I had previously offered various suggestions to explain what we call Fermi’s Paradox. There I mentioned one idea that I want to develop further.
The question is why, with the billions upon billions of galaxies in our Universe, we haven’t encountered any evidence of other civilizations.
Currently it is thought that there are roughly 200 x 1021 stars. Our existence tells us that life and intelligence are possible. We don’t know how common or rare this is, but it seems unlikely that out of so many star systems, we would be the only one where intelligent life developed. So, where is everyone?
The answer has to do with the vastness of space and time. Of all the trillions upon trillions of stars, only a tiny fraction are in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The closest galaxy to us, Andromeda, is about 2.5 million light years away. Unless we develop Star Trek-level technology, we’re not going to communicate with them or any other galaxy outside our own. This eliminates almost all the stars. They’re simply too far away to have any effect on us.
Within the Milky Way there are estimated to be 100 to 400 billion stars. It may well be that some of these stars have intelligent life. However, most of these stars are also too far away to matter. The closest star, Proxima Centauri, is roughly 4 trillion kilometers away. It would take a signal 4 years to travel from Earth to Proxima Centauri; and another four years for us to receive a response, if there was one. Every other star would take at least as long; most would take much longer. This time gap would make realtime communication impossible.
Travel to any star would also be impossible at our current level of technology.
If the transfer of information and the speed of travel are limited to the speed of light, then there isn’t a good way to communicate with any other civilization. If I call my friend at Proxima Centauri, it will take eight years before I hear him answer the phone.
At the moment, our understanding of physics limits the theoretical maximum speed of travel or communication to the speed of light. Unless we find ways to get past these limits, we’re not going anywhere, and we’re unlikely to ever contact anyone out there. Even if there are some civilizations who have technology to communicate faster than light speed, we don’t have that technology at the moment, and so we can’t receive their messages.
It is possible that civilizations who have recognized these limitations have chosen to turn inwards, to explore the inner Universe.
Fermi’s Paradox Revisited
I had previously offered various suggestions to explain what we call Fermi’s Paradox. There I mentioned one idea that I want to develop further.
The question is why, with the billions upon billions of galaxies in our Universe, we haven’t encountered any evidence of other civilizations.
Currently it is thought that there are roughly 200 x 1021 stars. Our existence tells us that life and intelligence are possible. We don’t know how common or rare this is, but it seems unlikely that out of so many star systems, we would be the only one where intelligent life developed. So, where is everyone?
The answer has to do with the vastness of space and time. Of all the trillions upon trillions of stars, only a tiny fraction are in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The closest galaxy to us, Andromeda, is about 2.5 million light years away. Unless we develop Star Trek-level technology, we’re not going to communicate with them or any other galaxy outside our own. This eliminates almost all the stars. They’re simply too far away to have any effect on us.
Within the Milky Way there are estimated to be 100 to 400 billion stars. It may well be that some of these stars have intelligent life. However, most of these stars are also too far away to matter. The closest star, Proxima Centauri, is roughly 4 trillion kilometers away. It would take a signal 4 years to travel from Earth to Proxima Centauri; and another four years for us to receive a response, if there was one. Every other star would take at least as long; most would take much longer. This time gap would make realtime communication impossible.
Travel to any star would also be impossible at our current level of technology.
If the transfer of information and the speed of travel are limited to the speed of light, then there isn’t a good way to communicate with any other civilization. If I call my friend at Proxima Centauri, it will take eight years before I hear him answer the phone.
At the moment, our understanding of physics limits the theoretical maximum speed of travel or communication to the speed of light. Unless we find ways to get past these limits, we’re not going anywhere, and we’re unlikely to ever contact anyone out there. Even if there are some civilizations who have technology to communicate faster than light speed, we don’t have that technology at the moment, and so we can’t receive their messages.
It is possible that civilizations who have recognized these limitations have chosen to turn inwards, to explore the inner Universe.