Fermi Paradox Explained | COSMOS in a minute #40

The Fermi Paradox is one of the great unsolved mysteries of astronomy. It asks the question: if there are so many stars in the universe, why haven't we found any signs of intelligent alien life? There are a few possible explanations for Fermi's Paradox. The Rare Earth hypothesis proposes that the conditions necessary for intelligent life are extremely rare in the universe. Conversely, the Zoo hypothesis suggests that extraterrestrial civilizations exist but avoid contact to allow for natural evolution and sociocultural development.

Another solution is the Great Filter theory, arguing that at some point from pre-life to a Type three civilization that’s capable of galactic colonization, a barrier exists that is incredibly unlikely or impossible for most life to overcome. If such a filter exists, the key question becomes whether humanity has passed it yet or it still lies in our future.

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[davidnagore]

My solution is a variant of the zoo theory. They avoid us because, in a galactic sense, our solar system is that neighborhood where you roll up your windows when you have to drive through it.

[engineeringartist]

And then there's option 4, the real answer: Intelligent life that may want to interact with us is too far away to do so.

[TheSciGuy]

I believe that the real reason we have not found evidence of intelligent life yet, is because we are simply too early. What i mean is that life on earth emerged as soon as the conditions in the universe were suitable, so we exist at a point in time where intelligent life has not yet advanced any further than humans. This basically means all the aliens just have not advanced far enough to be able to communicate through the vast distances of space so we can detect it.

[SpencerP]

Everything we can see is so far away that we’re seeing how it was billions of years ago. At any point since then civilizations could’ve arose and could’ve fallen, but we won’t know until that light reaches us.

[whySoSerious-ql]

Might be possible that even if there is an alien civilization which is for example is thousands or millions of light years away, suppose if they have an advanced telescope which can zoom into earth in that case for them the earth will be looking like thousands or million years old when humans didn't existed at that time.

[RonaldJUllom]

Trust me, we have tons of evidence of extraterrestrial life. My first experience was when I was 9 years old. It was an encounter with Telepathic Grey's and was a close encounter of the 3rd kind. My Mother and I witnessed it first hand.

I am a retired civilian All-Source Naval Intelligence Research Specialist Foreign Military Systems Analyst.

I am glad that Congress held hearings which revealed a lot of what I know but certainly no all.

We are definitely not alone in this Universe and certainly not alone in the Infinite Universes too.

[hearmeright]

One physicists had a pretty good explanation. Imagine going to a sea and scooping out a cup of water, yeah you will very likely don't find any fish in that water. Now imagine that the part of the universe we can observe is like that cup of water, then it's also very unlikely to find any greater lifeform

[stevegraham]

The other paradox... there is a mental asylum in your neighbourhood, but you are intelligent enough not to try and interact with the nutcases inside.

[Cazi]

I think the most probable answer has to do with the enormously vast distances between galaxies and even solar systems. I think for example that aliens would probably need to get quite close to us before they'd be able to tell we're here and the same goes the other way around.

[cuttingcoffee]

There are so many people on this planet why haven’t we found a ideal way of life

[ItsMeBonnieBillionz]

We don't even know what is in our own deep

[JJforShie]

Distance. The incompressible distances in the universe explain why we haven’t found anything coupled with modern science only being 500 years old

[davidaras]

I think we’re on the cusp of our great filter event.

[Tornado]

I honestly hope the second one is right. As much as I hate humanity, it would be nice to (somehow) know about aliens that won't hurt us.

[zealandia]

Solution to the Fermi Paradox:

All intelligent life in the Universe live too far between each other and too short in history. When aliens finally discover Earth, we will be long gone.

So in that sense, we are truly alone in the Universe.

[SlamifiedBuddafied]

I personally have faith that humanity full well has the capability to overcome interplanetary travel and will eventually achieve a harmony on our own planet. We just haven't hit the point where collectively as a species, an existential threat grand enough to achieve a union of human kind. We will one day cruise among the stars and hopefully find like minded beings who just want to know whether or not they're alone in this daunting but beautiful future.

[Cazi]

There is however also another possible solution, called the dark forest, which says that the everyone is staying as hidden as they possibly can (with several reasons). I do need to point out however that this is directly from Cixin Liu's Rememberence of Earth's History trilogy of books

[codyb]

It’s wild to me that people would be willing to believe the filter theory in order to avoid the fact that they have a Creator.

[mortimersnerd]

I'm guessing that the speed of light would be the "filter", and even though there may be billions of civilizations in our universe, none are capable of reaching class III level

[TalismanSarkozy]

The biggest elephant in the room in 2023 is the great filter conversation 😅