What is your preferred solution to the Fermi Paradox?

in #dpoll5 years ago (edited)

What is your preferred solution to the Fermi Paradox?


  1. From Earth, we can see Billions of stars, trillions including galaxies where we can't make out stars individually.

  2. The Universe is approx 13 billion years old, which is a lot of time for life to emerge and multiple generations for large stars. Life has already emerged in one place at least in that time.

  3. Under known physics, it should only take 2 million years at most for a civilization which has advanced to space travel to colonize an entire galaxy, if even a tiny tiny fraction of them want to.

  4. If there are any civilization out there, we should see clear evidence of it. The fact that we can see stars at all should be surprising (this is known as the Dyson Dilemma)

5, Among those billions/trillions of stars, we have not seen any evidence of extra terrestrial civilizations.

Why don't we see any evidence of extra terrestrial civilizations?

You can choose multiple answers, but keep in mind if they are compatible with each other (don't choose multiple incompatible answers).

Answers are pulled from wikipedia


  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent

  • No other intelligent species have arisen

  • Intelligent alien species lack advanced technology

  • Water world hypothesis

  • It is the nature of intelligent life to destroy itself

  • It is the nature of intelligent life to destroy others

  • Periodic extinction by natural events

  • Inflation hypothesis and the youngness argument

  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time

  • Lack of resources to spread physically throughout the galaxy

  • Lack of desire to live on planets

  • It is cheaper to transfer information for exploration

  • Human beings have not existed long enough

  • We are not listening properly

  • Civilizations broadcast detectable radio signals only for a brief period of time

  • They tend to isolate themselves

  • Colonization is not the norm

  • Outcomes between all and nothing

  • They are too alien

  • Everyone is listening but no one is transmitting

  • Earth is deliberately not contacted

  • Earth is purposefully isolated (planetarium hypothesis)

  • It is dangerous to communicate

  • They are here unacknowledged

  • Other explanation (explain in comment)

Answer the question at dpoll.xyz.

Sort:  

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent
  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time

Voted for

  • It is the nature of intelligent life to destroy itself
  • It is the nature of intelligent life to destroy others
  • Periodic extinction by natural events
  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time

It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.

Voted for

  • We are not listening properly
  • They tend to isolate themselves
  • They are too alien
  • Earth is deliberately not contacted
  • It is dangerous to communicate
  • They are here unacknowledged

Voted for

  • Colonization is not the norm

Voted for

  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent
  • They tend to isolate themselves
  • It is dangerous to communicate

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent

Voted for

  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time
  • Earth is purposefully isolated (planetarium hypothesis)

One of these options is possible.

And I want to add from myself. Maybe intelligent life doesn't need contact with representatives of planet Earth and they're not in a hurry to contact? That's why they're reasonable.

Voted for

  • We are not listening properly
  • They are too alien
  • They are here unacknowledged

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent

Voted for extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent.

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent
  • It is the nature of intelligent life to destroy itself
  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time

I expect life to be abundant, but intelligent life is rare. At least if we expect it to be sufficiently similar to us.

Voted for

  • We are not listening properly

Technology will show us how blind we were now

Voted for

  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time
  • It is cheaper to transfer information for exploration
  • We are not listening properly
  • They tend to isolate themselves
  • Outcomes between all and nothing
  • Earth is deliberately not contacted
  • Earth is purposefully isolated (planetarium hypothesis)
  • It is dangerous to communicate

Voted for

  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time
  • We are not listening properly
  • They tend to isolate themselves
  • They are too alien
  • Earth is deliberately not contacted
  • Other explanation (explain in comment)

https://www.isaacarthur.net and his YouTube channel has discussed some other possibilities too. There are lot of videos. It will take some time to find the exact ones you deed. But all of the content are amazing.

This is the best poll I have seen in weeks. Thank You!

Voted for

  • Human beings have not existed long enough
  • Earth is deliberately not contacted

Voted for

  • Intelligent alien species lack advanced technology
  • Periodic extinction by natural events
  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time
  • Lack of resources to spread physically throughout the galaxy
  • They are too alien

Voted for

  • No other intelligent species have arisen
  • Intelligent alien species lack advanced technology
  • Water world hypothesis

Voted for

  • They are here unacknowledged

Voted for

  • It is the nature of intelligent life to destroy itself
  • Periodic extinction by natural events
  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time
  • Human beings have not existed long enough
  • We are not listening properly
  • Civilizations broadcast detectable radio signals only for a brief period of time

It is a conundrum. We currently have only one known case of any life arising on a planet. We need more to get any idea of how common it is. The Drake equation has too many unknowns.

In a few decades we have just managed to get a probe outside our solar system. We need to avoid wiping ourselves out to explore further, but reaching other stars will take centuries. The exoplanet search may reveal something.

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent

Voted for

  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time

Voted for

  • Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time
  • Lack of resources to spread physically throughout the galaxy

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent
  • Human beings have not existed long enough
  • Civilizations broadcast detectable radio signals only for a brief period of time
  • Earth is purposefully isolated (planetarium hypothesis)

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent

Voted for

  • Human beings have not existed long enough

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent
  • Human beings have not existed long enough
  • They are here unacknowledged

Voted for

  • We are not listening properly

Voted for

  • Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent

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