2023-12-09

Fermi paradox

Fermi paradox

The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. As a 2015 article put it, "If life is so easy, someone from somewhere must have come calling by now."

...

"But where is everybody?"

  • Sci-fi writer Andy Weir says in his interview with Adam Grant (link):

    • "the nearest life might be like two million light years away"
    • "They are too far away"
  • I totally agree with Andy's view.

    • There are 200 billion to 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

    • Each galaxy has 100 billion stars.

    • Solar system is just a speck in the Milky Way Galaxy.

    • Nearest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light-years away.

      It is indeed too far away. Without factoring all the theories why we haven't found aliens, the distance alone is the greatest factor of all in my opinion.

  • Brian Cox believes civilisations are very rare, and that the evolution of the eukaryotic cell, a prerequisite for complex multicellular life, only happened once (fateful encounter hypothesis). (link)

  • Adam Frank: 'there is no fermi paradox' (because, if the sky is an ocean, we've only looked at a hot tub's worth of the ocean) (link)