Recently I sat with a student and discussed the basics of the Fermi Paradox. The idea behind that goes like this: Since we haven’t seen evidence of alien life, given the enormity of the galaxy and number of Earth-like planets, then they don’t exist. Now I haven’t tackled that subject beyond the few suggestions spat at me in my high school physics class, because I immediately assumed it was wrong. Moving one step further to a basic search I realized that not only is it probably wrong but it also is miscredited to Fermi, perhaps for political reasons. According to those who were part of the conversation that birthed the debate Fermi statement was more about transportation, “… the reason that we hadn’t been visited might be that interstellar flight is impossible, or, if it is possible, always judged to be not worth the effort, or technological civilization doesn’t last long enough for it to happen.”
This in no way means there cannot be aliens. In fact it speaks specifically to the voracity of space travel itself. Fermi was talking about the inability to reach even 1/10th the speed of light (29 979 245.8 m/s) which is necessary for interstellar travel to nearby galaxies in a human lifespan.
To add to the confusion, Pablo Picasso said ‘Anything we can imagine is real’ and as a writer I want to believe that–perhaps literally. What if these worlds we are creating do exist in the multitude of dimensions and the infinity of space. What if our understanding of magic and intrigue and worlds beyond our own comes from some deeper yet still untapped connection to string theory and quantum entanglement. What if in the infinite space of reality we are all linked and all visit each other–not by starship but by story?
Some Thoughts:
- Murphy’s Law of the Universe: The moment you suggest needing more of something you are immediately rewarded with a situation where you are in line to get much much less.