The Great Silence: 7 unrealistic ideas of fans flying saucers

Is there life on Mars? One of the great mysteries, which has ever faced humanity - is the question of the existence of extraterrestrial life forms. Over the years, it was proposed many explanations as to why we still need to establish the first contact, and each better than the other. The apparent contradiction between the high probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence of their discovery, or any contact with extraterrestrials known as the Fermi paradox, or the Great Silence. Let us examine his points.


1. aliens did not have time to fly to Zemlin actually was. This is one of the most common explanations for the Great Silence, but at the same time and one of the weakest.

Fermi's paradox is caused by three quite powerful principles:

Our galaxy has existed for a very long time - about 13, 2 billion years old (or 13, 200 million years old); intelligent life could occur even when the galaxy was very young, and thus, the aliens had plenty of time to visit, to colonize and to change every part of the Milky Way. Nevertheless, absolutely it does not look like some kind of civilization is made. Over time, our understanding of the universe to be confirmed, and the Fermi paradox is increasingly challenged. Earlier this year, astronomers have come to the conclusion that planets similar to Earth, began to appear as much as 11, 2 billion years ago, just two billion years after it formed the Milky Way. Now we know that the number of potentially habitable planets - both in the past and present - is enormous. Recent estimates suggest the presence of hundreds of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy alone.

2. The stars are too far away from each drugaKak Douglas Adams once said:

"Space is great. It's really great. You just will not believe it, how it is amazing, incredibly, dizzyingly high. Perhaps you can take if you get away to the pharmacy, but space is utter nonsense ».
Yes, there is no doubt - the space is great. But is it for this reason, we see no evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life? Are all extraterrestrial civilizations considered insurmountable space to tinker with hops, or interstellar space travel is technologically feasible? None of this is likely not true. Look at us. We already have interstellar space traveler as Voyager and the probe is no shortage of ideas about how we could implement such a mission.

Indeed, the first generation of conquerors of interstellar space will probably come in the form of self-replicating Von Neumann probes, which, in theory, could colonize the galaxy in just 10 million years. In terms of space, it is not too long. One civilization could colonize the galaxy already 1120 times over the past 11 years, 2 billion. And this is only one civilization!

So no, the star is not too far from each other - at least not when you have plenty of billions of years of work and an exponential growth.





3. Aliens comply Higher directive

extraterrestrial civilization at the present stage of its development, it is likely, will by its nature owns the Post-Biological and artificial supermind h4> Back in 1972 astronomer John Ball came up "hypothesis Zoo "- a scenario in which an advanced form of extraterrestrial life deliberately refuse to make contact with the people in favor of observing them from a safe distance. Ball believes that "they simply fenced off from us as part of the wildlife or the zoo." The reasons for this may be the fear of social or biological cross-contamination, ie "Higher directive," or simply the desire to explore our recreational or scientific purposes.

With this solution, there are a number of problems. First, it is completely unverifiable and even a little konspirologichno. Secondly, it is anthropocentric. Zoo hypothesis assumes that all aliens have the same motives in terms of ethics, science and recreation, which are in our country. It is so presumptuous! What can we offer extraterrestrial intelligent beings in terms of our science? Extraterrestrial civilization at the present stage of its development, it is likely to be in nature, and the Post-Biological owning artificial supermind (actually it probably will be an artificial super-intelligence). For them we would not be interesting microbes.

4. God created the universe only for nasEtot religious argument is trying to solve the Fermi paradox, suggesting that humans were created by God the only intelligent beings intentionally. This idea goes back to Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, who argued that the people - this is a unique plan of God.

The idea today is still popular, as evidenced by recent high-profile speech, Pat Robertson, in which he said that NASA should stop their efforts to explore space because it does not have "anything but gas balls and waste rock", adding that "This planet [the earth] - the place where God meets experimentation of creation».

But, as Carl Sagan said:

"The Universe - it is quite a big place. If it is only for us, it seems, is a waste of space ».
Indeed, if God created the universe just for us, why so difficult? Why is there space trillions of stars, and not just one? Simply put, it is unverifiable argument that is contrary to logic and common sense.

Of course, it is possible that we are alone in the universe, but in this case it has a much better explanation than the will of God.

5. The aliens have been here, but then ushliNekotorye claim that extraterrestrials have visited our solar system in the past and moved on, leaving traces of their existence, such as the face on Mars, pyramids and other archaeological finds. Of course, extraterrestrial origin face on Mars was debunked, and we have a very convincing explanation of how the pyramids were built. And the explanations that try to explain something to the actions of the aliens, though often sensational, but completely unfounded.

Others argue that aliens have visited Earth long ago, but left without a trace. It is unlikely for several reasons. Firstly, the progressive wave of extraterrestrial intelligence, probably in the form of machines would transform virtually everything in its path, turning the matter from inert matter into something more useful, such as computronium. In addition, they can - and probably will do it - to integrate all life in their civilization. Moreover, given the age of the galaxy and its apparent biophil character, our solar system may not yet be time to visit a variety of different civilizations. However, according to this proposed decision, none of them did not stay or leave behind any visible trace.





6. They really are here! So-called ufologists who want to make us believe that the aliens are already here and now, plagued by strange little creatures have anthropocentric physical form, kidnap everybody is extremely primitive in their flying saucers. In a word, no.

To take it seriously, need evidence that can be tested by skeptical scientists h4> To take it seriously, you need physical evidence that can be examined at leisure by skeptical scientists: a scraping plating of the ship and the discovery that it contains isotopic compounds that are not on this planet, the chemical elements of the so-called island of stability - very heavy elements that do not exist on Earth. Or a material with a completely strange properties. There are many things like this, that would immediately inspire confidence in this regard.

But there's no scrapings, no photos of the ship, nor the stolen pages from the logbook. All that is - only stories. There are cases of violations of the soil, but I can not break it with a shovel. There are people who claim to communicate with the UFO using light signals. But the pilots of aircraft can make a joke and send you in response to the light signal, determined to pretend to be a UFO. So it's not sufficient evidence.

Indeed, crop circles and UFOs not stood the test of time and are simply a projection of the modern concept of the technological miracle.

7. We are not looking for long inoplanetyanEto true that we seriously began to search for extraterrestrial intelligence only in the 1960s with the advent of the project of Frank Drake, "Ozma." For 55 years, we only scan the sky, and there are still many areas for coverage.

Of course, there is a possibility that there is no one receives and transmits signals. We are currently discussing the "pros" and "cons" active SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence programs) and targeted efforts to attract the attention of aliens. It is possible that all aliens xenophobia and does not serve any radio signals. If so, then all SETI doomed to failure.

But if the aliens are really interested in attracting our attention, they should not experience any difficulties in this. They could be the Milky Way dot probes Breysvella - hypothetical communication beacons, left in every star system in anticipation of the first signs of intelligent life, such as radio. These probes, in turn, communicated to us by passing the signal through a series of communications station, other such probes. On the other hand, the aliens might broadcast the exceptionally strong and directional radio or optical signal, which does not miss even such a seemingly primitive, technological civilization like ours.

However, this only applies to civilizations far more advanced than ours. SETI should continue to look for civilizations that are similar to our own in terms of technological progress.

via io9.com/the-7-least-plausible-solutions-to-the-fermi-paradox-1688525196