What Is The Rare Earth Hypothesis?

The Fermi paradox states that if alien life exists, we should be able to see signs of their existence, because they would be so technologically advanced they could colonize the galaxy without much effort. Since we don’t see any signs … they probably don’t exist. Although, Ancient Alien theorists would say otherwise.

However, according to Scientific American, not only does this “paradox” not belong to Enrico Fermi, it’s not even a “paradox.” The long-held belief is that, in 1950, Fermi was at lunch with colleagues wherein they were discussing a cartoon about aliens exiting a flying saucer and asked, “Where is everybody?” His colleagues said that Fermi was questioning the viability of interstellar travel, not calling into question the existence of extraterrestrial life, which is the very thing the Fermi Paradox questions. Plus, in 1950, any space travel was still far-fetched.

In 1975, astronomer Michael Hart said that if intelligent life did exist in space, they would have colonized our galaxy already. Since we don’t see them, they must not be alive (via Scientific American). That statement sounds awfully familiar to Fermi’s paradox.

The term “Fermi Paradox” was first used in a paper published in 1977 by physicist David Stephenson who referenced Hart’s statement to answer Fermi’s initial question (via Scientific American). To make things more confusing, in 1980, a physicist named Frank Tipler picked up where Hart left off, adding that any intelligent space-faring civilization would need endless resources to expand across the stars. The only way to get them was by using autonomous, intelligent, “self-replicating,” terraforming machines. And since no such contraptions have ever been found, Earth is the only place with intelligent life. Again, this sounds a lot like what Fermi supposedly said.

Except… he didn’t. Scientific American believes that all of this has been amalgamated into the Fermi Paradox through the cobwebs of time.