WHERE ARE ALL THE ALIENS?
Q: Are there other civilizations in our galaxy?
A: We wish there were, but all evidence points to no. To be more precise we are almost certainly the only spacefaring civilization in this galaxy.
This is the Fermi Paradox.
Our galaxy has trillions of planets, most billions of years old.
Surely many have life on them.
Surely some of these are intelligent.
But why do we see no evidence of them?
There are many complex ways to approach this, but we can resolve it with no assumptions about
technology, biochemistry, or the Drake
Equation. Our argument is based only upon ecology.
Suppose that in any billion year time span we expect at least two independently evolved
spacefaring species in this galaxy. Either of these could easily span the galaxy in
10 million years.
If we are not the first, we should see ample evidence of the others.
This must be true unless they are somehow hiding from us.
To keep it simple, let's forget about how difficult it would be to defy the
2nd Law of Thermodynamics
and hide the infrared signature of a sprawling, technologically advanced civilization.
Suppose the aliens passively, and secretly observe Earth for millions, or even hundreds of millions of
years. No diverting of asteroids. No exploitation, occupation, or zooification the planet. No
impactful meddling at all.
We can now ask the one key question: What are the odds per year that one
alien (out of perhaps trillions) breaks the rule and, whether by accident or not, meddles?
Is it 1 in 1,000? Or maybe 1 in 1,000,000?
Every single year is a new roll of the dice.
After even a few million years, the compound odds of non-interference are effectively zero.
This strongly implies that, at least in this galaxy:
A new solution to the Fermi Paradox.
This all said, we would love to be proven wrong.