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Fermi's Paradox
If technology continues to improve, we can easily conceive of
colonizing the entire galaxy in less then 100 million years.
For example, one can conceive of many man made probes sent to a host of
other stars. Some will find environments suitable for human life and
could clone humans (and other animals and plants) from onboard DNA
samples.
Another possibility is that
artificial intelligence will develop an exploratory desire and produce
machines that can replicate themselves. These machines could travel to
neighbouring stars. Those that find solar systems with enough raw
materials could go about manufacturing replicas of themselves (or
improvements thereof). These daughter probes could then be sent to
further multitudes of stars and in a short time the entire galaxy
would be completely colonized by these so called Von Neumann probes.
Most of the stars in the galaxy are more than a billion years older
than the Sun. If life and civilizations are common throughout the
galaxy then they should have colonized the galaxy long ago. Where are
they? This is known as Fermi's paradox. Fermi's paradox relies on the
assumption that civilizations (as we know them) have a desire to
colonize (or at least explore) the Galaxy.
- Team 1 resolves Fermi's paradox by arguing that we don't see evidence for
aliens because other technological civilizations have no desire to colonize
or explore the Galaxy (do we have such a desire?) or that the physical limitations
behind space travel have made colonization impossible.
- Team 2 argues that other technological civilizations will have a desire
to colonize or explore the galaxy. They resolve Fermi's paradox with plausible
speculations such as we have been colonized but we just don't know it; for
example, the alien civilization is into nanotechnology so small that we haven't
detected it yet or we have been quarantined in a galactic zoo.
Resources:
Helpfull links and references- Start Here!
References
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"The Search for life in the Universe" by D. Goldsmith and T. Owen
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"Here Be Dragons, The Scientific Search for Extra Terrestrials", Koener & Devay
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"Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life",
S. Shostak, 1998, Beverly Hills Books.
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"The Quest for Extraterrestrial Life: a book of readings",
D. Goldsmith, 1980, University Science Books.
Gives a nice historical perspective and a range of modern opinions.
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"Intelligent Life in the Universe", I.S. Shklovski and C. Sagan, 1966.
An old classic.
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