Where is everybody? It’s called the Fermi paradox.
This week, various people in the United States Congress became very excited about possible evidence for extraterrestrials visiting Earth. I don’t believe it for a moment. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence – and so far there’s none.
It is a paradox associated with the Italian-American Enrico Fermi (who makes an appearance in the current blockbuster movie “Oppenheimer”): there ought to be many cases of intelligent life in such a vast universe, but so far we have absolutely no clear evidence that there is – or has been – even one such civilisation, still less than they have visited us.
My own view, based on the current evidence, is that intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is probably extremely rare and that, even if there is (or was) such life, communication – let alone transport – between us would be so difficult as to conversationally meaningless but philosophically mind-blowing.
You can read a brief discussion of the Fermi paradox here.
July 31st, 2023 at 11:06 pm
I think the crucial line is “in this vast universe”
followed by something you didn’t touch on “in this vast galaxy”.
It’s pretty clear that the odds are against there being another civilisation near enough to communicate with us and, if they had any sense at all, they wouldn’t do it anyway.