5 Unsettling Solutions to the Fermi Paradox

Unraveling the Fermi Paradox: Are We Alone in the Universe? Join us as we delve into the mysteries of Fermi's question and explore mind-bending theories that challenge our understanding of extraterrestrial life.

[chrisharris]

'Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.' - Arthur C Clarke

[evocativepizza]

My best friend passed away last year and he watched your videos every day. Always talked to me about them at night. Now I watch.

[RobertGreenwald]

I have to go with the Calvin & Hobbes quote - “The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.“ - Bill Watterson

[ironxcrosss]

My absolute worst fear in this universe, in regards to finding "new" life, is that when/if we find someone, it's more humans

[JerryB]

Even with all the effort mankind has spent on 'watching the skies' for extraterrestrial life, we have barely scratched the surface.
I think it was Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson who put it bluntly, "Go out into the ocean and pull up a bucket of water. If there are no fish in the bucket, does that mean there are no fish in the ocean?"

[dann]

I swear, this guy has as many youtube channels as there are planets in the universe

[subnoizesoldier]

I have to say the gorilla using the GPS analogy was awesome perfectly explained. And I refuse to believe there’s not life out there somewhere.

[lumberfoot_jpg]

I honestly think the great filter is simply distance. Most of our current solutions rely heavily on the notion that we will one day be able to harness faster than light travel. But what if that is genuinely not a possible solution within our specie’s existence?

[Casual-Sage]

I believe it was Hawking who said you need only look at us to figure out why intelligent life might not be something you want to find

[Marconius]

Time scales may also be important here: consider how long it took humans to evolve, versus how long it took us to go from stones tools to space shuttles. This means that even a slight discrepancy could put all other civilizations hundreds of thousands of years behind us... or ahead; whether that makes them just too advanced to communicate, or too uncaring, or just eventually extinct somehow.
It's entirely possible advanced civilizations come and go, but they just never overlap in time.

[davidadams]

The universe is older and more vast than we can ever truly comprehend. The thought that we are the only, the first or the most advanced form of intelligent life in that seemingly endless sea of possibility is either ignorance or narcissism.

[Greatblue]

Really hit it out of the park on this one. From production to subject matter to delivery. A fascinating topic. Very well done. Thank you.

[FunnyHaHa]

I support the "galactic trailer park" hypothesis. It's the theory that Earth is the interstellar equivalent of the the sketchy people in a Florida trailer park. They don't let us know they are out there because if they did we might slap together a space RV and show up on their lawn like cousin Eddie wanting to "borrow" stuff all the time.

[rishyrish]

I remember a great line from the first men in black movie where k says, "Human thought is so primitive it's looked upon as an infectious disease in some of the better galaxies. That kind of makes you proud, doesn't it?"

[Lecksite]

These side project videos are fantastic. My favorite channel in YouTube currently and I'm watching a lot of them I'm glad there are a lot of these side project videos

[Davaoization]

There was a short story a content creator did not long ago that depicted humans being observed by alien species after joining them among the stars and they talked about how they breathe what they consider to be toxic gas and drink poisonous liquids to sustain themselves that was interesting to think about. I put this in the same vein as the "all the wrong places" theory.

[vladyvhv]

Another side of the Dark Forest theory is that perhaps there are no "hawks in the sky", but everyone's afraid there might be. Same result, just a little less unsettling. Fear of the unknown can be a powerful thing.

[godofchaoskhorne]

Part of the dark forest is also the not knowing. You don't know if that alien civ will be friendly. Let's say you're friendly and want to make friends, peace and love and stuff. But the other side isn't and tries to wipe you out the moment you make contact. So there is no reason for other civs to give each other even a chance instead of preemptively trying to wipe the other out before the other notices you're there and possibly wipes you out

[Squeaky_Ben]

I feel like we can circumvent the problem that "We cannot communicate" quite simply:
We have a massive surplus of things we want to get rid of, namely nukes in this case.
Building a facility in space with a large parabolic mirror of like 3-5 km diameter, where we detonate nuclear weapons at the focal point would serve as a great way of sending signals:
-The pulse energy is high enough to not be consumed by noise easily
-The pulse is not narrowed to one wavelength and is rather broadband (IR, visible light, Gamma radiation, XRays, Radiowaves, etc) meaning it can be detected with a variety of instruments
-We can repeat these pulses for a LOOOONG time (while simultaneously getting rid of the nuclear arsenal, so we are less at risk of exterminating ourselves)

The only problem I potentially see is if this is seen as an attack and not an attempt of communication.

[ghaznavid]

The biggest issue would be distance. If the nearest intelegent life is 500 light years away, which isn't far on a universe scale, even if they are listening with compatible technology, our first signal won't have reached them yet.