The Fermi paradox, a core puzzle in UAP research, asks: “If the universe is full of habitable worlds, where is everybody?” A viral Reddit thread reignited the debate, mixing alien life theories with sharp critiques of humanity’s cosmic worth.
I hadn’t heard of the Fermi Paradox before reading this article, and as someone who has recently written several UAP articles, I should probably be more knowledgeable about the matter.
But before we delve into the Fermi, let’s consider the Drake equation. Basically, this is a formula that speculates on a likely number of active civilizations that would be able to communicate with us. In other words, a quantifiable way of finding extraterrestrials.
Decades of scientific research and devotion have yielded passionate discussion, continuous ridicule, and plenty of hypothesizing – but much like God himself, the aliens let our calls go to voicemail. In his novels, science fiction author Jules Verne referenced this.
Calculations and conjecture
So the Fermi paradox, then is the irony that all these calculations and conjectures ripple through the UAP community, yet we’ve heard nothing.
Recently, a post on the cult-like r/UFOs subreddit on October 9th shoulder-barged right in on the puzzle, sending the pieces flying:
“The Fermi paradox is ABSURD, ignorant, and arrogant,” wrote u/UpinteHcloud.
“No, you f***ing wouldn’t [see aliens], unless and until they decided to reveal themselves to us.”
In essence, that seems a fair point, but it empathizes with an alien we don’t know exists yet. Still, it gets the conversation motoring on, at least.
Distilling the key argument
Essentially, the paradox is a question rather than a verdict. It definitely doesn’t say that UFOs or UAPS are impossible. It also asks a simple “where is everybody?” type of question to implicitly query how broad our search should be when trying to encounter alien life.
The Fermi paradox originated in 1950, when Italian scientist Enrico Fermi informally told his colleagues that it seemed implausible that otherworldly life hadn't been detected thus far.
That was back in the day, when he wouldn’t receive as much pushback as a Redditor would today. However, one of the replies to the original post was full of respect and plain language.
“I’m not so sure the ‘then where are they?' portion of the paradox is an implication that they’re not actually there, but rather a genuine question,” wrote u/Sad-Society-57.
Three flights of fancy
When I was 17 and studying history, I heard the term “different schools of thought,” which I immediately loved. Now, we get to apply it to Fermi’s idea.
First up is the Great Filter theory, proposed by economist Robert Hanson in 1996, which suggests a space-faring civilization is either extremely rare or could technologically destroy itself, much like we might do ourselves. Another society just like ours could well be a miracle.
Next is the Dark Forest theory, as explained by the 2008 science fiction novel The Dark Forest, written by Chinese author Liu Cixin. This borrows heavily from game theory, in that all civilizations stay silent out of paranoia. The safest option would be to instantly destroy another civilization if it revealed its location.
And the Zoo Hypothesis, coined by radio astronomer John Ball in 1973, ponders that aliens may view Earth as underdeveloped and therefore choose not to interfere with our evolution. This respectful approach assumes that we’d need to reach a certain level of technological maturity, should aliens make their approach (if ever).
However, a detection bias runs through all three, which is what the original Reddit post slams. Perhaps it’s that humans are too savage to warrant contact.
If I were driving along the road and I came upon a group of apes, I would be curious about them. If I noticed they routinely murdered each other senselessly, poisoned their own home for toys, deceived each other and themselves constantly, hooked themselves on chemicals, murdered themselves, polluted their own water and air, treated the world like they owned it, enslaved each other, showed no respect for other life, appointed the worst among them to leadership positions, and listened to Taylor Swift en mass I'd peace the fuck out. I have a hunch we are the trailer park of the Milky Way.
Bjork_militia on the r/UFO Reddit group.
The wait for a true revelation goes on.
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