A new proposed answer to the Fermi paradox suggests that the reason why aliens haven’t contacted Earth is because they haven’t detected any signs of intelligence here.

A new proposed answer to the Fermi paradox suggests that the reason why aliens haven’t contacted Earth is because they haven’t detected any signs of intelligence here.

A recent preprint paper uploaded to the arXiv database offers a fresh take on the Fermi paradox by suggesting that extraterrestrial beings might not have made contact with Earth because they find our planet uninteresting. Amri Wandel, an astrophysicist from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, theorizes that if life exists on numerous planets in the galaxy, intelligent aliens may be more intrigued by those that exhibit signs of both biology and technology. As of now, the paper has yet to undergo peer review. The Fermi paradox proposes that given the age of the universe, intelligent aliens have likely developed long-distance space travel, which should have led to them visiting Earth by now. The absence of contact may be an indication that intelligent life is nonexistent in the Milky Way galaxy.

However, specialists have proposed alternative reasons for the absence of extraterrestrial life. One possibility is that they may have come to Earth in the past, prior to the existence of humans or the development of recording technologies. Alternatively, the difficulties of long-distance space travel may have been underestimated. It’s also plausible that advanced alien civilizations emerged too recently to reach Earth, or that they made a conscious decision not to venture into space. Moreover, the possibility exists that they may have self-destructed.

The new preprint paper by Wandel proposes a different interpretation: life may be abundant in the Milky Way. With many habitable-zone rocky planets likely hosting life, intelligent extraterrestrials might not find it worthwhile to send signals to each one since they could potentially end up attempting to communicate with primitive forms of life such as algae or amoebas.

The new paper proposes that if life is abundant in the Milky Way, then intelligent aliens would likely be more interested in detecting signs of technology rather than signs of basic life. However, detecting technological signals could be challenging as Earth has only been transmitting radio waves since the 1930s, which have only reached a small fraction of the stars in the Milky Way. Moreover, it takes time for any response from aliens to reach Earth, so only stars within 50 light-years could have responded to Earth’s transmissions since then.

The oldest radio signals from Earth are likely too garbled to be understood by aliens, as they were not intentionally transmitted into space. The paper suggests that unless there are over 100 million technologically advanced planets in the galaxy, Earth’s signals may not have reached another intelligent civilization. Nevertheless, as Earth continues to transmit more radio waves, it becomes more likely that they will eventually be detected by intelligent listeners. Therefore, the lack of contact with intelligent civilizations within 50 light-years of Earth does not necessarily mean they do not exist, but they may just be waiting for Earth’s call.

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