very kind to each other since the dawn of our race.
It’s possible that extraterrestrials may have been monitoring Earth, seen all the wars and countless other atrocities that we’ve committed against one another, and decided that they’d rather have nothing to do with us. It’s a bit of a self-deprecating concept, but perhaps it’s the kick in the butt we need to start being a little more civil toward one another.
