On the Fermi Paradox: The Mystery of Life in the Universe
Is humanity an anomaly or more common than we can begin to imagine?
As we stare into the starry sky on those late nights wondering what may be out there, one question tends to ring above all: Are we alone?
Is it possible that there are other civilizations? What would those potential worlds look like? What would the aliens inhabiting those worlds look like? These are all spin-off questions that originate from that single existential question of whether or not we have galactic neighbors.
Enrico Fermi, back in 1950, was one of the first to mention just how odd it was that there was no apparent evidence of alien life. The Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years and humans have only been around for about 6 million of that. Going further, the universe is estimated to be somewhere around 14 billion years old. That’s an extremely long time and it’s remarkable that no other life developed during said time.
That’s the exact point made by Fermi, who also happened to invent the first nuclear reactor, during that fateful lunch conversation in 1950. He simply inquired as to where all other potential life was.
The reason his simple question became known as a paradox is because of the sheer likelihood that alien…
