Ancient Greek philosophers Democritus and Epicurus theorized the universe to be the result of a chance jostling of atoms and regarded it as highly likely that there were other worlds out there and that they were inhabited. Epicurus’ disciple Metrodorus of Chios considered the idea of our “world” being the only one as unlikely as “if a single ear of wheat grew on a vast plain.” As the Roman Epicurean poet Lucretius put it: “Nothing in the universe is unique and alone and therefore in other regions there must be other earths inhabited by different tribes of men and breeds of beasts.”
Such logical philosophy should be able to manifest and in some way, prove the existence of “different tribes of men” on “other earths” and such but this isn’t the case. Going by theoretical calculations, it’s basically impossible that other extraterrestrial life doesn’t exist somewhere in the universe. But how can that be? With the universe being such an expansive open space, how is it possible that there isn’t any other forms of life around?
That question brings up the Fermi Paradox. The paradox in which shows the absence of other forms of life despite the highly likelihood of life existing on any given planet able to sustain life.
Quite frankly, humans have terrorized Earth to have our way of our life. Even though it may not be intentional, we wipe out around 150 species every single day. It’s just a byproduct of how we like to run things.
But this also brings up another issue. Should we even be looking for aliens? Every species will do whatever it takes to ensure the survival and safety of their own kind. Even if we are able to find life on other planets, it should be taken into consideration that aliens may have similar thoughts and mindsets to us, this raises another problem as well.
The planet Proxima D, circling the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri is an earth-like exoplanet having the possibility to possess liquid water. This planet is our next best bet to find life. The vast distance between extraterrestrial civilizations will mean an ineffective speed of communication. Even at the speed of light, it will take 4.2 years for radio waves to reach this planet.
Being unable to properly communicate in a common language and being unable to know their true intentions will lead to a lot of tension. It is scary how favorable the first strike advantage is in this situation. Rendering a civilization immobile may be the best decision when facing such life or death situation.
It maybe that aliens don’t exist at all or maybe that they do. For now, we should just lay back and watch the stars in the sky. And enjoy the space and universe that we live in.
Sources:
Space.com. 2022. Fermi Paradox: Where are the aliens? | Space. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.space.com/25325-fermi-paradox.html. [Accessed 17 April 2022].
Carl Sagan and Frank Drake. 2022. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – Scientific American. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterre/#. [Accessed 17 April 2022].
Quora Contributor. 2022. When did humans first consider the possibility of alien life?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/08/when-did-humans-first-consider-the-possibility-of-alien-life.html. [Accessed 17 April 2022].
YouTube. 2022. Why We Should NOT Look For Aliens – The Dark Forest – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAUJYP8tnRE&t=590s. [Accessed 17 April 2022].
YouTube. 2022. The Fermi Paradox â Where Are All The Aliens? (1/2) – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNhhvQGsMEc. [Accessed 17 April 2022].
YouTube. 2022. The Fermi Paradox II â Solutions and Ideas â Where Are All The Aliens? – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fQkVqno-uI. [Accessed 17 April 2022].
YouTube. 2022. What Do Alien Civilizations Look Like? The Kardashev Scale – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhFK5_Nx9xY&t=628s. [Accessed 17 April 2022].
media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com. 2022. No page title. [ONLINE] Available at: https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1240w,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2018_01/2280531/180103-ufo-illustration-mn-1015.jpg. [Accessed 17 April 2022].
