Psience Quest

Quote:Using a blend of theory and simulation posted last week to the paper database arXiv, currently under peer review, Frank and his colleagues explore the substantial middle ground between a barren and brimming galaxy—one where some civilizations may succeed in going multi-stellar, but without any establishing a spatial and temporal stranglehold on the entire Milky Way.

Astronomers have only just begun to search the stars for signs of technology (called a technosignature), so few feel discouraged by the silence so far (a common quip likens betting against aliens today to concluding that dolphins don’t exist after scanning one pool’s worth of ocean water). What does keep optimists up at night, however, is the argument first elaborated in 1975.

Even at a snail’s pace, the thinking goes, the galaxy is so old that any technological species should have had plenty of time to radiate out to every star in the Milky Way. Yet, we see no evidence of past or present alien cities here on Earth—an observation dubbed "Fact A." Academics have spilled buckets of ink attempting to resolve this puzzle, known as the Fermi Paradox, with explanations ranging from humanity being placed in a preserve, to everyone else waiting in hibernation for a universe that will better cool their computers.