The Fermi Paradox: Are we Alone?
From the first time humans looked up to the stars to when we first landed on the Moon, we have always wondered if we are alone in this universe. Though Earth is home to billions of unique species, we have still always sought to find alien life with intelligence comparable to our own. In this endless and expanding universe we reside in, there is an infinitesimally small probability that humanity is the first and only form of intelligent life. Earth is only 4.5 billion years old, minuscule compared to the 13.7 billion-year-old universe. It would only be logical for there to exist hundreds, if not thousands of intelligent alien life in the Milky Way alone, correct? But for all this, we have yet to see one. Coined by Enrico Fermi, one of history’s leading pioneers of physics, this utter contradiction of probability is known as the Fermi Paradox.
The Fermi Paradox was first formulated during the 1950s wave of interest in science fiction and technological innovation. In one of these summers, the story goes that Enrico Fermi was discussing UFOs and interstellar travel with his colleagues on his way to lunch. As one thing led to another, he began to wonder: if life is so easily created with the most basic of habitats, where are the aliens? There, the Fermi Paradox was first officially hypothesized: the juxtaposition between the high probability of alien life and the lack of clear evidence of aliens. Many have sought to explain this paradox with theories of their own. Could humans have just not discovered proof of their visits, or could they be living amongst us right now? However, perhaps the most simple and common explanation of this paradox is that humanity’s concept of aliens is incorrect. Popular media has made us come to the baseless but enduring conclusion that aliens are more or less equal to us in intelligence, and that they possess a form of communication similar to our own. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist, once said, “imagine a life-form whose brainpower is to ours as ours is to a chimpanzee’s.” Alien life could be communicating to us on a spiritual, transcendental level, and our civilization has not come that far to intercept these messages. Our technology is quite literally the limit to our comprehension.
A less comforting but probable theory is the Great Filter. It explains the absence of alien life in that all civilizations are inevitably doomed to collapse just before they can reach interstellar travel or communication. Already, the threats to our civilization can become apparent if one looks carefully. Global warming begins to be a more pressing and fatal event to civilization. Artificial intelligence also begins to reach headlines as our technology advances exponentially. Given what we see currently, it is not beyond reality that such a theory could become all civilizations’s reality.
Of all the paradoxes, only a few extend to the expanse the Fermi Paradox covers. However, the Fermi Paradox is unique in that an answer will be just as blood-chilling as no answer. Because whether all or none of these theories are true, both sides of the Fermi Paradox offer frightening truths: we are either all alone in this universe, or there is intelligence just around the corner. Whichever sounds better is all up to you.