The Fermi Paradox: ‘Fact A’

We’re alone in the universe, and that’s alright.

Earth-like planets revolving around a foreign star would, on average, be 4 billion years older than Earth. Our sun and its system are still spritely and young, adding to the mystery of why we haven’t encountered life from these much older exoplanets. Above is a simulation of humans colonizing the galaxy 10,000 years in the future. Image by AdvancedConcepts / ESA.

In our search for alien life we can receive only one of two answers. Either we are someday able to find and communicate with another civilization or we unearth only more and more silence, many of us trying to remain hopeful in its stony presence. We receive a signal, or we don’t; either way we come to an important realization about our place in the universe. Not many of us want to believe — and not many of us do believe — that we are alone. To think that humans are so special embodies an air of arrogance and pride. Neither is it statistically supported given the bounty of star systems and habitable planets dangling in the data from our telescopes. And yet despite those great odds in favor of alien life, we remain empty-handed.

The word itself — alone — has a negative sensation. We do not want to be alone on any level, whether it be individual or as a species. But it may not be such a desolate truth to face. On the contrary, being alone could mean something remarkable for our future.

Finding another civilization out there in that velvety dark would mean that life on Earth was not so special as we’d thought. That is the advantage — a promise that we are not commonplace. And this promise is at the heart of ‘Fact A’: there are no intelligent beings from outer space on…