One in Five Stars Has Earth-sized Planet in Habitable Zone

[Prophet 451]

24. That's the Fermi Paradox

The Fermi Paradox is an answer to teh Drake Equation. Drake says that, assuming certain variables, the universe is probably teeming with life. Fermi counters by saying "so where are they then?". There's several possible answers to that.

The first is that their existence may not overlap with ours. Modern humans have only existed for about 100,000 years and we've only had powered flight for a little over a century. The universe is about 14 billion years old. It's entirely possible that intelligent life has blossomed and died out before we even stopped hitting each other with rocks. Conversely, it's also possible that the intelligent life is still living in caves.

The other major issue is time. The closest habitable planet is 12 light years away. That means it takes light 12 years to reach us. And light is the fastest thing there is, nothing travels faster than light (barring a few strange developments in quantum physics). There's really no way for the human mind to understand the distances involved but it is entirely possible that our attempts at communication and theirs simply haven't had time to reach one another yet.

Finally, there's the Galactus problem. Marvel Comics solution to teh Fermi Paradox was to posit that something destroys the civilization before it establishes communication. In the comics, that was Galactus but it could be a global pandemic, asteroid strike, war (either among themselves or with another alien species) or something we've never even thjought of.