Where Are All The Aliens?
Our galaxy is massive, and we have observed a solid chunk of it. Humans have found over 4000 exoplanets which would make us expect that we would have found life at all, yet the glorious skies of the milky way stay undisturbed.
This is very counter-intuitive! We have examined so many planets to the best of out ability, yet there is no sign of extra-terrestrial life. There are 4 things which we have thought of that could explain this phenomena.
- Life Filters
- We are too primitive
- Aliens exist in another form
- We are too quiet
It is important to note that none of these are scientific, they are just guesses that seem logical and probable, that is the reason you might see many words like “could” and “might” in this article.
Civilization Filters
One explanation that could work for the absence of massive star ships with super smart aliens in them is civilization filters. Maybe there are hardships that all life in this universe must pass, that is super-duper difficult. Some examples of this could be:
- Establishing species-wide peace
- Preventing self-extinction
- Exhausting planetary resources
One conclusion that could be drawn is that all these challenges are so hard, that there haven't been extra-terrestrial civilizations who have passed these filters yet. It could also be the case that any life form that has attempted to pass them could have gone extinct. Maybe these filters are climate change, war, and humans are yet to face them at their peek. Are we going to be the first ones who pass the filters? It could be that we are experiencing them right now.
We frequently imagine of being the “chosen ones”. We always think about how we are going to be the center of attention in this universe, because we are the smartest. But to be real, that is not going to happen in a long time. Humans are a very ethnocentric species. We always like to think of, assume, jump to the conclusion that we are in the middle. Our ancestors thought that their civilization was the one that was favored by the gods. Humans used to think that they were at the center of the solar system, furthermore the universe. We really hate missing out, don’t we?
Yes, it does suck to miss out. Before we join the party though, we have settle things back home. Our own species are fighting each other. We are trashing our Earth. Without these problems being solved, we aren’t going anywhere. We should stop dreaming, and start doing.
We Are Too Primitive
Have you ever tried to talk to an ant? Even if I presented to you the smartest smartest ant, you would probably ignore it. Don’t step on it though…
It could be that that is the case with us humans. Maybe our galaxy is a bustling city of huge communities, but us humans are just too stupid to comprehend. We might be little ants crawling around in a moist speck of dirt. What if all the aliens are too busy trying to battle each other, that they don’t stop by ans try to explain to us. How would we benefit them?
After all, maybe we should feel sorry for ourselves. We have not yet even explored that tiny dot as a whole. However, technology is exponential. The conquer of our whole solar system might be closer than you think it is. The 7 billion human minds on earth are all thinking, thinking regardless of their education level.
It is a mistake to think that if we have existed on this planet for 200,000 years, then every single planet must take that amount of time to invade. That is not true, at least not for that reason. Humans for most of their history have been hunter gatherers. Just 500 years ago we thought we were the universe. Look where we are now, we have come a long way. We could have a justified reason to feel powerful, and hopeful.
Aliens Exist In Another Form
We know of life on only one planet. Earth. Our sample size is tiny. Very, very, very tiny. Because of this we could be searching for life in ways that are only capable of detecting life forms that have qualities just like us. The Hubble telescope and all is really great & stuff, but have we ever considered…
- That life on a distant planet we have looked at could be a complex network of gamma rays? It could just be that it is a constellation of energy, not containing any mass/matter at all.
- We assume a range of size. What if that the living organism is not 10 meters tall, but is made up of 1000 galaxies? How about one that is just a few atoms wide?
Because of our very small sample size we make assumptions while searching for life. They probably look, feel, smell, think nothing like us! Even though the points I listed above might be really bizarre, I am still subconsciously making assumptions somewhere- a place or category that I just do not know.
We are too quiet
We always look for aliens and signals sent out from them, but what we don’t do is send the signals ourselves. If we tried being a bit more loud, or send signals in the form of light, waves, anything. Maybe some civilization could detect this and could reach out to us. This could be the reason that everything in the universe seems so silent. It could be the case that everyone is looking for something, but not putting anything out there.
The image to the left is a message that humans sent in a radio wave to a star cluster called M13. This could be the reason we ever come in contact with aliens. We all want to come in contact with extra-terrestrials, if we want to increase out odds, we should send more messages.
We should understand how we want to come in contact with aliens, and if we should ever at all. Especially in this topic it is extremely important to be open minded because life could be in forms that are unimaginable to us. Clap for this article, maybe the aliens will hear it 😄
