The universe is so incredibly large and it has an almost endless supply of worlds potentially harboring life. But then, where is all this m wave?
This is called the Fermi Paradox: the disturbing scientific anomaly that, despite having billions of stars in our Milky Way galaxy (and even more outside), we have never encountered signs of an advanced extraterrestrial civilization.
This is a very relevant question, and one that has debated many generations of scientists and thinkers, ever since the paradox was formulated decades ago. Some suggest that the aliens might be hibernating, or that something mysterious is preventing their evolution from happening. Or maybe they just don't want to meet us?
Now, theoretical physicist Alexander Berezin of the National Research University of Electronic Technology (MIET) in Russia, has come up with his own explanation for why we are seemingly alone in the Universe, proposing a solution he calls "first in, last out" , to the Fermi paradox.
According to Berezin's paper, which has yet to be reviewed (currently in pre-print) by other scientists, the paradox has a "trivial solution, requiring no controversial assumptions but may prove "difficult to accept, as it predicts a future for our own civilization that is even worse than extinction ". As Berezin sees, the problem with some proposed solutions to the Fermi Paradox is that they define extraterrestrial life too narrowly. "The specific nature of civilizations that arise at the interstellar level shouldn't matter “, he writes. "They could be biological organisms like us, AIs that rebelled against their creators, or entities like those described by Stanislaw Lem in Solaris he adds.
Of course, even with such a range of different elements, we still see no evidence of extraterrestrial life in the cosmos. But to resolve the paradox, Berezin says the only parameter we should be concerned with, when it comes to defining extraterrestrial life, is the physical limit to which we can observe its existence. “The only variable that we can objectively measure is the probability of life becoming detectable from space, at some distance from Earth. For simplicity, let's call this the "A parameter" says Berezin.
If an extraterrestrial civilization does not reach this parameter A (whether by developing means of interstellar transport, by broadcasting communications through space or by other means), then it could very well exist without being able to get in touch with us, but that does not help us resolve the paradox.
The "first in, last out" solution offered by Berezin is a more sinister scenario:"What if the first life form that achieves the ability to travel interstellarly necessarily eradicates all competition, to fuel its own expansion? he asks himself. As Berezin explains, this does not necessarily mean that a highly developed extraterrestrial civilization would consciously destroy other life forms, perhaps "they wouldn't even notice it:in the same way that a construction crew tear down an anthill, to build human real estate, as they lack the precision and specific will to protect it .
Is Berezin then suggesting that we are the ants, and that the reason we haven't encountered aliens is that we haven't yet had our own civilization thoughtlessly demolished by incredibly superior life forms? No. Because we are probably not the ants, but rather the future destroyers of the worlds that we have been looking for all this time. “Assuming the above assumption is correct, what would this mean for our future? writes Berezin. “The only explanation is the invocation of the anthropic principle. We are the first to arrive at the [interstellar] stage and, most likely, we will be the last to leave he continues.
Again, such potential destruction would not need to be deliberately engineered or orchestrated, it could simply unfold as a completely free system, far too complex and free for any individual to control. One example given by Berezin is that of free-market capitalism, and another could be the dangers of an unconstrained artificial intelligence (AI) on its accumulation of power.
"A rogue AI could potentially populate the entire supercluster with copies of itself, turning every solar system into a supercomputer, and it's no wonder why it would do that. All that matters is that it can happen says Berezin. This is a pretty terrifying take on the Fermi Paradox:basically, we may be the winners of a deadly race we're participating in without even knowing it.
However, even Berezin admits he hopes he's wrong about that. Additionally, it is important to note that many other scientists have much more optimistic views on the potential "date" of contact with advanced extraterrestrial life. The physicist's point of view is therefore only the latest scientific postulate as to why we are perhaps destined to gaze at the stars, alone.
