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The Fermi paradox and extra-terrestrial life

The Fermi paradox is the conflict between an expectation of a high probability of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and the apparently lifeless universe we in fact observe. The expectation that the universe should be teeming with intelligent life is linked to models like the Drake equation, which suggest that even if the probability of intelligent life developing at a given site is small, the sheer multitude of possible sites should nonetheless yield a large number of potentially observable civilizations.
The paradox, named after physicist Enrico Fermi, questions how there could be “a high probability” of extra-terrestrial life when there’s no solid proof. “Where is everyone?” Fermi asked in the 1950s while pondering the possibility of interstellar travel.
Past scientific theories have said alien civilizations may be living in our galaxy based on the position of the planets in a star system in a habitable area. But Oxford researchers Anders Sandberg, Eric Drexler and Toby Ord say the simplest solution is likely “ the truth”: There’s no one else out there.
Carl Sagan, whose Public Television series Cosmos brought the concepts of astronomy to a broad audience, advanced a principle of mediocrity that echoed the writings of Epicurus. He argued that there was nothing special about our solar system or planet — there are billions and billions of stars in the universe, with many planets capable of sustaining life and intelligence.
Cosmologists John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler countered with the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, arguing that even with a universe full of planets, generating life on one is difficult — and it’s a big leap from single-celled organisms to large-brained mammals who can debate cosmology. We should therefore reserve judgment as to whether we are alone or only one overachieving species among many.
Alone, in all that space? Not likely. Just do the numbers: Several hundred billion stars in our galaxy, hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe, and 150 planets spied already in the immediate neighbourhood of the sun. That should make for plenty of warm, scummy little ponds where life could come together to begin billions of years of evolution toward technology-wielding creatures like ourselves. No, the really big question is when, if ever, we’ll have the technological to reach out and touch such intelligence.
The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extra-terrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other planets.
Scientific investigation began shortly after the advent of radio in the early 1900s, and focused international efforts have been ongoing since the 1980s. In 2015, Stephen Hawking and Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner announced a project called Breakthrough Listen.
Breakthrough Listen is a project to search for intelligent extraterrestrial communications in the Universe. With $100 million in funding and thousands of hours of dedicated telescope time on state-of-the-art facilities, it is the most comprehensive search for alien communications to date. The project began in January 2016, and is expected to continue for 10 years. It is a component of Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives program. The science program for Breakthrough Listen is based at Berkeley SETI Research Center,located in the Astronomy Department at the University of California, Berkeley.
The project uses radio wave observations from the Green Bank Observatory and the Parkes Observatory, and visible light observations from the Automated Planet Finder. Targets for the project include one million nearby stars and the centres of 100 galaxies. All data generated from the project are available to the public, and SETIhome (BOINC) is used for some of the data analysis. The first results were published in April 2017, with further updates expected every 6 month.
Breakthrough Listen was announced to the public on July 20, 2015 (the anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing) by Milner at London’s Royal Society. The event was flanked by scientists such as Frank Drake, who is known for the Drake equation that estimates the number of detectable alien civilizations, and Geoff Marcy, an astronomer who has helped find hundreds of exoplanets.
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, initially detected in 1988, was confirmed in 2003. As of 1 November 2022, there are 5,246 confirmed exoplanets in 3,875 planetary systems, with 842 systems having more than one planet.
for further information - the article is available on:

medium.com/@dr.victor.bodo/the…

Description

The Fermi paradox and extra-terrestrial life

The Fermi paradox is the conflict between an expectation of a high probability of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and the apparently lifeless universe we in fact observe. The expectation that the universe should be teeming with intelligent life is linked to models like the Drake equation, which suggest that even if the probability of intelligent life developing at a given site is small, the sheer multitude of possible sites should nonetheless yield a large number of potentially observable civilizations.
The paradox, named after physicist Enrico Fermi, questions how there could be “a high probability” of extra-terrestrial life when there’s no solid proof. “Where is everyone?” Fermi asked in the 1950s while pondering the possibility of interstellar travel.
Past scientific theories have said alien civilizations may be living in our galaxy based on the position of the planets in a star system in a habitable area. But Oxford researchers Anders Sandberg, Eric Drexler and Toby Ord say the simplest solution is likely “ the truth”: There’s no one else out there.
Carl Sagan, whose Public Television series Cosmos brought the concepts of astronomy to a broad audience, advanced a principle of mediocrity that echoed the writings of Epicurus. He argued that there was nothing special about our solar system or planet — there are billions and billions of stars in the universe, with many planets capable of sustaining life and intelligence.
Cosmologists John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler countered with the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, arguing that even with a universe full of planets, generating life on one is difficult — and it’s a big leap from single-celled organisms to large-brained mammals who can debate cosmology. We should therefore reserve judgment as to whether we are alone or only one overachieving species among many.
Alone, in all that space? Not likely. Just do the numbers: Several hundred billion stars in our galaxy, hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe, and 150 planets spied already in the immediate neighbourhood of the sun. That should make for plenty of warm, scummy little ponds where life could come together to begin billions of years of evolution toward technology-wielding creatures like ourselves. No, the really big question is when, if ever, we’ll have the technological to reach out and touch such intelligence.
The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extra-terrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other planets.
Scientific investigation began shortly after the advent of radio in the early 1900s, and focused international efforts have been ongoing since the 1980s. In 2015, Stephen Hawking and Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner announced a project called Breakthrough Listen.
Breakthrough Listen is a project to search for intelligent extraterrestrial communications in the Universe. With $100 million in funding and thousands of hours of dedicated telescope time on state-of-the-art facilities, it is the most comprehensive search for alien communications to date. The project began in January 2016, and is expected to continue for 10 years. It is a component of Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives program. The science program for Breakthrough Listen is based at Berkeley SETI Research Center,located in the Astronomy Department at the University of California, Berkeley.
The project uses radio wave observations from the Green Bank Observatory and the Parkes Observatory, and visible light observations from the Automated Planet Finder. Targets for the project include one million nearby stars and the centres of 100 galaxies. All data generated from the project are available to the public, and SETIhome (BOINC) is used for some of the data analysis. The first results were published in April 2017, with further updates expected every 6 month.
Breakthrough Listen was announced to the public on July 20, 2015 (the anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing) by Milner at London’s Royal Society. The event was flanked by scientists such as Frank Drake, who is known for the Drake equation that estimates the number of detectable alien civilizations, and Geoff Marcy, an astronomer who has helped find hundreds of exoplanets.
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, initially detected in 1988, was confirmed in 2003. As of 1 November 2022, there are 5,246 confirmed exoplanets in 3,875 planetary systems, with 842 systems having more than one planet.
for further information - the article is available on:

medium.com/@dr.victor.bodo/the…