Delicate Arch at night; credit: Astronomy.com
Where are the extraterrestrial civilizations? (Fermi’s paradox) Updated 28 September 2024 (c) 2024
Introduction
In 1950, while having lunch with colleagues Edward Teller and Herbert York, who were chatting about a recent cartoon in the New Yorker depicting aliens, physicist Enrico Fermi suddenly blurted out, “Where is everybody?,” a question now known as Fermi’s paradox. This article presents background on Fermi’s paradox, explains why many of the proposed solutions are NOT viable, and mentions a few promising new results and directions.
Behind Fermi’s question was this line of reasoning: (a) Given the
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