The Fermi Paradox and Implications
In 1950, a man, Enrico Fermi, during a lunch break conversation he causally asked his co-workers an interesting question, “where is everybody”. (Howell, 2014) By which he meant, since there are over a million planets which are proficient enough to support life and possibly some sort of intelligent species, so how come no one has visited earth? This became known as The Fermi Paradox, which came from his surname and two Greek words, para meaning contrary and Doxa meaning opinion, about a 100 years ago. (Webb 2002) A paradox arises when you set undisputable evidence and then a certain conclusion contradicts the idea. For example, Fermi realized that extra-terrestrials have had a large amount of time to appear
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(Gato-Rivera, 2005) Additionally, there were many solutions to the Fermi paradox, the most popular non-expansionist being that interstellar travel is not possible because the technology level has not yet been reached by the civilization. Another solution theorizes advanced civilization have little interest in expanding beyond their region in the galaxy. Dissimilarly, another solution states that technologically advanced civilizations annihilate themselves or disappear by natural causes before getting a chance to spread through the large regions of the galaxy. (Gato-Rivera, 2005) Whereas, the most popular expansionist solution is that advanced civilization might have ethics code which prevent them from interfering with human life. Another solution is the advanced civilization ignores earth due to the fact of our low primitive level because the civilizations would be millions of years ahead of human capabilities. (Gato-Rivera,2005) These are some of the few solutions that researchers have come up with supporting the Fermi …show more content…
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...l start to desire a new item, something that will continue to improve life for them. Kurzweil and his followers are ignorant to the fact that even if we can give super intelligence to machines, it will not rid life of all of its impurities but simply bring more unforeseen, unpredictable consequences to our future.
According to the notes from class, true paradox is defined as two ideas or principles that seem irreconcilable with each other, but prove on closer scrutiny, simultaneously valid. The theory of paradox is recommended to address and remove the ineffectiveness of opposing viewpoints. The benefit of the theory of paradox is that it seeks to recognize and value all perspectives. It also encourages using the effective aspects of all perspectives.
Over a 1950 summer lunch at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the great physicist Enrico Fermi asked his colleagues an unexpected question – “Don’t you ever wonder where everybody is?” Laughter went around the table as everyone immediately knew that he was talking about extraterrestrial intelligence [1]. If life arises fairly commonly, as Fermi believed, it follows that there should be advanced civilizations with the desire to visit and colonize Earth close enough to do so. However, there is no incontrovertible evidence of aliens on Earth, either now or in the past. This is called the Fermi Paradox. The lack of observational evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence is known as the ‘Great Silence.’[13]
Since ancient times humans have been trying to understand our place in the universe. The big question many ask is “are we alone in this universe?” Formulas and arguments like The Drake Equation and Fermi’s paradox have been proposed to predict and answer questions like this. Many scientists believe life exist in our galaxy other than us based on the high probabilities The Drake Equation puts forth. However, there are skeptics who believe the one equation to rely on is the one that validates that there is only one other planet in our solar system that has intelligent life and we live in it. Whether life outside of Earth exist or not, exploration of the idea of a biological universe is important for humanity’s understanding of our place in the solar system.
It is commonly accepted that the possibility of aliens existing is feasible, among the scientific community. Drake’s Equation and The Fermi Paradox are two well-known products of humanities’ view towards extraterrestrial life. Drake’s Equation is an equation written by Dr. Frank Drake to determine the odds of intelligent life and to figure out the number of civilizations in the Milky Way that seek to communicate with each other (Howell). The Fermi Paradox is the contradiction between there being a high probability of alien life and it’s the lack of contact with Earth (Krauthammer). The existence of aliens poses many questions for the future of the human race. The questions of where, what, and why are the foremost concerns posed when describing
Can the Earth be the only place in the Universe that harbors life? Most astronomers don't believe this is true. Certain statistics in the Universe provide evidence that living beings may be common place through out the universe, on planets of other stars besides the sun. In this paper I plan to discuss the various viewpoints of those that believe that extraterrestrials exist and have even been visiting Earth, and the viewpoints of skpetics that believe that aliens don't exist and have not been visiting Earth.
Since the 18th century speculation of unearthly life has been brought up by many influential people. One of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, once stated "I believe that Man is not the most perfect Being but One; rather that as there are many degrees of Beings his Inferiors, so there are many degrees of Beings superior to him”. This quote justifies the fact that even the most prominent people believed in cosmic beings. Further in time, In July 1947, an unidentified flying object crash landed in a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. What military officials discovered was nothing more than the debris of a weather balloon that was being tested. However, people did not seem to fathom the truth and began to investigate what the military did not want the public to know. Bodies of unknown humanoid beings were seized by the military and taken into a secret base for further analysis. Various reasons as to why celestial beings could lurk the universe are being brought upon by today’s modern science committee possibly unlocking an insight onto future life. The first reason as to why extraterrestrial life could perhaps exist is that there is a vast amount of galaxies, stars, planets, and solar systems that humans have not yet discovered. To think that humans, the only civilization on planet earth, are the only living organisms in space would be quite absurd. Furthermore, a second reason as to why extraterrestrials could subsist is that life thrives in the most extreme conditions. This means that whether organisms are in the depths of the ocean, in the midst of the ozone layer, or in the scorching hot temperatures of volcanos; life always finds a way to adapt. However, some may argue that life could not possible coin...
One of the greatest unanswered questions of humanity is: “Are we alone?”. This question has intrigued the earliest philosophers and is currently being tackled by today’s scientists. If intelligent life was discovered there would be excitement within the scientific community; however, it would most likely be devastating for mankind because if humans know extraterrestrials exist, they will know humans exist. The consequences of discovering intelligent extraterrestrial life are life threatening to humanity if we are not more powerful than the extraterrestrials. H.G. Wells’ The War of Worlds shows the threat of extraterrestrials through a variety of reasons. Firstly, the extraterrestrials can be searching for resources or a place to settle if their
The universe, a vast, ever-expanding space full of mystery, just waiting to be discovered. With the mystery comes speculation; a multitude of researchers focus on one question, are there extraterrestrials out there? While highly controversial, scientists with the help of SETI have proved that this is possible. In order to be prepared for the possible ETs, researchers at SETI work constantly to find answers. Because of the growing research that Extraterrestrial Intelligence is possible, SETI, a credible organization, should receive funding from the government to continue their research.
A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself and still seems true somehow. In novels paradoxes exist to create a deeper meaning of the literary content. Frankenstein is a book about a madman who creates what he calls a monster. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein paradoxes throughout the monster’s life are shown through humanity, love and appearance.
"Adenosine - What Is Adenosine?" Adenosine - What Is Adenosine? N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.
Frank Drake, an American astronomer made an equation to find the probability of finding aliens in our galaxy. The probability of humans finding extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy equals Nfpnef1fifcfL, where N equals the number of stars in the Milky Way, fp equals the fraction of those stars having planets, ne equals the number of those planets that can support life, f1 equals the number of those planets on which life arises, fi equals the fraction of those planets on which intelligent life evolves, fc equals the fraction of those planets where intelligent life developed into a technologically advanced civilization and fL equals the fraction of time a technical civilization lasts. Drake's equation is beautiful, meaningless mathematics. It does not come close to solving the question of the existence of extraterrestrials because it has so many variables that we cannot imagine what they stand for.
Space is full with more stars than we can possibly imagine, and surrounding those stars are many planets. Every since Galileo turned his telescope toward the stars in 1610. The search for life on any other planet has been an ongoing endeavor. At first, we wondered what was out there, and then we wondered what life might be on any of the planets we saw. Then we wondered how many planets there were. That evolved into the stars and the realization that those stars have planets of their own. Moving us onto the question of what life might reside on those planets. The search started even before we had space travel available to us. For many years, humans have wondered if we were alone. If there are any other, intelligent life forms out there. Even prior to us having had any comprehension of the vastness of space. We wondered if we would find extra-terrestrial life in outer space. Alternatively, if some other life form might find us here on earth. We have many ways that we have been
Currency Fluctuation, What is Currency Fluctuation, 2014. Available at: http://www.wisegeek.org/what-are-currency-fluctuations.htm Retrieved at 6th April 2014