Answers to the Fermi paradox

[The Imp]

So whats going on out there? Is an Earth-like planet simply extremely rare or are we in a cosmic zoo for the amusement of some highly advanced civilizations? Is intelligent life in fact common, with them all eventually killing themselves in nuclear war?

And no "We don't have enough information" cop out answers. Of course we don't have enough information, however, that doesn't mean we can't think of possible answers with currently available information.

 

[Cutlass]

I think there are other planets with life. But they would be rare enough so that it is unlikely that one is "nearby". Intelligent life would be even more rare. There is likely not one within any detectable range. But some intelligent races could have come and gone in the 13 billion or so years and we've just missed them in time. They don't necessarily have to have killed themselves off. Natural death could have happened as well.

 

[Defiant47]

And no "We don't have enough information" cop out answers. Of course we don't have enough information, however, that doesn't mean we can't think of possible answers with currently available information.

You cannot make any sort of conclusion with no information. To assert anything, you need some sort of valuable information.

Anything else would be baseless speculation with no grounding in data.

 

[The Imp]

You cannot make any sort of conclusion with no information. To assert anything, you need some sort of valuable information.

Anything else would be baseless speculation with no grounding in data.

There isn't "no information". Just not enough to have great confidence in a theory that might be created.

 

[Defiant47]

There isn't "no information". Just not enough to have great confidence in a theory that might be created.

Basically the data we have is "inconclusive".

It is akin to me asking you what's in this opaque box? (not exactly, but you get the point)

 

[The Imp]

Basically the data we have is "inconclusive".

It is akin to me asking you what's in this opaque box? (not exactly, but you get the point)

Not all of it is inconclusive.

 

[Defiant47]

Not all of it is inconclusive.

Well, those who say the seemingly cop-out answer of "I don't know" or "we don't have enough information" believe it to be so.

 

[negZero]

Theres countless upon countless stars with even more infinity planets orbiting them chances of there being life on another planet is extremely high just out of how many options there. Its more matter of where are there.

Also one thing I've always hated with threads like this is that all habitable most be like Earth. An alien species could live on planet that us human cannot.

 

[bhsup]

I personally just think it is arrogant as hell of us humans to assume that God chose only this one little rock ball on the edge of this one little galaxy, out of all creation, to seed with intelligent life.

 

[The Imp]

Well, those who say the seemingly cop-out answer of "I don't know" or "we don't have enough information" believe it to be so.

An Intelligent technologically proficient species does exist in the universe. Piece of information numero uno.

 

[Defiant47]

An Intelligent technologically proficient species does exist in the universe. Piece of information numero uno.

Well will you look at that! That opaque box contains a hat!

Now what does this opaque box contain?

(or rather, to make the analogy correct)

See this seemingly endless "sea" of opaque boxes? Does at least one other box contain a hat?

 

[holy king]

I personally just think it is arrogant as hell of us humans to assume that God chose only this one little rock ball on the edge of this one little galaxy, out of all creation, to seed with intelligent life.

i think it's arrogant to think that god created us of all animals in his image.

 

[North King]

So whats going on out there? Is an Earth-like planet simply extremely rare or are we in a cosmic zoo for the amusement of some highly advanced civilizations? Is intelligent life in fact common, with them all eventually killing themselves in nuclear war?

And no "We don't have enough information" cop out answers. Of course we don't have enough information, however, that doesn't mean we can't think of possible answers with currently available information.

A few simple possibilities:

1) Intelligent life is rare enough that this isn't a paradox (I don't like this answer).
2) We're the first intelligent life to evolve (I also don't like this answer).
3) They vanish (I also don't like this answer; it assumes that all alien species must be the same in order to somehow obliterate themselves).
4) Intelligent life is different enough from us that it would communicate in entirely unrecognizable ways (I like this one the most; why exactly do you expect sentient pizzas to communicate using electromagnetic radiation?).

But like most things, it'll probably end up being a combination of those answers.

 

[innonimatu]

So whats going on out there? Is an Earth-like planet simply extremely rare or are we in a cosmic zoo for the amusement of some highly advanced civilizations? Is intelligent life in fact common, with them all eventually killing themselves in nuclear war?

And no "We don't have enough information" cop out answers. Of course we don't have enough information, however, that doesn't mean we can't think of possible answers with currently available information.

What about: earth is not a "rare" planet, but humans just happen to be the first civilization to arise in one such planet? Someone has to be first.

 

[The Imp]

Well will you look at that! That opaque box contains a hat!

Now what does this opaque box contain?

(or rather, to make the analogy correct)

See this seemingly endless "sea" of opaque boxes? Does at least one other box contain a hat?

You are not making any sense.

Anyway, another piece of useful information is the sheer size of the universe. There are 70 sextillion stars in the observed universe.

Another piece of information is that we know that it is possible for other planets to be in the "habitable zone" currently reside in, due to recent sightings of exo-planets.

Another piece of useful information is the current science on radio signals.

I can go on and on.

 

[North King]

What about: earth is not a "rare" planet, but humans just happen to be the first civilization to arise in one such planet? Someone has to be first.

The only real "problem" with this is that it assumes we have an extremely special place in the universe. While not automatically proven wrong, this kind of idea certainly has a poor track record -- the Earth is not the center of the solar system, the sun is not at the center of the Milky Way, the Milky Way is not the only galaxy in the universe, nor even a particularly special galaxy, the region of space in which we are located is basically the same as every other patch of space in the sky, and so on...

Plus the solar system is a pretty late comer -- the third "generation" of stars and not necessarily one of the early stars of that generation. The Earth has suffered multiple massive extinctions, retarding possible early lines of the evolution of sentience. To assume that somehow we got through all of that and still came out ahead of all other possible evolutions in the Milky Way alone seems a little weird.

 

[Perfection]

Intelligent life (and even life itself) could be sufficiently improbable that the large numbers involved in our galaxy/local galaxies/the entire universe are still insufficient for it to be commonplace.

 

[Shaihulud]

There are mechanisms that can cause widespread extinction within the galaxy, supernova, Gama ray bursts and so forth, not to mention dinosaur killer rocks and all that stuff. Things that happens rarely enough, but enough to ensure that super intelligent life does not evolve sufficient to make an impact to be observed.

 

[emzie]

While my official stance would be, "not enough information" I'm willing to hazard the following guess: Intelligent life is quite rare, and despite the numbers of possible worlds in the universe, the number of worlds which with we are close enough to have meaningful contact is quite small. At a thousand light year distance, a dot of the galaxy, we wouldn't have the ability to detect general EM emissions that a civilization would be putting out.

 

[The Imp]

Intelligent life (and even life itself) could be sufficiently improbable that the large numbers involved in our galaxy/local galaxies/the entire universe are still insufficient for it to be commonplace.

Someone has been looking at the wiki article

Anyway... killer Von Neumann probes is another one that I personally like.