New Insights into the Fermi Paradox

Some 60 years ago, respected Italian physicist Enrico Fermi set forth a very interesting problem. He asked the international scientific community to explain why we cannot see alien civilizations, if they exist somewhere in the Universe. The expert believed that we should be able to see signs of other intelligent lifeforms in the Universe, even if we ourselves were not advanced enough to contact them. We should at least be capable of picking up their signs, he argued at the time.

Since 1950, experts have been puzzled by what is now known as the Fermi Paradox. Science fiction writers have explored the issue as well, and numerous ideas have been developed to explain the issue. However, no clear answer has been set forth, and the paradox has remained opened for debate. A group of scientists now proposes a new approach to looking at the issue, which steps out of the bounds usually associated with thinking about this problem.

Igor Bezsudnov and Andrey Snarskii, who are both based at the National Technical University of Ukraine, say that we cannot see signs of other civilizations because of the life cycle the latter have. They propose that, as is the case on Earth, all civilizations rise, expand, reach a point of maximum development and reach, and then die. This may also happen in the Universe. Alien races may reach a degree of development that allows them to leave their homeworld, and then move among the stars. After reaching their maximum sphere of influence, these civilizations naturally decay, the two scientists believe.

They add that the only way for two races to meet each other is if they grow in areas that are located in close proximity to each other. The team says that, if two civilizations meet and exchange ideas, then they receive a sort of “time bonus,” which allows them to endure for longer than they would have on their own. The most important factor that facilitates the process of two civilizations meeting is if they are close enough to each other in time and space. Two separate races could fill the same space in the Universe, but separated by billions of years, Technology Review explains.