What If the Fermi Paradox Is Asking the Wrong Question?

The Fermi Paradox asks the most important question: if aliens exist, where are they? The silence is often interpreted as evidence that we are alone. If there were any sign of extraterrestrial life, we would have either detected them or they would have been here. No proof means no life could exist elsewhere. While that is one possibility, I find it hard to believe. Perhaps because there are more stars in the sky than we can ever count? To me, personally, saying there is no life elsewhere is like a fish in a bowl claiming that oceans don't exist simply because it hasn't seen any. It might even argue that other fish should have contacted it by now. Hence, I have made three philosophical viewpoints against the Fermi Paradox. The Isolated Laboratory Imagine the universe with flying saucers and highways. It seems chaotic, right? Not just that, doesn’t it defeat the very purpose of the system (assuming there is one)? If that was the goal, wouldn’t we have a stagnant and stable universe, not an ever-expanding one? To me, the scale of the universe seems like a protective mechanism. It seems like the isolated laboratory of a scientist, or a researcher. The universe might be a lab, and each galaxy a tiny experiment for life. Some galaxies or test tubes may contain one life form, and others two or three. If that is true, the scale here would act like a protective barrier. It is there to save each project from contamination and to stop us from destroying each other. In this viewpoint, we haven’t met aliens because there is a deliberate attempt to separate each project or galaxy. The attempt is the expansion. It is happening slowly, either due to a requirement or a system constraint that seems infinite to us. Hence, isolation could be a feature of the universe. The Problem of Golden Horizon Another possibility is that many planets can sustain life. However, the window of time open for life is not the same for everyone. It might be possible that by the time humanity becomes extinct, another planet may just then begin to evolve life. These planets might be located at such a distance, and the “ golden horizon ” of time is so narrow or non-existent, that by the time each alien becomes intelligent, develops curiosity, decides to explore, and builds the technology for it, the other may have already perished. A one-million-year head start received by an alien civilization would not mean anything to us if it were located in a faraway galaxy, or if it had perished by the time we evolved. We might be among the first to explore since the Big Bang. Perhaps we haven’t met aliens because these golden horizons never overlap. No Discovery of Artificial Intelligence If Alan Turing never existed or was more interested in music than machines, we might not have AI today. We are assuming that all planets might have had their own John McCarthy or Marvin Minsky. Even a minuscule change in the environment can create drastically different lives. Why assume that all living beings would behave like us, or even look like us? If humans were born on a planet with 2g gravity, we would not even look like humans. A single change in a timeline or an event can cause an entire species to never have existed or to exist in a completely unfathomable way. Similarly, a single change in location or the ingredients of life may have created life that has never discovered Artificial Intelligence. We might be among the first intelligent civilizations to have discovered it. We might also be amongst the first to realize we can make robots for space travel. The aliens may have discovered something else entirely, but not necessarily AI or similar technological breakthroughs. Our communication methods would feel like Sumerian to them, or they might not even have a language at all. They might be communicating with their minds. Our technology could be an accident of our biology. Therefore, we haven’t met any aliens so far. Conclusion While the Fermi Paradox is one real possibility, it cannot be called the absolute truth because there are many other alternative options for how the universe could have evolved. My take is that we can never visit aliens, even if they exist today. This can be because of the scale of the universe or because it will take another million years to even explore another galaxy. That is, if we assume that we will exist until then. For now, the goldfish in the bowl might be feeling safe, not knowing there is an ocean, or perhaps the human has kept it in the bowl because it is safer there than out among the sharks. \