The Fermi Paradox questions why we have not observed extraterrestrial life given the scale of the universe. Life emerged in our galaxy and there are ~TWO TRILLION galaxies in the observable universe. Adhering to the mediocrity principle, the probability of other intelligent life is therefore high.

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[–]raven9 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Because when they are millions of light years apart space travellers would take millions of years to get there.

[–]the-swerve-podcast[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You raise great points. Appreciate the discussion!

I agree that our capabilities for detecting life are extremely limited. However, traditionally the Fermi paradox refers to intelligent life, not simply life. In this case, it is not simply a matter of what we can detect with current technology, but how another intelligent or advanced civilization would signal to us. Why no signal?

The speed limit of the universe is the speed of light. For sure that is a massive limiting factor for communication. However, when we are discussing an observable universe that is 14 billion years old, it may not be such a limiting factor. For example, at the speed of light, signals can permeate our Milky Way galaxy alone in approximately one hundred thousand years. If (I recognize this is a big “if”) civilizations exist that are millions of years old (or more), this would not be such a limiting factor.

A final point on the speed of light, some physicists present the concept of wormholes. If it was possible to manipulate space-time, perhaps locations seemingly impossibly distant could be reached in reasonable time. To explain what I mean, if you drew two points on opposite ends of a sheet of paper, those points are the distance of the sheet of paper apart from each other. If you fold the paper so that the two points meet, they are now basically in the same location. Perhaps it is possible to manipulate space-time in such a way.

[–]raven9 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

We have lived in the modern tech era for maybe 50 years in a universe that is billions of years old. That same technology can easily lead people to wipe all that out in the blink of an eye and put us back in the stone age. The chances that other civilizations reach a similar tech level at the same time and survive their own mentally deranged versions of criminal liars like Gates and Fauci and their cronies has to be pretty slim.