Why can't we find any alien life?

03.04.2021

Our planet is full of very diverse life, ranging from fish that live in the deepest parts of the ocean to birds flying high up in the sky, and us, who built a giant planet-spanning civilization. Earth is nearly synonymous with life since it's bustling all around it. But is there life anywhere else? So far, the only definite proof of life we have is on this planet. Naturally, we seek more, by creating theories, sending radio signals into space, and generally just trying to get the proof of our existence out into the cosmos. However, we have yet to catch any definite evidence that alien life exists. But since space is so huge, why isn't anybody responding?

This is the Fermi Paradox. There are many galaxies with an almost unimaginable amount of stars, a lot of which have planets in the habitable zone. This means that it's not too far nor too close to the star. Imagine how many possibly life-bearing planets there are that are in a star's habitable zone! However, why aren't we getting any signals containing proof of alien life? Why has nobody visited us yet? One of the people wondering about this was Dr. Frank Drake, who has created an equation that can determine the time it will take for us to find alien life. However, the reason why you probably never heard of it before is that we don't know the answer to that equation. Some of the variables on them are really specific things that we couldn't possibly know the answer to, such as the fraction of civilizations that use communicative technology and how much time it spends on sending messages out into space, which renders the use of this formula impractical.

So, since we cannot find alien life by ourselves, we decided to focus on theorizing. There are many theories, however, there is one that I stick with. It's that intelligent life is very, very rare. First, intelligent life has to appear. This is rare enough, as evolution can be a bit unpredictable. Then, it has to survive long enough to start creating civilizations. This is a pretty large barrier because as far as we know, a complex brain requires the use of a lot of energy, which means that we have to eat and drink a lot. However, we do not have things such as claws, fangs, or any other natural "defense mechanisms", as they also require a lot of energy to create and maintain, meaning that we only have to stick with one. Imagine if you were put in a forest! You would not be able to survive by yourself, as you would have to make your own shelter, tools, and warmth.

Then, once the species gets past that, it has to be close enough to us to acknowledge us, assuming that it doesn't get wiped out by a disease or war. Only then could we establish communication. While I do accept that there's plenty of life in the universe, the main concern is how much of intelligent life there is, the number of which is most likely low.

So while we can continue creating theories on this topic, we may never even find out whether we are alone or not. There's obviously the possibility that life itself is extremely rare, and only exists on planet Earth. Or maybe many civilizations are existing just out of our reach. Everybody can create their own thing, and that's why I consider this topic so interesting. It's mysterious, fun to think about, and can also generate a lot of thought. Personally, I hope that we can find an answer to this, as it's one of the greatest mysteries to ever ponder us.