The Fermi Paradox: Why are We Alone in the Universe?

One of my favourite analogies is: Imagine the universe as the oceans of the earth and you pulled a glass (representing the observable universe) of water out, you might assume there was no life in the oceans. The universe is so immense, time immemorial, and EMR so slow, that many civilisations may have come and gone across the universe already.

It's a simple matter of distance; even if there were 100 other human-level civilizations currently active in our galaxy, they could all still be separated by thousands of light years.

“Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” -Arthur C. Clarke

Maybe we are not alone in space, but we are alone in time. It's a shame that this is never taken into account in videos like this. The 4 Dimensional space is to consider, when that means traveling or sending messages would take million of years from our perspective.

I think what needs to be included in there which no one seems to mention is the mental stability of a civilization. The ability to stay sane as a civilization going forward seems to me to be the greatest great filter.

“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.” ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space". From the movie Contact. I absolutely agree with it too.

I have watched dozens of videos on the fermi paradox....still listening to the factboi to make sure this channel stays amongst the living

IMO, the first contact message we'll, probably, get reads something like "STOP BROADCASTING! YOU'RE PUTTING YOURSELVES IN DANGER!!!!!"

I've been pondering the Fermi Paradox for a while... and the resolution is probably found in the immense size of the universe and resulting time required to travel through it due to the limiting factor of the speed of light. As other commenters have pointed out, the universe is so vast, and civilisations so brief on a galactic time scale, that any observations of other solar systems, let alone other galaxies, have virtually zero chance of seeing anything indicative of complex life. Edit: The Great Filter argument is pervasive... and I've thought ever since my teens in the 1980s and the appearance of the ozone hole that civilisations lasting long enough to spread outside their own solar system, let alone through a significant part of their home galaxy, is just not possible. After all, humanity has demonstrated repeatedly that we're really not that bright and prone to self-destruction, and I suspect (with deep regret thanks to my love of the works of Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert) that we're just not going to make it. I don't know whether we're going to engineer our own extinction, or simply end up with a Matrix ending at the mercy of our AI overlords, but I see one or the other as the most likely outcomes for us.

The Fermi Paradox is probably underestimating the difficulty and impracticality of interstellar travel, even for advanced civilizations. If the universe were teaming with life at least as advanced as. say, Mayan civilization, or even 20th century earth, we would not have any easy way of detecting it.

I think we need to consider that life is a complete anomaly that may never be replicated and that we may actually be alone.

I go with the rare Earth hypothesis. In particular I believe that our freakishly large moon, and how that moon was formed is why we have intelligent life here, but not anywhere near by in time and space. Specifically, late in the formation of the Earth a planet the size of Mars slammed into the Earth at an angle. This did several things - one, it gave us a larger than normal iron core, because now we have the iron core of two planets, not one. Two, it increased the spin of that iron core. Combine one and two and you end up with a stronger and longer lasting magnetic field then we should have for a planet our size. A magnetic field that protects us from the solar wind. A weak magnetic field is why Mars has such a thin atmosphere and high surface radiation. Third, the lighter material got blown up into orbit where it formed into the moon. Our moon is freakishly large for the size of our planet. This has several effects, it increases the size of our tides, mixing up those chemicals of life so well, and often. It stabilizes our rotation so that the Earth doesn't wobble, which stabilizes our climate. Our freakishly large moon also provides an asteroid deflector. An imperfect one to be sure, but on that increases the time between extinction level events. Add all of that up and we have a planet that allows a long enough period of time for intelligent life to evolve, something that seems unlikely on other planets.

The problem is probably that those “tens of millions of years”, might be a blink of an eye against the age of the galaxy, but it’s cripplingly long for the connection and survival of any civilisation. Let alone maintaining that single endeavour of expansion. I suspect there’re pockets of life, disconnected from each other, by vast distances, with time inexorably wearing them down to extinction, because time in the end, always wins.

You & Hank Green should do like a weekly podcast together, i think humanity would benefit from that

One of the best videos I have ever seen on the Fermi Paradox, well done.

Arthur C.Clarke said: “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” that quote has always stuck with me.

Of all the various types of life on earth. Hundreds of millions of things from single cells to us, only one has developed an ability to explore the Cosmos. Long odds for something similar to us

Personally I just assume rare earth + rare life + rare intelligence = no life (other than us) within the observable universe. I also hold to the infinite universe camp (in time and distance) so I acknowledge that there IS life out there somewhere, it's just so impossibly far away it doesn't matter.

Distance is the main factor as to why we will most likely never nakr contact.