The Fermi Paradox Has An Incredibly Simple Solution

The Fermi Paradox has been a topic of keen debate amongst scientists, astronomers and the rest of us for more than seven decades. We can't resist the urge to speculate about aliens! But what is the paradox even really about? What explanations have been offered? Today, we explore this famous question, and offer a mind-shifting explanation.

Written and presented by Prof David Kipping.

THANK-YOU to our supporters D. Smith, M. Sloan, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, A. Jones, S. Brownlee, N. Kildal, Z. Star, E. West, T. Zajonc, C. Wolfred, L. Skov, G. Benson, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, M. Forbes, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, J. Rockett, D. Murphree, S. Hannum, T. Donkin, K. Myers, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Black, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, K. Weber, S. Marks, L. Robinson, S. Roulier, B. Smith, G. Canterbury, J. Cassese, J. Kruger, S. Way, P. Finch, S. Applegate, L. Watson, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, E. Dessoi, J. Alexander, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, C. Hays, W. Evans, D. Bansal, J. Curtin, J. Sturm, RAND Corp., M. Donovan, N. Corwin, M. Mangione, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, G. Genova, R. Provost, B. Sigurjonsson, G. Fullwood, B. Walford, J. Boyd, N. De Haan, J. Gillmer, R. Williams, E. Garland, A. Leishman, A. Phan Le, R. Lovely, M. Spoto, A. Steele, M. Varenka, K. Yarbrough, A. Cornejo, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, G. Bylinsky, J. Werner, B. Pearson, S. Thayer & T. Edris.

::References::

::Music::
► Falls - Life in Binary (9:38)
► Joachim Heinrich - Y (25:01)

::Chapters::
00:00 Introduction
01:22 A Brief History
06:13 Two Fermi Paradoxes
08:16 Sponsorship
09:38 The Eerie Silence
11:56 Direct Fermi Paradox
15:11 Capability?
18:38 Motivation?
20:53 Anthropicism
25:01 Extragalactic SETI
27:17 Outro & credits

#fermiparadox #aliens #seti

[brianarbenz]

Imagine finding out that Fermi was only commenting on the slow service by the wait staff when he asked, “Where is everybody?”

[LuciFeric]

The universe is likely many orders of magnitude larger than we can see. What we've done so far is like looking for fish in a teaspoon of seawater.

[pak-man]

This reminds me of a joke I heard once.
Some aliens are passing Earth and do a quick scan. One says, " This species has satellite base weapons." So the other alien ask, " So they are an intelligent species?" The first alien replies with " No, they have them aimed at each other." It a little dark.

[wilson]

I've always contributed it to the fact that the universe is so unfathomably large that the distance between life forms is just beyond comprehension

[MrCovi]

I heard a really interesting solution to the fermi paradox from a biologist. She was citing a recent paper where we found that phosphorus is not as common in the galaxy as we initially thought. In fact we have somewhat of a lottery winner here on earth with drastically high amounts as compared to other star systems. Phosphorus is a key ingredient in the storing and transferal of biological energy all the way down to the level of binding DNA together. She said that the paper she had read stated that phosphorus is one of those heavier elements that are formed in supernovae instead of just from fusion and so it is possible that, despite the age of the universe, there has not been enough time necessary to create enough phosphorus for other life to arise. And just like how we're "lucky" to be on the planet that has essential liquid water, we could simply be "lucky" to be in the corner of the universe, in the corner of the galaxy, which has just high enough concentrations for life to have formed here.
If that were the case, then we are the precursors who will likely die out as a species long before enough phosphorus is created to support the types of galactic communities we dream of. It may very well be that eons from now, as the universe begins to evolve space faring civilizations, that our ruins are discovered scattered across the stars, and they translate our records of how alone we feel.

[carmenmccauley]

Its timing. Timing. If you were in the Andromeda galaxy pointing at earth and saying " i think there is life on that planet", you would be wrong every day for the first one billion years of Earth's existence. Wrong every day for one billion years is substantial.

[KeithMoon]

I've probably watched hundreds of videos on the Fermi Paradox, and it's so great to see something actually added to the conversation. Someone with something new to say, instead of just essentially reading out the Wikipedia page. Thank you!

[phillipprak]

Imagine being an alien and wondering the exact same things that we are and just not having technology to reach us or communicate with us. The topic around aliens always revolves around the idea that there’s so much more technologically advanced than we are when in theory, they could be doing and wondering, the exact same things we are “where is everybody?”

[Radhaugo]

100 years ago we were still traveling by boat while only 20% of the population could read and write. This space party is just getting started.

[kylesadirtbag]

This is waaay too interesting to view at 3am and expect to go to sleep… I blame you for my insomnia

[skye]

"when was the last time you tried to converse with an insect" great line

[mikekolokowsky]

There’s several things that most people miss.
1) Jupiter didn’t suck all the rocky worlds up. Most systems with planets are hot Jupiters. We would have been one, but Saturn lured Jupiter out, and it acted as a protector not a destroyer.
2) Oxygen didn’t always exist in such quantities in the atmosphere. It was a by-product of early plants. But it gives animals a chemical pathway to burn energy and for fire to exist, which brings me to
3) Wood. Flammable, can build tools or houses with it. When it was first evolved, nothing had evolved yet to decompose it for sixty million years. And that formed all the coal and oil on earth. No wood, no tools, not a lot to burn, no civilization.

[kayliibensen]

Anyone who takes the time to focus on and present nuance on a subject like this is amazing. Thank you for your amazing dedication and work Dr. Kipping. This channel is what I imagined future science documentaries to be when I was a child, before the dark times destroyed television.

[MotoHikes]

I freaking love it when you film in the woods. As an environmental science student with a fascination for physics and space, it's the perfect juxtaposition, talking about something so advanced in a setting so very primal. Poetic.

[zik]

I like to think that Fermi returned from Starbucks and no one was in the office so he asked "where is everybody?"
And we just took it and ran with it 😅

[mickieg]

The Idea of hearing a clear transmission that accounts to a hello would be quite terrifying, given the idea that it was from so long ago that they dont exist anymore, we will only ever hear/see an alien civilization millions of years after they have long since gone extinct.

Knowing that any attempt of our own would have the same result.

[MasonHerrick]

That this channel has less than 10 million subscribers is arguably more mysterious than the Fermi Paradox.

[chemprofdave]

It’s quite possible that spacefaring civilization is rare because it requires a balance of ambition, discretion, and foresight which is difficult to achieve. Civilizations that have a strong tendency to explore and colonize may also be more prone to internal conflict that disrupts their progress. On the other hand, civilizations that are peaceful, stable, and happy might not care to go exploring. Finally, the resources required would need planning and development over long periods of time, whereas short-horizon use of the same resources would be a constant temptation.

[tagnetorare]

I appreciate your remark on semantics. It is very important for figuring out "which question we are discussing", otherwise the discussion could get too general and shallow

[Tom_Quixote]

The Fermi 'paradox' has a very simple solution: Life is rare, the universe is big, and fast space travel is physically impossible, no matter how smart we might be.