If you believe in the possibility of intelligent life in space how do you explain Fermi's paradox?

Question

Where are they?

Answer 1

I don't have a clue what Fermi's paradox is, but it seems improbable that in all the universe there isn't at least one planet that has some form of life.

Answer 2

The Fermi paradox is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence of contact with such civilizations.

The extreme age of the universe and its vast number of stars suggest that extraterrestrial life should be common. Considering this with colleagues over lunch in 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi is said to have asked: "Where are they?" [1] Fermi questioned why, if a multitude of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exist in the Milky Way galaxy, evidence such as probes, spacecraft or radio transmissions has not been found. The simple question "Where are they?" (alternatively, "Where is everybody?") is possibly apocryphal, but Fermi is widely credited with simplifying and clarifying the problem of the probability of extraterrestrial life.

There have been attempts to resolve the Fermi Paradox by locating evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations, along with proposals that such life could exist without human knowledge. Counterarguments suggest that intelligent extraterrestrial life does not exist or occurs so rarely that humans will never make contact with it.

A great deal of effort has gone into developing scientific theories and possible models of extraterrestrial life and the Fermi paradox has become a theoretical reference point in much of this work. The problem has spawned numerous scholarly works addressing it directly, while various questions that relate to it have been addressed in fields as diverse as astronomy, biology, ecology and philosophy. The emerging field of astrobiology has brought an interdisciplinary approach to the Fermi paradox and the question of extraterrestrial life.

Answer 3

I think we are the only intelligent life, or at least the only intelligent life able to explore the universe..(or just about to explore the universe anyway). Other intelligence is either extremely rare, and/or simply does not have the resources or right set of circumstances to do the same. For example, is is entirely concievable that a race of intelligent creatures could evolve on a planet who's mineral resources are too poor in the right minerals to alllow advanced technology. Maybe iron is rare near the surface, or maybe the atmosphere doesn't allow for easy combustion, so no fire, so they never got past the stone age. Who knows? Its also possible we are the first period, but I hope that's not true.

Answer 4

The entire argument in favor of extraterrestrial intelligence is that because space is so large, even something as improbable as the rise of intelligent life is almost certain to occur more than once. But for that life to contact us, it would have to be very close. Pretend for a minute that there is a civilization identical to ours 100 light years away. How would we know they were there? Spacecraft? Yeah, right--our spaceships haven't gotten much farther that our own Solar System. Intentional broadcasts? We didn't start those until the 1970's--the signal couldn't travel more than 30 light years. Radio and TV signals? Only the vey oldest radio signals could cover that distance, and they would be so diffuse as to be undetectable.

So, in other words, there could be an alien civilization as advanced as our own a mere 100 light years away, and we would have absolutely no way of knowing of each other's existance. It's entirely possible we wouldn't even be able to see one 40 light years away--just out of range of intentional signals. That may seem like a long distance, but compared to the size of the universe it's tiny.

Answer 5

If there is intelligent life in space, and I have no reason to doubt it, I think there is another way to explain why we don't see them. It has to do with the amount of energy and the amount of time that it takes to explore space vs. the amount of time and amount of energy it takes to not explore space. I don't know if there is a theorem for that, but it would seem to be that there is a natural law that should state that the cost of exploring space is very high and if a living being would not survive to make the journey then that being would choose not to go. Therefore, the reason we do not see them is that they are intelligent and have choosen to stay where they are.

Answer 6

Life in the Universe is so common that no-one bothers to go visiting 'out of town' until there's firm evidence of interesting new neighbors.

i.e. until we go out looking for them (or announce our existence) no-one will bother to come looking - those that do look will have gone away again since (so far) we are a race of totally un-interesting 'shut ins' who don't even have the technology (or the will power) to visit our own Moon on a regular basis.