The German design studio Kurzgesagt –“in a nutshell”– created these entertaining clips full of interesting infographics, to tackle at one of the most persistent logical quandaries in modern Science: The (in)famous Fermi Paradox –a.k.a. “where are all the bloody aliens?!”
The videos stick firmly with the accepted scientific parameters, while at the same time utilizing some of the latest far-out concepts proposed by the likes of Freeman Dyson and Nikolai Kardashev, who came up with a classification system for advanced civilizations depending on their energy consumption –ours is about level 0.75, while the Galactic empire in Star Wars is probably between 2 and 3 (though the matter would no doubt trigger an onslaught of rants from angry fanboys everywhere!)
What’s interesting also is how our own technological advances dictate the differences in how we decide to interpret the paradox itself. In 1950, when Enrico Fermi first came up with the idea during an informal conversation, notions re. the vast distances between stars and the age of the Universe were only initially considered, whereas now that we live in the Information Age, new elements like the emergence of strong A.I. and Virtual Reality also have to be thrown into the mix –why risk your life in something as useless as conquering the Galaxy, when you could choose immortality inside a simulated Paradise catered to your every whim?
NASA and SETI keep insisting that evidence of intelligent ETs is 20 years in the horizon –though they keep repeating that every 10 years or so. The prediction will either come true or it won’t, like so many other scientific broken promises (where’s my god-damned jet pack?!) and if in 2035 we still hear nothing but apparent silence from the Great Beyond, I’m sure the Fermi Paradox will remain an inexhaustible fountain of creative ideas to explain our cosmic isolation.
…Maybe that’s the point of it?