When Enrico Fermi uttered the words, “Where is everybody?” he was succinctly summarizing what has become known as the Fermi paradox. In short: in a galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars, each of which having billions of years to spawn life and civilization, isn’t it odd that none have made themselves apparent to us. Enrico Fermi was, supposedly, using this as an argument against the plausibility of interstellar travel. If aliens can travel between the stars, why haven’t they visited? But the paradox is much broader than this. There are several ways that an advanced civilization could give away their presence. Radio transmissions, robotic probes, or star-blotting solar arrays. A series of very recent surveys of our galaxy reveal none of the above, while at the same time proving the abundance of potentially habitable worlds. The Fermi paradox has become only more paradoxical, and these surveys are finally powerful enough to draw some serious conclusions about the rarity of advanced civilizations AND about the chance of us ever becoming one.
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Vinnie Falco
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Donal Botkin
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Martha Hunt
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JJ Bagnell
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Joseph Emison
Josh Thomas
Kevin Warne
Malte Ubl
Mark Vasile
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Nicholas Rose
Nick Virtue
Scott Gossett
Shannan Catalano
Shawn Azman
Tommy Mogensen
سلطان الخليفي)
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The silence of the galaxy and the resulting Fermi Paradox has perplexed us for nearly 50 years. But our most recent surveys of the Milky Way finally allow us to draw scientific conclusions about the depressingly persistent absence of aliens.
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When Enrico Fermi uttered the words, “Where is everybody?” he was succinctly summarizing what has become known as the Fermi paradox. In short: in a galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars, each of which having billions of years to spawn life and civilization, isn’t it odd that none have made themselves apparent to us. Enrico Fermi was, supposedly, using this as an argument against the plausibility of interstellar travel. If aliens can travel between the stars, why haven’t they visited? But the paradox is much broader than this. There are several ways that an advanced civilization could give away their presence. Radio transmissions, robotic probes, or star-blotting solar arrays. A series of very recent surveys of our galaxy reveal none of the above, while at the same time proving the abundance of potentially habitable worlds. The Fermi paradox has become only more paradoxical, and these surveys are finally powerful enough to draw some serious conclusions about the rarity of advanced civilizations AND about the chance of us ever becoming one.
Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters:
Big Bang
Justin Lloyd
Anton Lifshits
CoolAsCats
David Nicklas
Fabrice Eap
Juan Benet
Quasar
Dean Fuqua
James Flowers
Mark Rosenthal
Roman Pinchuk
Tambe Barsbay
Vinnie Falco
Hypernova
Chuck Zegar
Dan Harris
Donal Botkin
Edmund Fokschaner
John Hofmann
Jordan Young
Joseph Salomone
Martha Hunt
Matthew O’Connor
Ratfeast
Thanks to our Patreon Gamma Ray Burst Supporters:
Alexander Rodriguez
Alexey Eromenko
Brandon Cook
Brandon Labonte
Daniel Lyons
David Crane
Fabian Olesen
Fauzan Ardhana
Greg Allen
Greg Weiss
Jack Frosch
James Hughes
JJ Bagnell
Jon Folks
Joseph Emison
Josh Thomas
Kevin Warne
Malte Ubl
Mark Vasile
Nathan Leniz
Nicholas Rose
Nick Virtue
Scott Gossett
Shannan Catalano
Shawn Azman
Tommy Mogensen
سلطان الخليفي
