Why our search for extraterrestial intelligence has failed: “The Fermi Paradox was first stated by Enrico Fermi in 1950 during a lunch time conversation. Fermi, a certified genius, used some straightforward math to show that if technological civilizations were common and moderately long-lived, then the galaxy ought to be fully inhabited [10]. The vast distances of interstellar space should not be a significant barrier to any such civilization –assuming exponential population growth and plausible technology.

‘Contact’ should thus be completely inevitable; we ought to find unavoidable evidence of ‘little green men’ all about us. Our Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) should have been quickly successful.

We don’t. It hasn’t been. That’s the paradox.

This paradoxical failure is sometimes called ‘The Great Silence’. The Great Silence suggests that space traveling technological civilizations are extremely rare (or very discrete [8]). There have been a number of explanations for the why such civilizations might be rare. I list four explanations below. You can choose the one you like; they are as close to destiny as we are likely to get….”