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…