The Fermi paradox questions why we have not yet discovered evidence of extraterrestrial life. Do aliens exist? Or are we just looking in the wrong places? The Fermi paradox refers to the contradiction between the high probability of extraterrestrial intelligence and the lack of evidence for such beings. As the British science-fiction novelist Sir Arthur C. Clarke said, “There are two possibilities: either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally frightening.”
Since then, many experts have been grappling with the same issue; Given the vast number of planets and stars in the Milky Way, why haven’t we seen any extraterrestrial life yet? This is known as the Fermi paradox, and there are many conceivable answers, some more sinister than others. Know in detail about the Fermi paradox in this article.
Contents
What is the Fermi paradox?
The Fermi paradox, or Fermi paradox in English, is named after the Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi. According to whom, it refers to the lack of evidence and the apparent contradiction to various high probability estimates of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations or extraterrestrial intelligence elsewhere in our Milky Way galaxy.
The original argument points fully developed this paradox in a 1975 letter by Michael H. Hart. This includes:
- The galaxy has billions of stars similar to the Sun, many of which are billions of years older than the Solar System.
- Very likely, some of these stars may have already developed intelligent life on an Earth-like planet.
- Some of these civilizations may have also developed interstellar travel and are planning to come to Earth.
- Even with the slow pace of present-day interstellar travel, the Milky Way galaxy can fully traverse in a few million years.
According to this line of reasoning, alieEarth’s spaceships must have already traveled the Earth.
Enrico Fermi’s name in Fermi paradox
Fermi’s name is associated with this paradox due to casual conversations with Enrico Fermi’s fellow physicists Edward Teller, Herbert York, and Emil Konopinski in the summer of 1950.
While walking to lunch, Fermi and his partner discussed the recent UFO report and the possibility of traveling at the speed of light. The conversation then started on other topics and lasted until, during lunch, Fermi suddenly said, “Where are they?” Two of his three colleagues immediately became aware that Fermi was referring to extraterrestrial civilizations or intelligence. In addition, Herbert York remembered that Fermi followed a series of calculations of “the possibility of planets similar to Earth, the probability of life given to Earth, the probability of life given to humans, the duration of high growth and high technology, etc.” Have done. ” He concluded, based on such calculations, that we should have visited long ago and several times.
Several attempts have been made to explain the Fermi paradox, mainly suggesting that intelligent supernatural beings are extremely rare. Or propose that such civilizations have not approached or visited the earth for other reasons.
Its foundation
The FEarthparadox is a conflict between the argument that many possibilities favor the normalization of intelligent life in the universe and the total lack of evidence for intelligent life arising anywhere other than Earth.
The first aspect of the Fermi paradox
Earth’s first aspect of the Fermi paradox is a function of scale or the inclusion of large numbers: the Milky Way has an estimated 200–400 billion stars and 70 sextillions in the observable universe. Even though intelligent life occurs on only one percent of the planets around these stars, many extinct civilizations could happen. If the percentage were sufficient, it would produce significant numbers of extinct civilizations in the Milky Way. It follows the mediation principle, by which the Earth is a specific planet.
The second aspect of the Fermi paradox
The second aspect of the Fermi paradox is the logic of probability. Given the ability of intelligent life to overcome scattering and its tendency to colonize new habitats, it seems possible that at least some civilizations would be technologically advanced in space. It wIt will seek out new resources and colonize its star system and, later, the surrounding star system. Since there is no evidence of other intelligent life on Earth, or in the known universe, until 13.8 birth years after the universe’s history, a resolution is needed. Some examples of possible solutions are that intelligent life is rarer than we think, that our assumptions about the general evolution or behavior of intelligent species are flawed, or, more fundamentally, that ours is about the nature of the universe. Current scientific understanding is quite incomplete.
The Fermi paradox can be asked in two ways
First is –
“Why have no aliens or their artifacts been found on Earth or in the Solar System?” If interstellar travel is possible, even of a “slow” kind, almost within reach of Earth technology, it would only take 5 million to 50 million years to colonize the galaxy. It is relatively brief on the geological scale, let alone any cosmological one. Since many stars are older than the Sun, and intelligent life may have evolved elsewhere earlier, the question becomes why the galaxy was not already colonized. Even though colonization is impractical or undesirable for all Alien civilizations, large-scale galaxy exploration may be possible after investigation. These may leave detectable artifacts in the solar system, such as evidence of old studies or mining activity, but we haven’t observed any such evidence yet.
The second form of the question is –
“Why don’t we see any signs of intelligence elsewhere in the universe?” This version does not consider interstellar travel but includes other galaxies. For distant galaxies, travel times may well explain the lack of distant voyages to Earth. Still, a sufficiently advanced civilized Earth may be observable at a significant fraction of the size of the observable universe. Even if such societies are rare, the logic of the scale indicates that they must exist somewhere during the universe’s history since they can be traced from a long time away to their origin. Many more possible sites are within the limits of our observation. Whether the paradox is strong overall for our galaxy or the universe is unknown.
History of the Fermi paradox
It was officially mentioned in the Fermi paradox, a previously contained unpublished manuscript mentioned by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1933. He said that “people deny the presence of intelligent beings on the planets of the universe” because,
(1) If such beings exist, they must have come to Earth, and
(2) If such civilizations existed, Earth would have given us an indication of their existence.
This was perhaps not a contradiction for others, but it was a paradox for Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, as he believed in the possibility of supernatural life and space travel. Therefore, they put this hypothesis in front of the world, which we know today as the zoo hypothesis.
According to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, humanity is not yet ready to contact aliens, i.e., extraterrestrial life. He also said he might not be the first to discover this contradiction. It was a time when most people denied the existence of supernatural civilizations.
After Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, in 1975, Michael H. Hart published a detailed account of this paradox, which has since become a theoretical reference point for many researchers to date, sometimes called Known as the Fermi-Heart paradox.
Geoffrey A. Landis of NASA says that he prefers the name because (while Fermi is credited with asking the question first) Hart first did a rigorous analysis and was the first to publish his results. They are also individuals.
Robert H. Gray argues that the term Fermi paradox is a misnomer because, in his view, it is neither a contradiction nor a reason for Fermi. Instead, he prefers the Hart–Tipper argument, accepting Michael Hart as its promoter, but Frank J. Tipper also contributes to expanding Hart’s views.
Other names associated with Fermi’s question (“Where are they?”) Include Great Silence, and Silentium Universi (“the Latin word for the silence of the universe”), although these refer only to a part of the Fermi paradox. We have not yet seen any evidence of other civilizations. Although many claims of aliens have been made from time to time by many scientists and people on Earth, which have been explained in detail in the video below.
Extraterrestrial life
Sources
- Webb, Stephen (2002). If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens… Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life. Copernicus Books.
- Tsiolkovsky, K. (1933). Living Beings, Archives of the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics, Kaluga, Russia, occupy the Planets. See the original text in Russian Wikisource.
- Gray, Robert H. (2015). “The Fermi paradox is neither Fermi’s nor a paradox.”
- Milan M. Ćirković (2009). “Fermi’s Paradox – The Last Challenge for Copernicanism?”. Serbian Astronomical Journal.
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