Fermi Paradox

A Fermi Paradox is a paradox that highlights the apparent contradiction between the high probability of the existence of extraterrestrial life in the universe and the lack of evidence or contact with such life forms.

• Context:
  • It can (typically) involve discussions on various factors like the rarity of life-supporting conditions, the challenges of interstellar travel, and the possibility of advanced civilizations deliberately avoiding contact with Earth.
  • It can (often) lead to the formulation of hypotheses and theories that attempt to explain this lack of evidence, such as the Rare Earth Hypothesis.
  • It can highlight the discrepancy between the expectation of a universe teeming with life and the stark absence of observable evidence supporting this.
  • It can (often) be associated with the question posed by Enrico Fermi, "Where is everybody?" reflecting on the expected visibility or evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations.
  • It can stimulate significant debate and research within the fields of astrophysics, astrobiology, and SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence).
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • The conversation between Enrico Fermi and his fellow physicists in 1950, leading to Fermi's famous question.
  • The book "If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... WHERE IS EVERYBODY?: Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life" by Stephen Webb, which explores various solutions to the paradox.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • The Drake Equation, which estimates the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.
• See: Rare Earth Hypothesis, Extraterrestrial Life, Enrico Fermi.

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References

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox Retrieved:2024-3-19.
  • The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. As a 2015 article put it, "If life is so easy, someone from somewhere must have come calling by now."

    Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi's name is associated with the paradox because of a casual conversation in the summer of 1950 with fellow physicists Edward Teller, Herbert York, and Emil Konopinski. While walking to lunch, the men discussed recent UFO reports and the possibility of faster-than-light travel. The conversation moved on to other topics, until during lunch Fermi blurted out, "But where is everybody?" (although the exact quote is uncertain).

    There have been many attempts to resolve the Fermi paradox, such as suggesting that intelligent extraterrestrial beings are extremely rare, that the lifetime of such civilizations is short, or that they exist but (for various reasons) humans see no evidence.

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