Fermi Paradox: Difference between revisions

It is not clear that a civilization of intelligent beings must be technological. If an alien species does not develop technology, because it is difficult in its environment, because it chooses not to, or for any other reason, it will be very hard for human beings to detect.<ref name="Tarter-NYAS">J. Tarter, (2001)[http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/abstract/950/1/269 What is SETI], Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences '''950''' , pp. 269–275 (2001)</ref> Intelligence alone, as opposed to life, is not necessarily visible across interstellar distances. While there are remote sensing techniques which could perhaps detect life-bearing planets, none of them has any ability to distinguish intelligent but non-technical life from non-intelligent life. Not even any theoretical methods for doing so have been proposed, short of an actual physical visit by an astronaut or probe. This is sometimes referred to as the "algae vs. alumnae" problem.<ref name="Tarter-NYAS"/>

It may be that intelligent alien life forms not only exist, but are already present here on Earth. They are not detected because they do not wish it, human beings are technically unable to, or because societies refuse to admit to the evidence.<ref>Webb, pp. 27–60</ref> Several variations of this idea have been proposed:

This theory was jokingly suggested in response to Fermi's paradox by his fellow physicist, [[Leó Szilárd]], who suggested to Fermi that extraterrestrials "are already among us — but they call themselves [[Hungarian people|Hungarians]]",<ref>Webb, p. 28.  See also: {{cite book |last=Crick |first=Francis |authorlink=Francis Crick |date=1981 |title=Life Itself |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=0671255622}}</ref> a humorous reference to the peculiar [[Hungarian language]], unrelated to most other languages spoken in Europe.<ref>Webb, p. 28. See for example George Marx's 1995 lecture, "[http://epa.oszk.hu/00300/00342/00113/marx1.html Conflicts and Creativity — The Hungarian Lesson]", which was based on his 1994 book, ''The Voice of the Martians'', published by the Roland Eötvös Physical Society.  A paper was published in July 1996 as "The myth of the martians and the golden age of Hungarian science" in the journal ''Science & Education''.</ref>

==See also==