The Fermi Paradox

[Clodfobble]

Came across an interesting Gizmodo article on the Fermi Paradox, or the idea that given the statistics we know about habitable planets and Sun-like stars and the age of the universe and the speed of evolution, the universe should be absolutely overflowing with intelligent life, so where the hell are all the aliens? There are apparently a lot of different theories currently in play among top physicists and astronomers, and the article gave a good overview of them, from least-scary to most-scary.

http://gizmodo.com/the-fermi-paradox...ths-1580345495

[xoxoxoBruce]

Of course the easy answer is an intelligent lifeform would avoid us. Or an intelligent lifeform wouldn't fuck up it's planet and be looking for another.

Harder calculations define intelligent lifeforms, take into account the distance between bus stops is measured in human lifetimes, and the possibility intelligent lifeforms may have no interest beyond their own planet.

All this speculation assumes they don't walk among us.

[BigV]

All good points, xoB.

But the point about the distances is the dominant one, in my opinion. The universe is... reaaaaalllly big. Think about how precisely we have to aim our attention to hear the signals from intelligent life from the beepy-blinky things we've cast into the void. Now expand the distances by a gazillion. We wouldn't have to be off by very many fractions of an arc-second to miss something. Assuming we could comprehend what we were sensing in the first place.

[xoxoxoBruce]

If it sounds like rap music, look for some other signal.

[footfootfoot]

Considering the infinitesimal portion of the electromagnetic spectrum we are capable of perceiving, it is highly likely that a bazillion "alien life forms" are currently camped out in your living room and in the air you breathe.

Now I'll follow the link to see what this is all about.

[Sheldonrs]

Just remember, we ARE alien life forms.

[Spexxvet]

The aliens are observing us from outside of our univesarium.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Keeping their cage clean may prove to be a challenge.

[Happy Monkey]

Doctor Fun was a great strip...

[Bloke]

We've only been sending and receiving radio signals from huge distances for a relatively short time. Maybe we'll burn out in a hundred years and the next intelligent lot will start listening just as we stop. If there were a thousand intelligent colonies in space that bugger it all up fuel-wise like us, spread around with just a couple of hundred years between, it may be like the old 'ships passing in the night'...

[glatt]

So we're an algae bloom?

[lumberjim]

jinx used to talk about scale being another barrier to 1st contact. Another multiplier of improbability.

If you consider the likelihood that some aliens are orders of magnitude larger than us, and some smaller.... maybe we don't register on each others' sensors.

The odds of meeting Klingons or Romulans..... 6 feet tall, bipedal, O2 breathers is almost laughable... I don't doubt that they're out there. I just doubt that we will meet them before we all get eaten by space monsters.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Get your hands off me, you damn dirty alien.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Douglas Adams

For thousands more years, the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the first planet they came cross -- which happened to be the Earth -- where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

jinx used to talk about scale being another barrier to 1st contact. Another multiplier of improbability.

If you consider the likelihood that some aliens are orders of magnitude larger than us, and some smaller.... maybe we don't register on each others' sensors.

The odds of meeting Klingons or Romulans..... 6 feet tall, bipedal, O2 breathers is almost laughable... I don't doubt that they're out there. I just doubt that we will meet them before we all get eaten by space monsters.

Another thing to think about is time scale. What about beings/civilizations that rise and fall in an instant and others that take one (figurative) breath every eon? Obviously we can't perceive those.