The Fermi Paradox

1176 Words5 Pages

The Fermi Paradox The Fermi Paradox, inaccurately attributed to physicist Enrico Fermi, suggests that if intelligent extraterrestrial life exists, there would be evidence of their visits to Earth, or presence in the galaxy and/or universe, but since there is no clear evidence, intelligent extraterrestrial life either does not exist, or some other explanation is required to explain the lack of evidence. The name of this concept improperly originates from the physicist, Enrico Fermi, who asked, “Where is everybody?”, when referring to the plausibility of interstellar travel. The question proposes that if Earth was able to develop interstellar travel, then it is plausible that other civilizations in the galaxy should be capable of developing …show more content…

The following are the premises to this argument. Initially, if there are are conditions for life to exist and evolve, it will. Biochemistry supports this premise, but it is still somewhat debatable. Additionally, there are many environments where life is capable of living and evolving. This suggests that different types of life could survive in other conditions contrary to Earth and on other planets. Finally, this concept relies on mankind being unaware of “them”, as in any intelligent extraterrestrial life. This hypothesis states that it is more likely in the galaxy for there to be life of differing intelligence than what is on Earth. Statistically, life of comparable intelligence is unlikely. Extraterrestrial life that is primitive to humanity is more likely to die off, so extraterrestrial life that is more advanced than humanity would be the only life capable of communication with humans,if they chose to do so. The Zoo Hypothesis suggests that extraterrestrials consciously have chosen not to be in contact with humanity. Based on the premises of this theory and the likelyhood of the type of civilizations that may exist, “they”, or extraterrestrials do not want humans to be aware of “them”; it also suggests that humans live on earth in a zoo-like state, similar to a national forest or wildlife reserve, in order to develop naturally with the extraterrestrial life of superior of intelligence, to …show more content…

It has two possible solutions. One solution considers that intelligent extraterrestrials do not exist, and the other solution considers a variety of hypotheses that consider that intelligent extraterrestrials do exist, but there is a reason beyond the lack of evidence. Physicists Michael Hart and Frank Tipler argue for the lack of intelligent extraterrestrial life, claiming that they are nonexistent in the galaxy and/or universe and all other reasonings for the lack of evidence regarding their existence are inaccurate. Other hypotheses suggest that intelligent extraterrestrial life does exist and their is an explanation for the lack of evidence. The Zoo Theory claims that intellectual extraterrestrials do not want their presence be known to humanity and that humanity lives in a somewhat zoo like environment that “they” observe. The Aestivation Hypothesis theorizes that extraterrestrial civilizations go into a state of aestivation in order to utilize lower temperatures at a later cosmic time. Overall, it is unclear whether or not intelligent extraterrestrial life exist, but later research and expeditions may answer this question, The Fermi