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Are we alone in the universe? The answer is scary ...

"Are we alone in the Universe?" This is a universal question, a question we have all asked ourselves and that since human beings have looked at stars for the first time, we are round in the head.

Throughout history there have been many answers to this question, but every time the scientific advances take another step in this direction...we new questions arise.

In this article I do not want (and I cannot) give an answer, each one later can draw their own conclusions.In this article I want to explain the Fermi Paradox , a paradox about life outside the earth whose consequences are so overwhelming that they can leave you in shock and make you think for a long time.

Fermi's Paradox "opens Pandora's box" and fills us head with possible answers to ask about life outside the earth, some of them really terrifying.Do you want to know more? Read on...

Fermi's paradox

Enrico Fermi was an Italian physicist who worked on the Manhattan project (the project for the development of the nuclear bomb ) It was a scientist of great prestige who even won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 for his contributions in induced radioactivity.

During the development of the Manhattan project he had a discussion with other colleagues in the laboratory which revolved around the following question: Is the human being the only developed species of the universe? Although many of his companions thought that there should be other civilizations such as ours (or more advanced) by a mere matter of probability, Enrico Fermi was more cautious.It was there when he raised his paradox: «If there are other advanced civilizations in the Universe as it is possible that we have not found a trace of them» (probes, ships, transmissions etc...).

Are we alone in the universe? The answer is scary ...

The question is that When Fermi formulated this paradox in 1950 , space exploration was still in an embryonic phase and it was therefore easy to refute his answer simply by saying that we had not sought enough.The funny thing is that in 2015, after more than 40 years of development of the SETI project, having powerful telescopes such as Hubble, Chandra or Spitzer in space and having sent radio signals over 100 light years from the Earth, we still haven't discovered anything.The more time goes by and the further we get in our space research, the more relevance the Fermi paradox takes. Why do we still find no trace of intelligent life? Why this great silence?

Drake's equation and Super-Advanced civilizations

The size of the universe is inconceivable to the mind human, that is why popular belief makes us think that if there are only a few civilizations in it, it will be difficult for them to find each other.But...is that really true? How many civilizations could inhabit the universe?

Frank Drake, president of the SETI institute, formulated the now known as Drake's equation in an attempt to estimate the number of civilizations that exist in our galaxy and that they are capable of emitting detectable radio waves.In their initial estimates in 1961, Drake and his team solved the formula with a result of 10 advanced civilizations in our galaxy that should be leaving a detectable trace for the technology they had at the time.54 Years later and with more developed technology, We still haven't found a clue that makes us suspect that such civilizations exist.

Drake's equation takes into account parameters such as the rate of star formation, the percentage of stars that have planets, the fraction of those planets on which life could have developed etc.As you can imagine, the data with which they completed the equation were rather an estimate «in the eyes of good cubero », however, a large part of the scientific community supported them and, in fact, other studies continued to reaffirm them.

According to this same equation and the estimates made at the time, In our galaxy, the Milky Way, there should be about 100,000 intelligent civilizations and 10 of them likely to be detectable .With these data we could stop thinking that there are only a few and distant civilizations, we have gone from some few civilizations in the entire universe to approximately 100,000 in our galaxy alone.Of course some will be less advanced than ours and therefore will be difficult to detect, but others will be much more advanced and the "trace" they leave in the galaxy should be easier to track.To better visualize the type of civilizations we are looking for, we will think about the model that theorized Russian astrophysicist Nicolai Kardashev who divided them into three types according to the cant ity of energy that each of these types of civilization should consume.

  • Type 1: A type I civilization is one that has managed to control and perfect all forms of energetic production that can be found on earth and that start from renewable sources: Solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc.This type of civilization is capable of producing billions of times the energy that the earth produces at the moment.the level of current energy growth many scientists believe that the earth could become a Type I civilization in approximately 200 years.
  • Type 2: A type II civilization is that that as the type I civilization exploits any renewable energy source that exists on earth but that needs more and for that purpose it goes into space to look for it.A civilization of this caliber would be able to cover an entire star with a sphere to capture all the energy that the emits it without generating any type of waste.A civilization of this type is so advanced that it should not be difficult to find thanks to all that amount of energy it consumes.
  • Type 3: A type III civilization theoretically would not have enough energy with all that produces its star and would have to cover more stars to be able to continue growing.A type III civilization would have so much energy that it would not be complicated to develop the technology to create ships that travel (almost) at the speed of light.It would be a practically indestructible civilization since in the face of any type of "galactic catastrophe" they would have escape alternatives.A type III civilization would handle amounts of energy comparable to those produced in supernovae and could colonize all a galaxy in a few thousand years.

Are we alone in the universe? The answer is scary ...

Understanding that technological development coupled with a considerable increase in population requires an exponential increase in energy, the natural evolution of every civilization would be to scale these levels and pass from being a type 0 civilization (what is now the earth) to being a type 3 (the most advanced).Having more than 100,000 intelligent civilizations according to Drake in our galaxy it would be feasible to think that any of them it will be in a phase two or even in a phase 3.Then...why do we not see them? How is it possible that there are high chances of civilizations like this and that we still don't know anything about them?

There are two currents of thought that answer these questions, this is when the truly mysterious comes.

Answer 1: There are no advanced civilizations or there are many less than are believed

The people who support the answer 1 look n the results of the Drake equation and other estimates of scientists around the world who support it, compare them with the results obtained in the searches so far (ie 0) and realize that something does not add up.It is then that they say; "Drake's equation is wrong and there aren't as many civilizations as they think" or the most radical: "There are no more advanced civilizations."

What could be the reason for this? One of the most popular options is the large filter hypothesis formulated in 1998 by Robin Hanson . A hypothesis that speaks of an event in the history of civilizations that "truncates" its development at some indeterminate stage of evolution towards a Type III civilization.This "event" could be of natural origin (the outbreak of a supernova, a pulsar, a black hole...) or artificial (a world war, ultra-pollution, AI, a deadly virus designed by man...)

Taking into account the hypothesis of the large filter and that our civilization is still alive three possibilities open up:

  • We are the most advanced civilization: This possibility, although it seems improbable, would imply that we are currently the most advanced civilization or one of the most advanced in the universe.If so, there may not even be the great filter and that it is a simple matter of time that we and other civilizations that are behind, develop enough technology to discover that we are not alone.think it's u na unlikely possibility since the solar system is very young compared to the age of the universe and more specifically compared to other planetary systems.
  • We have already passed the great filter: This option comes to say that our civilization has fallen into a kind of "cosmic fate" that has allowed us to pass the great filter, a filter that, or no more civilization has passed or have done very few and therefore the results of Drake's equation would be totally wrong, there would be many fewer civilizations and that would explain "the great silence of the universe." This great filter could simply be that the conditions on earth are so exceptional that they do not occur anywhere else in the universe or that the conditions for life or advanced life to occur are really strange, to the point that they have not occurred anywhere else.
  • We have not yet passed the great fil tro: This option is the most shocking, it means that we have the filter ahead and that we are heading irremediably in its direction.Other civilizations of other systems would have also had to face this great filter with catastrophic consequences that would have led to extinction or to an impressive technological and evolutionary setback.This great filter could be from a world war to the development of an Artificial Intelligence that exterminates a civilization, going through all kinds of natural disasters.The question is that this great filter is It produces before civilization comes to control space travel in an advanced way, that is, before it becomes an advanced Type II or Type III civilization.(The technological level achieved by these civilizations would be so advanced that it would allow them to survive almost any type of disaster thanks to interplanetary colonization)

Are we alone in the universe? The answer is scary ...

Answer 2: There are other very advanced civilizations but there are logical reasons why we cannot see them

There are people who think that the planet Earth and the human being are no exception and that the chances that there are other advanced civilizations and even much more advanced than ours are very high.There are those who not only support Drake's equation but also theorize with the possibility that The results of this equation are even less than reality can hide.

Why do we make an equation to find advanced civilizations that take into account natural conditions such as those of the earth or the human being? "Couldn't there be life forms that are formed by other compounds and that breathe other gases? In fact it has already been shown that within the earth life can appear where you least expect it, from icy places with temperatures well below e zero degrees, even in Oceanic chimneys at great depth withstanding high temperatures and great pressure.Why shouldn't it be possible that life would exist like this on other planets and that it would evolve into rational beings?

People who are from this opinion group, what they can't deny is that every time we look for evidence in space we don't find anything that can support this hypothesis.So, if they exist and we can't see them, what is the reason? These are some of the possible theories:

  • We already know about its existence but the government hides it from us: The preferred theory of conspiracy lovers.Is it possible That governments know more than they tell us in this regard? Is it possible that we have captured traces of these technologies and did not want to reveal them? Who knows...
  • There are advanced civilizations but they don't want to interfere: There may be advanced civilizations in our galaxy and they simply have a "pact" or a "Treated" not to interfere in primitive civilizations like ours.The land would be for them a kind of reserve where to observe the behavior of civilizations in underdeveloped phases and of course they would not be interested in interfering since they would modify the rhythm of our history.
  • We are looking for wrong signals: Another interesting and quite rational option may be that we are simply looking for the signals that we should not consider.We consider it logical to search Radio waves since we consider it one of the first forms of communication that can be developed, but what if they use a totally different one that is practically "invisible" to our detection systems? We may still have years to develop the necessary technology for such a mission...
  • There is a dominant and predatory super-civilization: Human beings have done throughout its history: conquer, annihilate and loot resources.Is it possible that an advanced civilization behaves like this at the interplanetary level? If so, that could explain the null results looking for intelligent life outside our planet.On the one hand this super-civilization would be ending other civilizations of other planets and on the other hand other civilizations that know the presence of this predatory species would hide their signals abroad so as not to end up being his victims.There are already many scientists like Stephen Hawking who have warned of the dangers of sending "messages" to space...we don't know who can receive them!
  • We are in a part of the "little traveled" Galaxy: Maybe the equation of Drake is right but maybe the area of ​​the Galaxy in which we find ourselves is a "zone of no one », a little busy place, with little interest for the rest of civilizations.
  • We do not understand our reality: Everything may be a species of «Matrix», that we live in a kind of induced dream and that is why there are so many unanswered questions and apparent contradictions of what we observe and what we calculate.
  • Super-advanced civilizations have no interest in "colonizing" the galaxy: When we think of super-advanced civilizations we imagine them expanding throughout the galaxy.And if not? These civilizations may feel comfortable enough in their respective planets and therefore do not even consider going out into space to colonize other systems.

To end this article, do not hesitate to tell us what your opinion and which of these options you think are the most viable.Do you think we will contact other advanced civilizations someday? What do you think that first contact would be like?

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