Where are all the aliens?
The Fermi Paradox suggests that 1% of the total stars in the universe have a potentially habitable planet orbiting around it. That equates to at least a 100 billion billion Earth-like planets in the known Universe. To understand how big this number is, think of 10,000 habitable planets in the observable universe for every grain of sand on Earth.
That very rough estimate suggests that the Universe could be teeming with life and with many trillions of habitable planets. Couple that with the fact that we are talking about the known universe, then what is unknown only increases the odds of life outside our own planet. Given the huge number of possible habitable planets, then a very tiny percentage of these could that have advanced civilizations, that could easily equate to millions of civilizations. However, if this was true, then where the hell are all these advanced aliens? Civilization advancement is measured by a scale called the ‘Kardashev Scale’. It groups civilizations into three categories based on the amount of energy they use.
Type I Civilization
A Type I Civilization has the ability to use all of the energy on their planet. This means that we are not really a Type I Civilization yet, but we are not far off. According to Carl Sagan, Earth is inhabited by a Type 0.7 Civilization.
Type II Civilization
Type II civilizations are able to harness all of the energy of their sun. We are not even close to doing this, but we do harness a minuscule amount using solar panels, so we are at least on the path to a Type II Civilization. So show how far behind we are a Type II, our sun outputs enough energy every second for almost 500,000 years of our current civilization’s needs.
Type III Civilization
Type III civilizations are inhabited by gods. They can harness the equivalent energy of a whole galaxy which at first sounds very hard to believe. But imagine what man has achieved in the last two hundred years, and now imagine if human civilization continued unabated for billions of years into the future. Type III’s have probably mastered inter-stellar travel and could colonize all habitable planets in their galaxy. The first colonized planet could take a matter of centuries to bring it up to the level of their own civilization. Now there are two planets that could each colonize new planets resulting in exponential growth of civilizations throughout the galaxy. At this rate, they could even colonize most habitable planets in the universe in a matter of millions of years if they were dedicated to the task.
Where are the Aliens?
Civilizations would be extremely rare in the Universe if there were no Type II or Type III civilizations in existence. This could be a likely scenario as we could probably detect these advanced civilizations from Earth given their energy signature and ability to colonize . Of course they could exist and may be purposefully hiding from us to let us develop on our own. Similar to humans running a national park or protecting a remote Amazon tribe, leaving Earth in its natural state maybe their desire. If so, they could make visits from time to time or allow tourism to our planet, but with no direct interference. It is even possible that we are one of the planets that they colonized, but are allowing us to self-develop while keeping an invisible eye on us. Such hypothesis would explain why we have not met them. Although, many people do claim to have seen UFOs, aliens, and angels or other spirit beings. But if there are only Type I Civilizations, then they wouldn’t likely be advanced enough to cross the vast distances of space to visit us. They could however contact us in other ways, but like us, they would first have to detect other civilizations, and that alone is difficult given the size of the universe.
How we could detect other civilizations
Currently we use radio signals to detect the presence of other civilizations. SETI targets radio signals within a narrow band to search for an intelligent signal as opposed to a naturally occurring one. While this method is seriously limited, we have already detected possible signs of intelligent life out there, although these could also be natural phenomena or even mistakes.
Mankind has been been sending out electromagnetic waves for over a century in the form of TV broadcasts, satellite transmissions, radar, and mobile phone communications. Perhaps other Type I civilizations are doing the same thing or similar. They could even be using radio signals to purposefully broadcast their existence to the universe. If so, SETI could detect their presence.
Aliens could also be transmitting via other methods such as artificial infrared, visible or ultraviolet emissions, or microwave radio signals. Other possibilities include: high-energy x-rays and gamma ray bursts. It’s even possible that spaceships have been sent out that we could detect. Even if they were relatively slow like NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, the universe is very old, so there is always the possibility of such a craft turning up in our neighborhood.
If the Fermi Paradox is right or close to the truth, then we may not be alone. But even outside of what is discussed in this paradox, life could exist in other universes or dimensions which are not taken into consideration, but do increase the odds of extra-terrestrial life substantially. Beings that we call angels or gods may not be entirely figments of human imagination, rather some could be beings that exist in other dimensions or at least have access to other dimensions along with our own. The possibilities for life are as endless as the Universe itself. But keeping it within our own reality and existence, the video below is a good explanation of the Fermi Paradox that allows for the possibility of many alien civilizations on Earth-like planets in our Universe. But if it turns out that we are the only life in the Universe, then we had better not destroy ourselves, otherwise that leaves no one to admire the Universe. Something tells me however, that we are not the only life in the Universe. From our own observations, life comes from life, thus life on Earth could well have come from life elsewhere.
