Possible solution to the Fermi paradox found! the Dark Forest Theory
The universe is filled with stars,
and this is no news, but nowadays we are also quite sure the universe is filled with the planet
as well. I mean, observation had shown that we can find planets everywhere in the universe,
and – given that a star can host multiple planets – planets are more numerous. So far,
we discovered something like 5000 confirmed exoplanets, and this is a really small number
to be able to make accurate predictions and science. For instance, it took us two centuries
to come up with a theory about stellar evolution, and classification! And the number of stars that
it took was something like 250.000. In order to come up with a similar understanding of planets,
we will need much more than that, because they are numerous, but they are all different.
This is just to say,
that we are at the beginning of the exoplanets’ era, and we expect everything to change in some
years. It will probably take some time, though. Studying and understanding exoplanets are crucial
to get some hints about the philosophical position that we occupy in the universe.
Are we alone? This question has always haunted us, and we don’t seem to have an answer to it.
But we’re working on that.
The so-called Fermi Paradox is based on the assumption that a lot of planets exist,
and that the Earth is not so special. In this case, given the multitude of planets
in the universe, how come we never got to communicate with aliens? Where’s everyone?
But now we might have an answer.
=============================================
You may have heard about the fermi paradox before.
Simply explained, it asks the question: ‘If intelligent life is common in the universe,
then where is everybody?’
Well, if you know something about both history and physics,
I’m sure you’re also aware that Fermi was a nuclear physicist, and he contributed to the
creation of the first prototype nuclear reactor. So what does he exactly have to do with Aliens?
He never really wrote much about extra-terrestrials.
Everything started in Los Alamos. Fermi was sitting and chatting with his
colleagues about a cartoon showing aliens. These aliens were found in New York City,
just popping up out of a flying saucer carrying trash cans in New York City.
Fermi was known for his sense of humor and intelligence. He was a smart guy.
Suddenly, literally out of the blue, he asked: where is everybody?
His colleagues, who were as smart as him, knew what he was referring to. Everyone
understood Fermi was referring to the fact there wasn’t any solid evidence of aliens out there.
No one ever came in touch with us. Why was that? Why have we never received a message
or something to greet us? With his question, Fermi was trying to express these thoughts.
There was no solid evidence of aliens visiting our big blue planet.
Then, of course, the conversation went on. I mean, we are talking about nerd scientists,
among the best scientists in the world. They like having long conversations about cool stuff.
That’s why they turned to the topic of interstellar travel where Fermi
concluded interstellar flight might not be possible, might not be worth the effort,
or technological civilization doesn’t last long enough to invent interstellar travel.
Now, I wouldn’t say Fermi was completely wrong, but keep in mind that we are talking about 1950.
At that time, powerful rockets were still a dream and they hadn’t yet reached Earth’s orbit.
================================================== One thing you have to understand about this is…
Fermi never really questioned the possibility of alien civilizations.
He only asked himself the question “could we ever travel in the universe,
from a star to another, from a planet in the solar system to an exoplanet?”
Basically, the Fermi paradox wasn’t created by Fermi.
In any case… across all the billions of light-years of the starry sky above us,
could we possibly be the only life? Scientists have explored this question for
years. In 1961 physicist Frank Drake developed a mathematical equation to help solve it:
N = R*fpneflfifcL
The equation aimed to find the number (N) of intelligent civilizations within the
boundaries held by the subsequent factors—in our case, the Milky Way Galaxy. R* is the rate
of formation of stars that could potentially allow for the development of intelligent life
on planets nearby; fp is the fraction of said stars that actually have planetary systems;
ne is the number of planets in a solar system with an environment that could sustain life;
fl is the fraction of said planets that do sustain life; fi is the fraction of life-sustaining
planets on which there is intelligent life; fc is the fraction of intelligent civilizations that
have survived long enough to develop communication technology to send signals of their existence into
space; and L is the length of time that these civilizations emit these signals before ceasing
to exist. The commonly cited numbers for these variables simplify the equation to N = 10 × 0.5
× 2 × 1 × 0.1 × 0.1 × L, which simplifies even further to N = L/10. We as a civilization have
been broadcasting into space since 1974, so, according to this equation, even if we cease
to exist as a species in 2074, there would be 10 intelligent civilizations in our galaxy alone.
To break these numbers down further, scientists use the Kardashev scale, which splits intelligent
life into three categories. Type I civilizations are able to use all the energy available on their
home planet (we are approaching this; most scientists agree that we are currently at
a 0.7 on the Kardashev scale, with a full Type I being about a century off). Type II civilizations
can control and channel all the energy of their host star, and Type III civilizations have access
to power equivalent to that of their host galaxy. Even before the Drake equation and the Kardashev
scale, many scientists were convinced that there must be a plethora of intelligent civilizations
sprinkled across the galaxy. But the question remains:
if there were civilizations scattered across the stars by the billions,
why haven’t we heard from them? It is from these questions, the Drake equation, and the Kardashev
scale that the true paradox was born. The Milky Way is about 10 billion years old and 100,000
light-years across. If aliens had spaceships that could travel at 1 percent of the speed of light,
the galaxy could have already been colonized 1,000 times. Why haven’t we heard from any other life?
Now, we really have no idea how many advanced alien civilizations might be out there,
and the Drake equation’s parameters are far from being defined with absolute certainty.
Still, many solutions to the Fermi Paradox have
been suggested over the years. One of the is called the Dark Forest Theory.
According to this scenario, you have to picture the universe as a vast dark forest,
with humans living on Earth just like every other alien space is living on their own planet,
somewhere out there. Only…the aliens are the hunters, waiting to catch us.
Of course, the hunter doesn’t make a sound and doesn’t light a torch to
draw attention to himself, otherwise, we would be able to see him, and run away.
Of course, no one said the hunter is a maleficent one, and maybe to be noticed might be harmless,
but what if, being noticed, we caught the attention of someone else?
Hey! If you’re still watching, it means you’re loving this video. Why don’t you subscribe to
the channel?
What if another competitor noticed us?
While the idea of the Dark Forest Theory comes from a novel, it can be a solution to
the Fermi paradox. We are not sure about the aliens and intelligent forms of life
out there. We don’t know if they are evil, or good. We don’t know anything about them,
so we should probably be careful when it comes to communicating with them…
Because humans might not have interstellar travel yet, we sure know how to communicate with aliens.
We know how to send signals to other galaxies. Interstellar travel might not be possible right
now, but interstellar communication is available! For instance, the simplest way to communicate
with another alien civilization is the laser. Lasers are powerful beams of light. Once you
send one, it will start traveling at the speed of light in the universe,
reaching stars, planets, and comets. Of course, the speed of light is finite,
despite it being very fast. This means that signals would be affected by delays. But this is
not a huge problem. It’s only a matter of time. In any case, we have done so much more than
sending some radio laser signals in the universe. Humankind has been unintentionally transmitting
signals into space - primarily high-frequency radio, television, and radar - for more than fifty
years. Our earliest TV broadcasts have reached several thousand nearby stars, although any alien
viewers would have to build a very large antenna (thousands of acres in size) to detect them.
Until now, SETI researchers have not been very interested in broadcasting. The reasons for
this are several. To begin with, we are a technologically young civilization. We
have had radio for a hundred years or so, but there are surely societies that have possessed
the ability to send high-powered signals for tens of thousands, if not millions,
of years. Consequently, since we are the new kids on the technology block, it may behoove us
to listen first. Some have also expressed concern that broadcasting might be dangerous, literally
calling attention to our existence. However, the evidence of technologically sophisticated life
on Earth is already on its way into space, and there is no bringing back these transmissions.
Moreover, speaking of the signals we sent in outer space, the Voyager probes are already
on their way out of the solar system, and if there is an intelligent civilization out there,
they could be intercepted. These probes are the representatives of humanity in the universe.
Is this a good or a bad thing? We don’t know yet, but we can be
sure of one thing: we did more than lit the torch in the dark forest.
The dark forest theory is quite a dark theory. We’ve been screaming our existence to the
cosmos for almost one hundred years now. Any aliens within a one hundred light-year radius
of us would be receiving a barrage of radio signals from our direction. If we had reason
to avoid letting aliens know about us,as stephen hawking thought we did, we might have a problem.
Why haven’t we heard from aliens yet? If this solution is correct, they are purposely hiding
in the darkness of space for fear of death. Should we stop broadcasting our existence to
the universe too then? Or would alien life be a little nicer than we’ve been in our history?
This video ends here! Thanks for watching! What do you think about the Dark Forest
Theory? Let us know in the comment section below! I’ll see you next time on the channel.