The solution to the famous Fermi paradox may lie in a hypothesis that has been around for almost 30 years. Back in 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi wondered where all the aliens were, and since then his question about why we haven’t found them if extraterrestrial civilizations exist has become known as the Fermi Paradox. Indeed, if life arose here on Earth, and the universe tends not to create things only once, then other life should arise in other parts of the universe. In fact, the entire cosmos should be filled with advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. A hypothesis called the “Great Filter” explains why we haven’t found all these intelligent life forms, writes Space. Even if we take into account the fact that potential aliens have problems with technological development, life expectancy, and various catastrophes can also prevent them from developing, this still does not explain why people have not discovered advanced intelligent life at least in our galaxy. The Milky Way has existed for more than 13 billion years, and this is more than enough for extraterrestrial civilizations to fill our galaxy. People should observe various technological artifacts, but they do not exist. The Great Filter A hypothesis called “The Great Filter” was proposed by scientist Robin Hanson in 1996. The idea is that very few, if any, civilizations in the universe reach a level of technological development that would allow them to fly into space. Therefore, intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations have not spread throughout our galaxy. That is, there is a filter that prevents any intelligent civilization from reaching a very high stage of development. Humanity is currently on a path to more extensive space exploration, so the idea that some filter might prevent us from doing so is a bit scary. The problem is that it is not known exactly when or where the filter actually occurs. Hanson proposed nine distinct stages that life would need to complete to move from the minor leagues to the majors: the right star system, reproductive molecules, prokaryotic life, eukaryotic life, sexual reproduction, multicellular life, some vague category of intelligence, an advanced civilization with the potential for colonization, and finally, when all the pieces are in place, dispersal throughout the galaxy. From what scientists know about the universe now, the ingredients for life are incredibly common throughout the cosmos, so it is unlikely that there is a filter. As for the emergence of simple life, we only have one example, but we know that as soon as conditions for life became possible on Earth, it emerged. This suggests that life may be more common than we think. Should humanity worry? As for the emergence of intelligence, we know that our intelligent species emerged only once in the history of life on Earth and that it took billions of years. This means that intelligent life may be very rare. So perhaps the filter is the difficulty in the emergence of intelligent beings. But if intelligent life is common in the universe, then there are many things to worry about. It means that intelligent species could easily arise on a planet, but something is preventing them from becoming an interstellar, galactic species. It could be that giant asteroids have wiped out intelligent life on planets, or it could be that any intelligent species is destroying itself. The point is that any species that can travel into space must be able to harness enormous amounts of energy. And that energy could be used to destroy a civilization before it can colonize other worlds. But perhaps colonizing the galaxy is more difficult than we think, or perhaps it just doesn’t make sense and humans just haven’t realized it yet. As for humanity, maybe we’re one of the few species that got past the filter and survived. The post The Great Filter: This Hypothesis Explains Why We Haven’t Found Aliens appeared first on Anomalien.com.