Fermi paradox

Dithered illustration of Fermi paradox

The Fermi paradox: life elsewhere looks likely, yet the universe we observe looks empty. Enrico Fermi, whose name it carries, never published a word about it.

In the summer of 1950, Enrico Fermi asked "but where is everybody?" He then ran rough odds on planets like Earth, on life, on humans and on how long high technology lasts, and decided Earth ought to have had visitors long ago. Our searches have barely begun: one estimate likens the share of the search space covered so far to a large hot tub set against all of Earth's oceans. Yet Fermi never published a word on the question.

Pick a question to go deeper.

  1. Solar gravitational lensThe Sun's gravity bends light like a lens, bringing it to a focus at least 550 astronomical units away. A telescope there could map a planet around another star, but only one pixel at a time.
  2. Matrioshka brainA Matrioshka brain is a star wrapped in nested shells of computers, each running on the heat the shell inside throws away. The physics says the extra shells barely help.
  3. XenobotsXenobots are living machines built from frog embryo cells to shapes designed by AI. Set among loose cells, they shove them into piles that grow into new xenobots.