Where are the Aliens?
The Fermi paradox asks why we haven’t found any other civilizations in our massive universe? Surely, statistically, in such a large area, advanced civilizations that can broadcast signs of their existence and/or emit other signs of their existence must have come up multiple times. Why then haven’t we found any? Karl Schroeder, a science fiction author, has an interesting take on that. He starts by rephrasing Arthur C. Clarke's famous declaration that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Nature. Basically, either advanced alien civilizations don't exist, or we can't see them because they are indistinguishable from natural systems . I vote for the latter.” That is an interesting argument: it basically says we don’t find these other advanced civilizations because they are in perfect harmony with their environment. And so we can’t spot anything even when we are looking right a...