Are we alone in the universe – a rebuttal
I am going to take a quick break from ghosts and sports and dive into a neat topic. Are we alone in the universe? It’s a big question. Maybe the biggest. I recently read an article that summed up three possibilities why we haven’t heard or seen from anyone. They aren’t very good and I wanted to show why. Also, I want to show that there are in fact five possibilities and not three as the article suggests. Though I do say the three the article mentions aren’t good, what I mean is, they are viable reasons but they are not reasoned out very well.
First, a few facts. In the Milky Way galaxy there are around 250 billion stars. The Fermi paradox states that if you do some neat math, 1 in 1 million stars that are rocky worlds, 1 in 1 million of those, etc etc, several times over, there would have to be thousands of intelligent species in the universe. The big question is, where are they all. Current astronomical observations, with newer and newer equipment, tend to suggest that rocky worlds in the habitable zone of solar systems are very very common. We havent’ found any, but what we have found are gas giants that are, according to current solar system development theory, supposed to be very common. And we are finding them every where we look. So if we are finding rare planets, it stands to reason that we’ll be finding a ton of the not so rare kind.
Ok, on to the reasons why we haven’t heard from anyone up there.
The first possibility, we are the first creatures to evolve an develop the technological ability to investigate the universe. We are the first to be able to use a telescope basically. The universe is around 14 billion years old, give or take a few. The earth is around 4 billion years old, give or take a few. We are not new to the universe. I tend to agree with the article here actually. Earth doesn’t seem to be particularly different or unique. We are seem to be randomly thrown into the timescale of the universe. For this to be true, intelligent life capable of making themselves known in the universe must be VERY VERY rare.
The second possibility, there are many species in the universe but they are undetectable to us. This one I have an issue with. The article seems to say that this is not a very likely possibility. The reason it states is why would all advanced civilizations choose to not be visible or choose to advance in such a way as to make them invisible. Well, here’s the issue. Even if there were hundreds of thousands of civilizations in the Milky Way, there are 250 BILLION stars up there! We haven’t looked at every single star yet. We haven’t analyzed every single signal yet. We are really only looking and analyzing radio waves. We sure can’t see sky scrapes out there just yet, though it would be cool one day if we could. We have only been around broadcasting radio waves for less than 100 years. We could very well have looked at a star recently that is not broadcasting any signals now, but will be in 50 years when they invent radio technology. We actually have had a “WOW” signal once, detected by SETI decades ago. We were not able to detect it again, it was in an empty area of space. A spaceship perhaps? Who knows. The point here is, just because there may be thousands of technologically advanced races up there, doesn’t mean they are all at the same level of technology as we are. They could be eons ahead of us or they could be building their pyramids. In fact, given the amount of stars, and all other factors, it’s hard to believe another race is at the same level as us. Just remember Archimedes. Just a few slick thinking people that would have seen his steam engine, would have turned it into an industrial revolution and we would be two thousand years more technically advanced than we are now.
Their third possibility is there is a cosmic road block and all species eventually die out. Not much you can say on this one. We are the first species we know about to get as far as we have. The next 50 years may say hydrogen reactors in every car and garage bio geneticists that can whip you up a custom made virus in no time. So sure, we may all blow our selves up, but it stands to reason using the same logic as the Fermi paradox that one or two races would get by this “cosmic roadblock” and would likly be actively looking for others to help them get through it. What else would that have to do?
So that’s their logic. I mostly disagree with number 2. Number 3 is their catch all wild card. Number 1 is just silly.
My fourth possibility. There are thousands of aliens up there, we are in a corner of the universe where they have a ‘look don’t contact’ agenda. It would explain the thousands of reputed sightings some from very credible sources. Basically, they know about us, won’t let us see them and are already here waiting for us to get warp speed so Picard can beam into Obama’s oval office and talk to him about a federation.
And the final possibility? It’s the obvious one of course, there really is a God.
The link to the original article is below.
