thewriter: Where are the aliens? : The Fermi Paradox.

Ever since people gazed at and surveyed the stars and studied the cosmos, one question always kept beckoning; Is there life on other worlds? We ask if there are aliens or extraterrestrials somewhere in the galaxy or on other galaxies. When the former Swiss hotelier and later turned self-styled alien astronaut theorist, Erich Von Daniken, wrote his ground breaking cult book 'Chariot of the Gods', it was the progenitor of an entire industry revolving around aliens with unfounded claims of extraterrestrial visitations to our planet in the past and continued visitation at the present and the impact aliens had on human civilisation.

While the intelligent wise skeptical critical mind should rightly be skeptical about aliens having had visited Earth in the past and their continued visitations till this day, their existence cannot be entirely ruled out of hand. It is possible for life to exist on other worlds but we have not had any contact yet. In addition, space travel is not easy and it will take a long time, beyond human life spans and perhaps for aliens, to travel the incredibly vast distances between planets. Perhaps a way to settle this conundrum is instead of waiting passively for contact, we should search for intelligent alien life.

Since, contact with extraterrestrials has not been scientifically established, the question that is asked here is; why are there not any aliens? This was a question that an Italian-American physicist called Enrico Fermi, who were nuclear scientists, Fermi asked in 1950. While Fermi was having lunch with colleagues, the lunchtime discussion turned to aliens. Apparently, Fermi asked "So, Where is everybody?" What Fermi asked was if there are billions of planets in the universe that are habitable and can sustain life, and there are millions of intelligent extraterrestrial beings in other world, then how is that no one has visited the planet Earth. This is in essence the Fermi Paradox.

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)

Fermi deduced that any civilisation that possessed a modest knowledge of rocket technology and an immodest quantity of imperial incentive could rapidly colonise the entire galaxy. Fermi suggested that an alien civilisation would quickly realise the incredible distances involved in interstellar travel and came to the conclusion that it would not be feasible for them to embark on interstellar travel. Instead, Fermi proposed, they would use self-replicating , autonomously controlled robots to colonise the galaxy. The idea of self-replicating robots had been earlier been conceived by the Austro-Hungarian mathematician , John Von Neuman in the 1950s. The idea proposed by him was a self-replicating robot that could, firstly, perform tasks like that in the real world, secondly, it could self-replicate. This idea was conceived years before this kind of robotics has now appeared. John Von Neuman propounded that this advanced space faring robot was the most cost-effective and fastest way to explore and learn about the galaxy and beyond. The vehicle proposed was the Bracewell-von Neuman probes. The probe itself is a sophisticated robotic machine with a modest payload. It was envisioned to have an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) software with the built-in idea of self replication and in that way build multiple copies of itself. What would need to be done is to launch hundreds if not thousands of them into space. Then let them off in swarms in different directions. They could be programmed to coordinate efforts and guide themselves as a swarm. Whenever they come across asteroids, moons or planets that have the necessary raw materials to replicate themselves. They could be programmed to explore and communicate their findings back to Earth, perhaps by a relay of satellites they can make and program.as they travel through space.

Possible Bracewell-von Neumann probe.

Possible Bracewell - von Neumann probe.

Possible Bracewell-von Neumann probe.

This might be a plausible way forward in our endeavour to contact alien life. An advanced self-replicating robot could be sent out to explore neighbouring solar systems and the galaxy to find alien life. Alien life in this context must be established by us as intelligent enough to communicate intelligibly in some fashion, such as radio or other signals or at least similar to humans even if like how we did centuries ago. It is a long-shot. The endeavour could take even centuries and the autonomous robots must be able to keep contact with Earth. Of course, as technology advances new software and methodologies of all kinds could be remotely uploaded to the robotic explorers so that they are always modernising and in pace with terrestrial technological advances.

Should contact be made with an exterrestrial intelligence that can understand that the probe(s) are from a reasonably advanced alien civilisation, they will take the initiative to respond to us. If they are less advanced than us, let say at a technological level we were in 300 years ago, then at least they will know about us. If they are at or near our technological level or even more advanced than us, then they would respond. It is hard to visualise something like this as the responses could vary if aliens exist, there could be no response, the aliens could only be animal like creatures devoid of advanced cognitive capabilities etc. It will be left to be seen at a future date should all this happen when we launch these robotic space explorers. We could of course be optimistic, but we should be patient and realistic as well.