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Fermi Paradox overview
Fermi Paradox overview
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Historical background
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]
Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison published a paper in Nature in September 1959, in which they suggest a probable frequency at which alien civilizations would attempt to communicate: 1.420 GHz. This is the frequency of electromagnetic radiation emitted by neutral Hydrogen during a change of energy state. The frequency is an important physical and astronomical value, would almost certainly be known by any civilization capable of communication, and it requires only relatively simple technology to broadcast at this frequency. As Cocconi and Morrison put it, “It is reasonable to expect that sensitive receivers for this frequency would be made at an early stage of the development of radioastronomy. That would be the expectation of the operators of the assumed source, and the present state of terrestrial instruments indeed justifies the expectation.” In other words, it makes sense that aliens would come to the same conclusion about the 1.420 GHz frequency. If the aliens want to communicate with us...
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...ky & Telescope. Retrieved 11/29/2013
[8] http://www.webcitation.org/5n7VYJBUd Hanson, Robin (1998). "The Great Filter — Are We Almost Past It?". Archived from the original on 2009-01-28.
[9] Ward, Peter D.; Brownlee, Donald (2000). Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe. Copernicus Books (Springer Verlag). ISBN 0-387-98701-0.
[10] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1973Icar...19..347B
[11] http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/sentinelhypoth.html
[12] http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1975QJRAS..16..128H&db_key=AST&page_ind=0&plate_select=NO&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_GIF&classic=YES
[13] http://www.brin-l.com/downloads/silence.pdf
[14] Kukla, A. (2009). Extraterrestrials: A Philosophical Perspective. Lexington Books. p. 20.ISBN 9780739142455. LCCN 2009032272.
[15] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8642558.stm
All of these definitions are exact and significant to this research because sometimes it is obvious people are unaware of the true meanings of these words. The meanings of extraterrestrials and aliens have been commonly misinterpreted. An extraterrestrial is something, living or nonliving, which is not from earth, while an alien can be something from earth, but is not native to its surroundings. An unidentified flying object is something that has never been officially recorded. In this case, the witnesses refer to th...
Webb S. 2002, If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens ... Where is Everybody? (Copernicus
The UFO crash site in Roswell New Mexico in 1947 was the start of people’s interest in extraterrestrials, the discovery of military secrets and experiments kept from society, and the start, in search of answering are we alone in this universe.
A question many ask is, “are we alone in this universe?” Formulas, like The Drake Equation, and arguments, like the Fermi’s paradox, have been proposed help use deduce whether our universe is a biological one. The Drake Equation puts forth high probabilities of extraterrestrial life. However, there are skeptics who believe there is only one planet where life can exist, and this planet is the one that discover us. Whether or not life outside of Earth exist, the exploration of the biological universe is beneficial to humanity’s understanding of our place in the universe.
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In the “The Great Silence” Ted Chiang creates a thought experiment that helps the reader understand a possible answer to Fermi’s paradox. Fermi’s paradox poses two questions the first is why haven’t we encountered extraterrestrial life if there are billions of stars in the universe like the sun that are capable of sustaining life. Second, the universe has existed long enough for interstellar travel to be possible, but why hasn’t anything contacted us yet?
Evolutionists – as well as atheists – state that despite the enormous scientific and technological progress, despite all ultra-sensitive observation systems, such as orbital telescopes, there are sti...
The existence of life – Aliens, beyond our planet has been a controversial topic for several centuries, and is a debatable issue even today in the 21st century. What is our topic you may ask? Aliens, Do, Exist. According to theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, it would be improbable for life not to exist somewhere other than Earth. This is a bold claim, but there is evidence to support this statement. The evidence we seek is in the many Alien occurrences we have experienced throughout human history.
The Fermi Paradox criticizes the blatant contradiction between the absence of evidence and the high probability rates estimated by the Drake Equation (Schilling & MacRobert, 2009). It states that according to the many propositions supporting the existence of extraterrestrial life, the Earth should have, by the present day, already been visited by them (Schilling & MacRobert, 2009). The Fermi Paradox is based on first-hand observations and is thus, more scientifically reliable and valid criticism of the Drake Equation. Consequently, the equation is widely obsolete due to the lack of any genuine evidence demonstrating any sign of extraterrestrial
Audesirk, T. (2003). Life on Earth. In (Ed.), (3rd ed., pp. 581-620). New York: Pearson Custom Publishing - Prentice Hall, Inc..
Alone in the Universe Are we alone in this universe? This is a question that humanity has been pondering since its conception. It seems logical that if the universe is so large there would have to be other intelligent creatures out there somewhere, but why has there been no evidence of their existence? This is exactly the question that the famous Italian physicist Enriko Fermi poses in his so-called Fermi Paradox. With recent technological advances the human race is getting closer to truly understanding the magnitude of that captivating question.
However, it is all subject to interpretation, as it has not been validated. Evidence used to support the ancient alien theory can be found all over the world in ancient geoglyphs, art, sculptures, architecture and text. A mesmerizing topic that has captivated millions of people, Ancient Aliens brings to life the possibility that we are not alone in the cosmos and gives us a new perspective on life existing beyond our planet by looking within our very own past history and civilizations. Erich Von Daniken, one of the main figures responsible for popularizing the ancient astronaut hypotheses, has written twenty-six books referencing his theories on ancient aliens.
Do aliens exist? For eons, mankind has pondered over this peculiar question and a revealing truth has yet to be answered. However, one thing is known for sure, the discovery of intelligent alien life outside of Earth would provide support to prove and/or disprove fundamental beliefs that have been held for centuries. In any case, the discovery would serve as a cornerstone for humanity to make the quantum leap in understanding the purpose of our existence. Based on numerous examples, it is impossible to deny the existence of extraterrestrial life outside of Earth. Reportings of sightings, ancient civilizations beliefs, and scientific proof from scientists and astronomers are all key factors that contribute to this statement.
One argument that supports the panspermia theory is the emergence of life soon after the heavy bombardment period of earth, between 4 and 3.8 billion years ago. During this period, researchers believe the Earth endured an extended and very powerful series of meteor showers. However, the earliest evidence for life on Earth suggests it was present some 3.83 billi...
One of the most common unanswered questions scientists find themselves asking is "Is there life on other planets?" Since the first famously documented UFO sighting in 1947, the idea of extra-terrestrial life has been debated almost non-stop. The subject has inspired many TV programs, such as The X-Files, and films (Mars Attacks, Independence Day, and the Men in Black films to name but a few). Scientists have come up with many new ideas and ways of trying to either prove or disprove the existence of life elsewhere.