If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens - Where is Everybody?

Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life

Stephen Webb

During a Los Alamos lunchtime conversation that took place more than 50 years ago, four world-class scientists agreed, given the size and age of the Universe, that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations simply had to exist. The sheer numbers demanded it. But one of the four, the renowned physicist and back-of-the-envelope calculator Enrico Fermi, asked the telling question: If the extraterrestrial life proposition is true, he wondered, "Where IS everybody?"

In this lively and thought-provoking book, Stephen Webb presents a detailed discussion of the 50 most cogent and intriguing answers to Fermi's famous question, divided into three distinct groups:

• Aliens are already here among us. Here are answers ranging from Leo Szilard's suggestion that they are already here, and we know them as Hungarians, to the theorists who claim that aliens built Stonehenge and the Easter Island statues.
• Aliens exist, but have not yet communicated. The theories in this camp range widely, from those who believe we simply don't have the technologies to receive their signals, to those who believe the enormities of space and time work against communication, to those who believe they're hiding from us.
• Aliens do not exist. Here are the doubters' arguments, from the Rare Earth theory to the author's own closely argued and cogently stated skepticism.

The proposed solutions run the gamut from the crackpot to the highly serious, but all deserve our consideration. The varieties of arguments -- from first-rate scientists, philosophers and historians, and science fiction authors -- turn out to be astonishing, entertaining, and vigorous intellectual exercises for any reader interested in science and the sheer pleasure of speculative thinking.

Table of Contents

Preface
Figure Credits

1. Where Is Everybody?
   
2. Of Fermi and Paradox
   
   Enrico Fermi
   Paradox
   The Fermi Paradox
   
3. They Are Here
   
   SOLUTION 1 They Are Here and They Call Themselves Hungarians
   SOLUTION 2 They Are Here and Are Meddling in Human Affairs
   SOLUTION 3 They Were Here and Left Evidence of Their Presence
   SOLUTION 4 They Exist and They Are Us - We Are All Aliens!
   SOLUTION 5 The Zoo Scenario
   SOLUTION 6 The Interdict Scenario
   SOLUTION 7 The Planetarium Hypothesis
   SOLUTION 8 God Exists
   
4. They Exist But Have Not Yet Communicated
   SOLUTION 9 The Stars Are Far Away
   SOLUTION 10 They Have Not Had Time to Reach Us
   SOLUTION 11 A Percolation Theory Approach
   SOLUTION 12 Bracewell/von Neumann Probes
   SOLUTION 13 We Are Solar Chauvinists
   SOLUTION 14 They Stay at Home . . .
   SOLUTION 15 . . . and Surf the Net
   SOLUTION 16 They Are Signaling But We Do Not Know How to Listen
   SOLUTION 17 They Are Signaling But We Do Not Know at Which Frequency to Listen
   SOLUTION 18 Our Search Strategy Is Wrong
   SOLUTION 19 The Signal Is Already There in the Data
   SOLUTION 20 We Have Not Listened Long Enough
   SOLUTION 21 Everyone Is Listening, No-one Is Transmitting
   SOLUTION 22 Berserkers
   SOLUTION 23 They Have No Desire to Communicate
   SOLUTION 24 They Develop a Different Mathematics
   SOLUTION 25 They Are Calling But We Do Not Recognize the Signal
   SOLUTION 26 They Are Somewhere But the Universe Is Stranger Than We Imagine
   SOLUTION 27 A Choice of Catastrophes
   SOLUTION 28 They Hit the Singularity
   SOLUTION 29 Cloudy Skies Are Common
   SOLUTION 30 Infinitely Many ETCs Exist But Only One Within Our Particle Horizon: Us
   
5. They Do Not Exist
   SOLUTION 31 The Universe Is Here for Us
   SOLUTION 32 Life Can Have Emerged Only Recently
   SOLUTION 33 Planetary Systems Are Rare
   SOLUTION 34 We Are the First
   SOLUTION 35 Rocky Planets Are Rare
   SOLUTION 36 Continuously Habitable Zones Are Narrow
   SOLUTION 37 Jupiters Are Rare
   SOLUTION 38 Earth Has an Optimal 'Pump of Evolution'
   SOLUTION 39 The Galaxy Is a Dangerous Place
   SOLUTION 40 A Planetary System Is a Dangerous Place
   SOLUTION 41 Earth’s System of Plate Tectonics Is Unique
   SOLUTION 42 The Moon Is Unique
   SOLUTION 43 Life’s Genesis Is Rare
   SOLUTION 44 The Prokaryote/Eukaryote Transition Is Rare
   SOLUTION 45 Toolmaking Species Are Rare
   SOLUTION 46 Technological Progress Is Not Inevitable
   SOLUTION 47 Intelligence at the Human Level Is Rare
   SOLUTION 48 Language Is Unique to Humans
   SOLUTION 49 Science Is Not Inevitable
   
6. Conclusion
   SOLUTION 50 The Fermi Paradox Resolved . . .
Notes and Further Reading
References
Index

Extent: 300 pages
Binding: Casebound & Jacketed
Publication Date: October 2002
ISBN: 978-0-387-74643-2

Home

Praxis Publishing - Leaders in Scientific Publishing © 2008 All rights reserved