ADSactly Mystery: The Fermi Paradox Part 3

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Introduction

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Our lives are full of mysteries and finding an answer to them can sometimes be very difficult and challenging. One of the greatest philosophical questions of all time is about our origins, and if we are the only beings in the universe capable of developing technology and space exploration.

These are questions that most people have certainly ask themselves at least once, but so far, answering this great mystery has been impossible. Maybe in the future, as space exploration becomes more and more common, we could eventually start to answer some questions, but so far, the only thing that people can do is create speculations based on logic and the data that is currently available to us.

There are several hypotheses that were created to serve as a potential answer that could explain the absence of proofs regarding extraterrestrial life, despite the enormous universe in which we live. There are many people who claim to have first hand contact with extraterrestrial life, but actual proof is virtually non-existing. In this first article of this series, I shared a video that even though it doesn’t have any actual proof of a real encounter, it is the context that makes it a valuable piece of content. The video is basically an official hearing in the United States, where an ex-military relates the inexplicable encounter they had back in the 60s with what seemed to be extraterrestrial technology. So, there are many hints indicating these beings might exist, but no actual proof so far.

To answer the big question from the Fermi Paradox, “where is everybody”, we will continue to explore the hypotheses.

Hypotheses explaining the Fermi Paradox

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• Lack of resources to spread physically throughout the galaxy: given the fact our space exploration is very limited in scope, and that the farthest place a human has ever reached is the moon, we don’t actually know what would it take to explore outer space and move across galaxies. Maybe there are other limitations we haven’t yet discovered that could make interstellar travel impossible or at least extremely difficult.

This possibility will rule out the chances of advanced races from exploring places that are too far away from their home. At best, these hypothetical races could explore their local galactic “neighborhood” and that would be it. Who knows, maybe we are the advanced race of our local galactic “neighborhood” and that’s why we don’t see anyone that is more advanced than us, it is not that they don’t exist, they could but very far away in unreachable places.

• Lack of desire to live on planets: this hypothesis seems like a good science fiction topic, but it could be true. Understanding the wishes of super intelligent beings is beyond our current capability. The most “normal” thought would be to imagine advanced extraterrestrials living in several planets and having a sustainable expansion program where they explore the universe, but maybe they would prefer something resembling a “nomad” lifestyle at the galactic scale which would mean they don’t stay in one place for too much time. Encountering someone who is constantly on the move reduces the possibility of said encounter from taking place.

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• It is cheaper to transfer information for exploration: this is an interesting topic that will certainly be discussed more in depth in future articles. This particular hypothesis simply consists in the possibility that there are advanced structures that allow for advanced races to send information across the universe without the need to physically explore it. Similar to what we do with our internet, we don’t actually need to go to another country to see how it is. There are tools like Google Earth and especially Google Street View, that allow us to see places as if we were there.

This hypothesis takes this concept and expands it to the galactic scale. There wouldn’t be as many reasons to explore the universe if it was possible to send and have access to the same information in a much more efficient way. This would reduce the number of extraterrestrials exploring the space and reduce the possibilities of finding proof about their existence. However, this hypothesis creates another big question. How was this hypothetical structure built in the first place? It must have been the creation of an ancient and very advanced extraterrestrial race.

• Human beings have not existed long enough: this would make a lot of sense. We might simply be a very young race and it is just a matter of time for an encounter to take place. There could have been encounters hundreds or thousands of years in the past but with no way to prove it. So according to this hypothesis, it would be just a matter of time. We human beings have only been on Earth for about 200,000 years, which is nothing at the galactic scale. We just have to wait and eventually we would make contact with an extraterrestrial species.

Conclusion

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In this article, I briefly explained more of the hypotheses that try to explain the absence of proof about extraterrestrial life. When exploring this topic, it is normal to find people with very strong beliefs, but the focus of this paradox is actual and objective proof and not subjective claims that are open to interpretation. Given the fact actual proof about extraterrestrial life doesn’t exist, the paradox was created along with several of its hypotheses.

I invite any reader to share their own opinions about this topic, and if you have an interesting or inexplicable experience to share then even better!

Authored by @dedicatedguy

Resources:

https://fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/la-10311-ms.pdf https://www.seti.org/seti-institute/project/fermi-paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html