This is an interesting contribution given by my Digital Illustration course of FUA (Florence) to the last conference entitled “Caterina De’ Medici and the new identities”.
What’s the “Fermi paradox”?
On the occasion of her 500th birthday, the students realized the parallelism between the new world discovered only a few years before Caterina’s birth (Columbus) and the search for “new worlds” in the universe of today … Immediately they thought about the famous “Fermi Paradox”, but what this strange definition means? Is this a formula? A science fiction movie? A joke…?
The Fermi paradox is a conflict between the argument that scale and probability seem to favor intelligent life being common in the universe, and the total lack of evidence of intelligent life having ever arisen anywhere other than on the Earth. Fermi’s name is linked because of a casual conversation he had in the Summer of 1950 with fellow physicists, during lunch, Fermi suddenly said, “But where is everybody?”.
If this is the question… here’s to you the answer to Enrico Fermi given by my Students about very probable intelligent life from the worlds from the infinity…and beyond!
Where is everybody?
(look the results and vote you too, with your feedback, clicking here: http://bit.ly/caterina2019)
#1 – Extraterrestrial life is rare or non-existent – evolution of biological complexity requires a host of fortuitous circumstances
#2 – No other intelligent species have arisen – We are the first, and first in, last out! Maybe we are super civilization of the future
#3 – Intelligent civilizations are too far apart in space or time
#4 – They are Superpredator civilization, and if we know that better we will not go outside!
#5 – We are not listening properly – Extraterrestrials might, transmit signals that have a very high or low data rate
#6 – They tend to isolate themselves – It may also be that intelligent alien life develops an “increasing disinterest” in their outside world
#7 – They are too alien – message broadcast by that species might well seem like random background noise to us, and therefore go undetected
#8 – Earth is deliberately not contacted – The zoo hypothesis states that intelligent extraterrestrial life exists and does not contact life on Earth to allow for its natural evolution and development.
#9 – They are too much evolved to be understanding by us – we are like little ants for them
#10 – Earth is purposely isolated (planetarium hypothesis) – We are toys of a giant “Virtual Game”.
Artworks by Allyson Owens e Hodur Montana
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash