FWS Topics: Where the Frak Are All The Aliens?

There 200-400 billions stars in our galaxy alone, with eighty billion galaxies making up all corners of our known universe, and we are told, by the Drake Equation, that even at the barely minimum, live is out there, in the Milky Way, a number alien civilizations should be out there. Even if the Drake Equation is an overly simplification, among all those exo-solar planets, some should have life, there should be some of those, with intelligent life. So, where are these aliens? Why haven't Klaatu and Gort made an appearance in D.C. and met President Obama? Why are the stars quiet? Are we really alone? During a lunch break in 1950 at Los Alamos Labs in New Mexico, Dr. Enrico Fermi exclaimed during a discussion about life among the stars, "where are they?" That sparked the Fermi Paradox. Recently, io9.com posted an article on some of the answers to the Fermi Paradox, and while it was interesting, I decided to take on the subject, with some humor injected as well. Before we begin, bear in mind, that I am a believer in ET life among the stars, I am also a believer in UFO contact in the past and in the present. No, I don't own a foil hat, or the complete X-Files on DVD, but I do believe, I did watch that show back-in-the-day, and have been the Roswell crash site. However, I just don't believe in everything that gets thrown around.I did attend university, earned a degree in history, with a minor in science and language, and was very close to a minor in literature, and while I reject a great deal of the oddball UFO stories, there is evidence to suggest ancient and present contact. Maybe our great burning question will be answered when we actually put boots down the deserts of Mars, or it was answered when Apollo 11 landed on the lunar surface in 1969.

1. They're All Toasters or Dead
It is a common theme in science fiction works that cybernetic life is the next step in evolution. From Battlestar Galactic, Mass Effect, Captain Power,and the Cybermen from the classic Dr.Who, there has been a conflict being the flesh and the metal. This could be the answer behind why the Great Silence exist...biological life reaches an apex of development, then the species choose, or is made to choose, to convert to be cybernetic. If this the path of the sentient races near us, it is likely that these borg-like beings wouldn't want anything to do with our primitive fleshy species. Then there is the other side of the coin, a species reaches a point in their technological development, and destroys themselves either through war, ecological destruction, or biological plague. Or even what happened to the dinosaurs could be more common than here on Terra. Perhaps, extinction level events has prevented more species from climbing up the evolutionary ladder (The Great Filter). There could cycles to civilization, much like the fall of Rome or how humanity is shown in the HALO Forerunner trilogy prior to the firing of the rings.    


2. The Wow! Signals Are Still Incoming
When I learned in school that the stars we see are actually light that was generated thousands or millions of years ago, it tripped me out, but this could explain why we have yet to pick up an hard Wow! signal, save for the one in 1977 and the 2003 SHGb02+14a radio source. The signal could just be taking time to cross the cold gulf of space, or that the alien civilization is not quiet up the technological level to send radio signals out into space, or their religion/government prevents it. There could be a signal incoming, we just have to be patience and remember that there is a massive amount of distance and that light-speed is the universal speed limit, and consider that Earth's radio and TV signals are only detected from about 0.3 light-years away, and an ET 'hello' signal would have be designed for that purpose of interstellar communications.    

3. We Are Really Alone in the Galaxy

When I was about nine, and attending Sunday School at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, I asked my Sunday School Teacher if the alien worshiped Jesus? She was dumbfounded, and response with the classic Christian line that there were no aliens and god had made only us, and the entire universe was for us. I pushed her, citing the number of stars in the Milky Way and the number of galaxies in the known universe, because I was that kind of kid, and she told me the same frakking thing. It was not much later that I read the works of Asimov and Herbert that were based around a human-only universe, and since then I've wondered if we Terrans are truly alone in the Milky Way. The Rare Earth Theory goes hand-and-hand with the  Fermi Paradox, stating the conditions for intelligence life and the planetary environments (Goldilocks Zone) are very rare. So rare, in fact, that there may not be any alien civilizations with range for us to hear. Then there is the more scary possibility...the religions of the world are right (in which case, I'm seriously fucked!), and there is a god(s) then they developed all of the known universe for us...little ole us. Scary.        

4. No FTL=No Interstellar Travel
One of the more giant roadblocks for personal alien contact or even alien probes in our solar system, is the massive distances between the stars. If the original 1977 Wow! Signal is correct, and was from an alien civilization, the distance between Sol System and Tau Sagittarii star (where the may have originated from) is 122 light years...and there is no way that we and this civilization could have an interstellar exchange program. Without an sci-fi hyperdrive system, crossing such distances could be impossible, and that more advanced alien civilizations have figure this one out and reminded in their own star system or the nearby stars...and we are not one of them. This could be our fate as well. Humanity in the future could be limited to the nearby stars that are within a few light-years of Terra.      

5. They Are Already Here

One reason for the great silence could be because the aliens are already here, and they could have been here for a long, long time. Depending on what you believe, UFOs and aliens could have been involved with the deployment of our species, and certain supporters of the Ancient Astronaut theory believe that nearly 20,000 year old cave paints depicting paleocontact. Even today, UFOs are still widely seen and that people report abductions, and the History Channel makes cash off this continued mystery. Pick what ever conspiracy you like for this one, because there are a ton of them, but consider this...for aliens to be already here on Terra would mean that there is either an alien space base in our solar system, there is an alien civilization very close by, or that there really is an FTL drive system, or that these alien astronauts have been on their star trek for countless generations to come to Terra...all for our strawberry ice cream.

6. We're a PC and They're a Mac
Unlike what sci-fi projects, communications between us and an alien species would be extremely difficult. Oral communication between two species would more challenging than when explorers locate an tribe of humans that have been isolated from the beginning of time...think more talking with a dolphin. That is why the greeting signals from Terra, like the Arecibo message, and the Voyager probes' Golden Records deal more with symbols and mathematics. There could also be technological differences that do not allow for inter-species communication. While we use primarily radio waves, they could use laser, EM, gravitational, or that we are just talking on the wrong wave length. We could also be receiving signals from an alien intelligence, namely crop circles, and we cannot understand their meaning.        

7. The Galactic Federation Voted 'No' At the Meeting

There is a slim possibility that there is an organization composed of the sentient worlds of our galaxy, like the Federation, and they took a vote, and the result was a 'no' on Terran admission to this galactic federation, and because of this, Terra has been isolated from contact until our behavior improves. This goes alone with the fact alien civilization could be too self-involved with their own issues, like how the US gov't cut NASA human space flight, or even wars to worry about talking with aliens on distant points of light. There could be an disagreement among the alien race on if or when they should talk to us, or that their god(s)  do not wish for  inter-species contact.

8. The 12 Colonies Fell, Dumbass
It is possible that there is an 'hidden' or 'lost' portion of human history that we are not aware of, and we are the aliens, and Terra was the backup plan. As seen in the reboot of Battlestar Galactic, human civilization began on Kobol, then moved to the 12 colonies, while another moved to Earth. Then the 12 Colonies are nuked, and so was the Earth, so the survives arrive here, and mix the DNA, and thus we are the aliens. It could be that the galaxy is an a period of flux, at some other portion of history, the galaxy was teeming with advanced civilizations, and then something happened, like the Flood from HALO, and now, the galaxy is building back up. This could also explain how the 1977 original Wow! signal seem to switch on then off. There could have an armed struggle or even nuclear war that ended the signal prior to mutual communication.

9. This Is Truly A Disturbing Universe

The original io9.com article that got me to thinking about this topic had a number of odd reasons why we have not yet come into contact with alien civilizations. There is the Earth-as-an-Zoo theory, where the aliens have set aside Earth or isolated it for natural technological and sociological development. Then another theory says that all of reality is a grand illusion or simulated reality. Then we look at the Gort theory, where aliens are just waiting for us to frak up and then they will reboot human civilization. Some point to religious text has backup for this theory. Some believe that some non-corporeal lifeform (the Tralfamadorians) that has evolved beyond being a bag of meat and water created our world and lifeform, then stepped back to watch us unfold. That theory remains me of the my favorite Stephen Crane Poem, 'A Man Said to the Universe.'

10, The Galactic Isolationist Policy

Any one that knows the history of contact between the Old and New World could understand why an alien civilization could be wary off communication with another sentient alien species. The sad truth is that 90% of the New World population was wiped by contact with explorers, and the same could be true of inter-species contact by disease or war. After all, there are no more Cro-Magnon, or Neanderthals running around. This policy of isolation from other species was seen in Star Trek via the Prime Directive and the non-interference policy of the Gallifreyan Time Lords after the nuclear holocaust on Minyos. We could receive contact with an advanced alien species when we make some sort of technological or sociological milestone. UFO experts always cite that the number of sighting of UFOs rose remarkably after the invention of the atomic bomb, especially in New Mexico.