The Fermi Paradox: Where Is Everybody?
The Fermi Paradox: Where Is Everybody? Despite the seemingly high probabilities of alien life arising, a profound mystery remains: the Fermi Paradox. First articulated by physicist Enrico Fermi, it highlights the contradiction between the high estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the utter lack of observational evidence or contact. If even a small fraction of the billions of potentially habitable planets in our galaxy developed intelligent life, and some of those civilizations were capable of interstellar travel or communication, we might expect to have seen some sign of them by now. The galaxy is ancient, and even at sub-light speeds, a civilization could theoretically colonize or explore large swathes of it within a timeframe significantly shorter than the age of the galaxy. Several potential resolutions to ...